Darklore Manor

Darklore Manor
Studio album by Nox Arcana
Released	December 15, 2003
Genre	Dark Ambient
Label	Monolith Graphics
Nox Arcana chronology
Darklore Manor (2003) Necronomicon (2004)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Chain D.L.K.	[1]
Fangoria Magazine	[2]
Flames Rising	[3]

Darklore Manor is an album released by gothic horror musical group Nox Arcana on Monolith Graphics in 2003. It features a style of music that bears a similarity to Joseph Vargo's earlier work on the album Born of the Night with Midnight Syndicate, a group that he helped to establish in 1998 prior to his founding of Nox Arcana.

Musical style

The music on Darklore Manor consists of piano, violin, pipe organ, harpsichord, with vocal choirs and brief ghostly narrations that invite the listener to "embark on a musical journey throughout the haunted halls of a Victorian mansion." The accompanying booklet features a history about the Darklore family and their "stark and grim abode" of which its "former splendor was lost to the ravages of time" and where "spirits of the dead do not rest easy."

This album was inspired by a real-life haunted house located near Salem, Massachusetts, an old Victorian mansion built in 1889. According to local legend, a curse befell the Darklore family, resulting in many mysterious deaths. Then in 1941, the last of the bloodline, Damon Darklore, his wife Elizabeth, and their daughter Belladonna disappeared without any explanation.

Over the years, the abandoned Darklore Manor became a local haunt, something to scare kids on Halloween and a place for daring teenagers to hang out. In 1968, three teens disappeared after holding a seance there on Halloween. The old manor finally burned to the ground in 1971.

Darklore Manor has inspired others to create haunted houses using the music and storyline as the basis for their Halloween attractions,^[4] including the Busch Gardens "Howl-O-Scream" theme park in Tampa, Florida, which features a haunted wedding with Darklore Manor as the setting and atmosphere.^[5][6]

Expanding upon the haunted house story created for this album's liner notes, Joseph Vargo wrote a novella entitled "The Legend of Darklore Manor." It appears among 12 other short horror stories in the book The Legend of Darklore Manor and Other Tales of Terror. ^[7][8]

Track listing

All music composed and performed by Joseph Vargo and William Piotrowski.

1. "Legend" — 1:49
2. "Darklore Manor" — 2:27
3. "Threshold of the Dead" — 1:18
4. "Trespassers" — 2:52
5. "Veil of Darkness" — 1:55
6. "Sanctuary of Shadows" — 3:12
7. "The Grande Hall" — 1:55
8. "Remnants" — 2:06
9. "Phantom Procession" — 1:46
10. "Belladonna" — 2:41
11. "Nursery Rhyme" — :40
12. "Music Box" — 2:08
13. "The Forgotten" — 2:44
14. "Nightmare" — 1:56
15. "No Rest for the Wicked" — 3:12
16. "Omen" — :43
17. "Seance" — 2:56
18. "Beyond Midnight" — 3:04
19. "Darkness Immortal" — 3:39
20. "Incantation" — 1:55
21. "Resurrected" — 2:13 / 7:12* hidden track

External links

• Nox Arcana's official website
• Nox Arcana on Myspace

References

1. ^ Chain D.L.K. review
2. ^ Fangoria Magazine
3. ^ Flames Rising review
4. ^ Dandurant, Karen (October 23, 2008). "Tour Darklore Manor — if you dare.". Seacoastonline.com (Portsmouth, ME.: Ottaway Newspapers). http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081023/NEWS/81023029/-1/HALLOWEEN2008. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 
5. ^ Koster, Rick (October 7, 2008). "Nox Arcana". The Day (New London, CT.: The Day Publishers). http://theday.com. Retrieved October 12, 2008. 
6. ^ "Interview with Joseph Vargo". Halloween Database. http://www.halloweendatabase.com/index.php?v_action=noxarcana. Retrieved 2009-08-25. 
7. ^ "Prepare for The Legend of Darklore Manor". Fangoria.com. November 26, 2008. http://www.fangoria.com/musick/25-musick-news/655-prepare-for-the-legend-of-darklore-manor.html. Retrieved 2009-04-26. 
8. ^ The Legend of Darklore Manor and Other Tales of Terror. Monolith Graphics. 2008. ISBN 978-0978885762. http://books.google.com/?id=c30CPgAACAAJ&dq=Legend+of+darklore+manor. Retrieved 2009-08-25.