JOHN CARPENTER

An unassailable genius and certified icon, John Carpenter has been combining adventurous music with the thrills and spills of cinematic horror for longer than most of us have been alive (or undead). The creative driving force behind many of the greatest horror films ever made — "Halloween", "Escape From New York" and "The Fog" included — he has been a significant pioneer in the movie world, with a unique propensity for providing his own films with original soundtracks, many of which have become as iconic and beloved as the movies themselves. Nonetheless, it has still come as a surprise that at the age of 78, the great man just released his first graphic novel. Some people have too much talent.

Inspired by a dream (and Satan only knows what else goes through Carpenter's head when he's asleep),"Cathedral" is a harrowing, ultra-spooky tale about an abandoned cathedral, a grisly murder, and the unleashing of terrifying supernatural chaos by some unnamed, ancient evil. Comic book nerds are free to go and check out the novel itself, but for those of us who have only a passing interest in such things, the accompanying soundtrack is an irresistible alternative. Created by Carpenter and his usual co-conspirators, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, this is a fresh glimpse into the author's fevered imagination, albeit via the medium of deeply unsettling instrumentals featuring a veritable truckload of distorted synths. And squealing, ecstatic guitar solos. Described by Carpenter as "kind of our first heavy metal album," this could only be more squarely aimed at the metal community if it featured guest vocals from a newly reanimated Ozzy Osbourne.

Fans of Carpenter's numerous musical excursions over the last decade will be familiar with the essence of these new compositions. As with the soundtracks to "Halloween" and "The Fog", these songs are uniformly unsettling and highly evocative. But while his work from the '70s was often defined by its minimalist approach, Carpenter's current outfit are more than capable of rocking out too. On the likes of melodramatic opener "Primeval" and the genuinely creepy and impressively heavy "Lord of the Underground", thick, caustic keyboard tones collide with a robust bedrock of power chords and brutish drumming. As a result, this is much closer to heavy metal, and progressive rock, than anything Carpenter has made before. But rather than reduce everything down to a lazy compromise, these wildly atmospheric pieces transcend genre and seem to pour directly from the auteur's brain, to be fleshed out in contemporary colors, but also with an obvious connection to those aforementioned iconic soundtracks.

It's all gloriously sinister, but also deceptively diverse and ingenious. From the twittering synths and sledgehammer doom of "Identity" to the curiously funky and climactic "Revenge", "Cathedral" paints dazzling, dastardly pictures without any need to refer to the novel that inspired it. Obviously, the smart thing to do would be to read the damn thing with this playing loudly in the background, but failing that, listening to this on a cold, windy night as you traipse around some desolate graveyard would also do the trick. Scare yourself silly. The master is still at work.