JOHN CARPENTER – Cathedral (color) LP/7″

Description

An abandoned cathedral. A brutal murder. A powerful supernatural entity lurking beneath the catacombs. All of these elements converge in downtown Los Angeles. What will happen—and who will survive to tell the tale?

This is the premise of Cathedral, the gripping new album and horror comic by acclaimed filmmaker and musician John Carpenter, inspired by a dream he had in 2024.

Cathedral combines the drama, dark atmosphere, and relentless pace of a classic heavy metal album. Conceived specifically as a soundtrack to the accompanying comic, each track corresponds to a particular chapter of the story. The album’s liner notes provide commentary for every piece, creating a fully immersive and interactive experience. Paired with the comic, it comes closer than anything in years to feeling like a brand-new John Carpenter film.

Musically, Cathedral retains the eerie mood and ominous intensity that defined Carpenter’s iconic scores for Halloween, The Fog, and Assault on Precinct 13, while taking a much heavier, riff-driven direction. Carpenter firmly believes that music is essential to creating true horror.

“That’s always the priority,” says Carpenter. “It’s all about making the music work.”

“This sounds a little different from what we’ve done before, but it was created with the same goal in mind,” he adds. “Put the album on and imagine you’re watching a movie. That’s exactly what we want you to do.”

Daniel Davies’ soaring, winding guitar work takes centre stage on the opening track “Primeval”, “Elevator”, and the metal powerhouse “Lord of the Underground”, while John Carpenter and Cody Carpenter’s synthesizers lead the way on the ominous “Desolation in the Underworld”, the haunting “Death of the Mapmaker”, and “Abandoned Cathedral”, where they blend seamlessly with sweeping string arrangements.

Where Carpenter’s acclaimed Lost Themes albums served as soundtracks to imaginary films, Cathedral provides the score for the first original graphic novel created by John Carpenter, his wife and longtime creative partner Sandy King, writer Sean Sobczak, and published by Storm King Comics.

As with all of Carpenter’s musical projects over the past decade, the album is released through Sacred Bones Records.

Enter Cathedral and immerse yourself once again in the dark and unforgettable world of John Carpenter.