- The Castle
- Theme For A Vampire
- The Dead Arising
- Zombie Flesh (ft UCallMeSir)
- Laboratory
- The Monster's Lament
- Lycanthropic Metamorphosis
- Stalk And Chase
- Safe - For Now...
- Lycanthropic Metamorphosis (Original Version)
- Black Forest
- The Haunting
Bonus Tracks:
All tracks written, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Neil O'Brien, except for lyrics and vocals on "Zombie Flesh", by Lee Buddle.
Cover art by Neil O'Brien.
This EP has been a longtime favourite of mine – definitely in the top three Rude Corps records I reckon. It was a bit of a novelty for me as my first attempt at writing, I guess, a soundtrack...? Or maybe a concept record at any rate. It is gloriously corny but somehow transcends itself and I think still holds up well. The fact that it manages to combine gothic theatrics with rave-derived electronica and hip-hop is kind of sweet in my opinion.
I had apparently been trying to do something soundtrack-y for a while prior to this EP without success (though to be honest, I have no memory of any previous efforts). The EP seems to have likely begun in the approach to Hallowe'en 2006 when someone on Soundclick's forum suggested a vampire-themed tournament that came to nowt because only two people (Breakbeatpimp and myself) came up with tracks. It then properly sparked into life when I wrote "The Castle" in January 2007 with most of the rest of it following between then and April. However, two of the tracks ("Dead Arising" and "Zombie Flesh") had seemingly been written earlier the previous October for UCallMeSir for one of his projects, even before the abortive tournament idea. (I have a date of 4th October 2006 for the original "horror beat" file for "Dead Arising".) Anyway, given how clearly they fitted my project I reclaimed them for my EP instead.
The CD cover art is also a rare success for me: I took all the photos in Grangetown cemetary one morning, I'm pretty sure in November, though I'm not sure how that lines up with the original Soundclick release in April 2007. I know there was an earlier (unfinished) art concept that leaned more towards 1950s B-movie aesthetics, so it may be that the cemetary photos were taken November 2007 in preparation for the planned February 2008 "offical release" on 5 Finger Discount. Anyway, they came out looking surprisingly cool and atmospheric. It's probably my best cover art on any project.
This EP also wound up as a sort of multimedia project, similar in a way to my more recent Cauld Lad project: I made a video for "Theme For A Vampire" that was just edited footage from the 1922 Nosferatu film - my first ever attempt at making a video - and also included a short story that I wrote ("A Gothic Tale", currently available elsewhere on this website).
So there was two re-mixes of this EP: first in February 2008, when I think the three bonus tracks and final artwork were added (and the video was made in March 2008), and the second in October 2010. I also seem to have done some final tweaks to "Zombie Flesh" at Hallowe'en 2014. It'll be the final 2010+ version that I'll be making available.