Buttkickin' Halloween Songs: ".Goetia." - Peter Gundry (2018)

You know, one of the things I’m really proud of with our Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs is our ability to succinctly express why each featured song is so vitally worthy of your Spookytime Attention.

I mean, as I’ve espoused so many times before, every last stinkin’ Halloween playlist has your typical Monster Mash, Werewolves of London, Ghostbusters, Thriller, Somebody’s Watching Me, and half the goddamn soundtrack to The Nightmare Before Christmas.

And it’s so tiresome. I mean, yeah they’re all great songs and all that, but how many freakin’ times…

*sigh*

That’s why I like to share this playlist. Give you something different, kooky, new (or new to you, or new to me), something along those lines.

So when we don’t have time for a long, piercing analysis of lyrical content, or we’re just plain a bunch of Halloween lazy-asses, do we end up sharing an instrumental for our Halloween playlist?

Thanks Nicko.

Besides this isn’t the first time I’ve featured the great Peter Gundry anyhow, and if you read our review for Salem’s Secret you can figure out why we were ready to return to that particular well.

Gundry is an Australian composer and musician who has released something like a dozen albums and has licensed his music to movies, television, and elsewhere. He focuses on dark, atmospheric pieces, like today’s showcase .Goetia. This sweeping, haunting piece is driven by strings, an ever-focused piano riff, an orchestral foundation that drips of haunted caverns and shadowy covens, and a chorus that seems to be chanting ancient summonings in tongues lost to man for eons.

It’s a wonderful piece.

For those of you not in “the know” — which included me until I started researching this post –the Goetia refers to the ancient practice of demon conjuring, allegedly practiced by King Solomon in the evocation of 72 demons. This practice was translated from the original Latin and eventually published by Aleister Crowley in 1904.

Now how’s THAT for Halloween, kids?

So dim the lights, close the blinds, put on .Goetia., and think about the ancient Kings of Israel evoking dark magic of a lost age, and that ancient knowledge being passed on throughout the millennia… and finally flowing through you as you listen.