Being a fan of Italian horror prog rockers Goblin can be massively rewarding and profoundly confusing. Famous for mind-bendingly complex tunes as well as their scores for late-70s films by the likes of Dario Argento and George Romero, Goblin dissolved in the early 80s, and since they began re-forming a couple decades ago they’ve existed in multiple parallel versions and under several names. When they played onstage in 2009, using the handle Back to the Goblin, it was the first time they’d done so in 32 years. Goblin’s studio lineup shifted radically and often, and their various latter-day touring incarnations have been similarly protean, led by different original members or newcomers. This can lead to unpredictable quality in Goblin-associated performances.
These various versions of Goblin arose from the band’s initial 2000 reunion, which reopened some old wounds. In 2001 keyboardist Claudio Simonetti began touring with his horror-music tribute band, Daemonia (later called Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin), which he’d formed in the late 90s. I saw this incarnation of Goblin in 2013, and I wasn’t fully satisfied by the nu-metal edge that the newbies in the group brought to its sound. In 2017 I saw my fave modern Goblin show so far, which included the entire original lineup minus Simonetti and added the band’s second organist, Maurizio Guarini—he’d come into the fold in the mid-70s, right after they recorded their classic score for Argento’s Profondo Rosso.
Sadly, original Goblin guitarist Massimo Morante—a crucial part of their heavy, fuzzy sound—passed away earlier this year. Herculean bassist Fabio Pignatelli and jazzy drummer Agostino Marangolo have carried on as Goblin Rebirth (with the help of some new recruits), and Simonetti is once again touring as Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, this time backed by members of Portuguese band Black Mamba. In live footage from 2019, this configuration looks a bit like your uncle and auntie after an embarrassing industrial makeover, and to my ears they still overdo the thrashy guitar tone and conventional shredding (as much as Goblin are beloved by metalheads, they never really did that back in the day). All that said, Simonetti is in fine form, dueling with himself on multiple keyboards—his equipment sounds more modern than the gear he used in the 70s and 80s, but it still generally evokes the right feel.
For this show, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin will perform their score to Argento’s 1977 masterpiece Suspiria, a beloved flick saturated with florid evil—the perfect sort of spookiness we all crave around Halloween. I saw the Daemonia lineup do the same show at Metro in 2014, and their sound was improved over the previous year’s gig—they even helped me get past the awkwardness of standing for an entire film, and I didn’t mind that they were louder than the dialogue. It was amazing to experience such cinematic synesthesia live. I’ll always secretly wish that the surviving original members of Goblin would make peace and join forces to play Suspiria again. But that day will probably never come, so this Goblinophile will take what he can get and love it—even if (in true Suspiria fashion) it’s somehow the musical equivalent of wriggling around in a room full of barbed wire.
Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin The band perform their score to Suspiria. (They’ll play the same show at the same venue on Thu 12/15.) Fri 10/28, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport. General admission tickets are sold out, box seats are still available for $390. 17+
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