Greetings!

The following is a review from our man in the field...Mr. Edmund Alscott, who witnessed the latest Carnival sighting...read on...

Cheers & thanks to you all,

VS HOME OFFICE
Mark

CARNIVAL OF SOULS REVIEW-VILLAGE PUB LINDENHURST, NY:

By Edmund Alscott

Last Saturday night November 14, a reconstituted CARNIVAL OF SOULS took to the stage for a warm up/rehearsal gig in front of a live audience made up of the curious, the committed, and various Rockers, Ravers, Lovers and Lunatics from all walks of life. The band’s last performance was probably sometime in 2004 or 2005, so expectations and anticipation ran high for this performance, and on this evening the group truly delivered the goods!

The new line-up features original members David DeFeis (from VIRGIN STEELE), on vocals and voodoo-madness, Mark Edwards, (also known as Geoff Fontaine from EXORCIST) on drums and big stick bashing, and Lynn Delmato on keyboards, joined with new members Bonnie Parker on bass and Denny Colt on guitar. Both Denny & Bonnie are veterans of the NY/Long Island Music Scene and have played in the groups SHE-WOLF, and TANG. Denny was also a member of Dee Snider’s Van Helsing’s Curse.

The show began with the unearthly strains of Lynn’s funeral keyboard playing “Black Mass Blues”, (a gem from VIRGIN STEELE’S live sets), followed by Snakeskin Voodoo Man, (another VS classic), and barreled forward for well over two and a half hours of Metal, Rock, strange & beautiful-Bluesy Voodoo anthems. At mid point the set relaxed for some semi-acoustic interplay between the vocals, keyboards and drums. A standout moment of this segment was the Robert Plant song “Enchanter”, with sections of Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter” thrown in. Lynn’s keyboards radiated fountains of mystical light, Mark’s drums bathed us in hypnotic splendor and David’s voice took us through the Gates of Mystery. Also of special attention, and what really perked up my ears was a bizarre medley that began with John Carpenter’s “Halloween” Theme, and led into what I consider to be the first doom song ever…BLOODROCK’S “DOA”. This was incredibly creepy, with David’s voice & the guitar mimicking the sound of an ambulance siren. “DOA” bleed into a classical piece by Rebikov?!, called “The Witch In The Forest”, then the Metal Classic, “Black Sabbath”, followed by Zep’s “The Immigrant Song”, and then back into Black Sabbath…for more over the top war cries from David and the power and fury of rampaging Viking Gods burning together in some fiery day of doom! The band does not attempt to play note for note renditions. They re-create and in many cases re-compose the material. When I asked David about this he told me that their attempt is, “to treat the songs as if we had either written them ourselves, or improvised them immediately on the spot, therefore no two performances are ever exactly the same”.

The interplay between Denny and David was spectacular, especially on songs like “Roadhouse Blues”, where they improvised furiously. It was the perfect soundtrack for a Roadhouse in Hell. The stage design also lent extra visual magic to the performance, with hanging body parts, demons and a 13-foot satanic clown hovering over the band. This was a sweat drenched, whiskey mad blood, & thunder sex fest! The music is not only powerful and or mysterious, there is also a very well thought out pacing to the arrangements that borders on the “Classical”. One would never be bored at a gig like this. There was something for everyone to latch on to, from the rhythmic groove of Bonnie’s faultless bass, (she also sang en excellent “Mob Rules”), to Mark’s mad soloing…(you have to see him twirling these huge drumsticks to believe it…and when he wacked himself in the head on purpose…it was sensational!), to the “pure classical” keyboards and studied-virtuosity in the approach of Lynn, to the wild carpet bombing guitar ravings of Denny and the angel/devil vocal performance of David, you have a great group, with a unique identity, combined with a set of well chosen songs, that makes for an amazing evening of musical alchemy! Do yourselves a favor and check ‘em out in their next performance, which rumor has it…will not be too far off.

Opening the show was a very talented singer-songwriter named Ryan Cassatta. Ryan displayed a knack for crafting well-structured, interesting songs combined with an charismatic stage presence. I fully expect to see great things in this performers future.
  

Edmund Alscott