Spooky Sounds

When you’re setting the mood to cauldron-a-boil this Halloween season, Edward Douglas hopes you’ll choose tracks from Midnight Syndicate’s new CD,The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates.

Douglas, composer and director of the Chardon-based gothic instrumental band, says the music was inspired by themes of vampirism, ancient Egyptian relics and the living dead. “The music is classical in nature and is meant to set a spooky atmosphere,” he says.

It also includes several tracks that will be featured in the upcoming film of the same name, which Douglas directed and will be released in 2009.

Douglas and fellow Midnight Syndicate bandmate Gavin Goszka have staked their claim in haunted harmonies since their debut album in 2003 (with aspen, ash or white thorn stakes, presumably, since those double as vampire slayers) and are now the nation’s largest distributors of Halloween music. Midnight Syndicate’s music can be heard in major amusement parks such as Cedar Point, Busch Gardens and Universal Studios, as well as retail stores and haunted attractions as far away as Serbia.

The band’s music has even been featured in television shows, video games and was sampled in a track by rap act Three Six Mafia.

“It’s pretty cool when I heard our music on Monday Night Footballor when one of our tracks pops up on theToday show or Ellen DeGeneres’ show,” Douglas says.

After 10 CDs, it can be a challenge to find fresh ideas, Douglas says, “but there’s still interesting themes we’d like to explore, including a haunted carnival theme and gothic Christmas music.”