It’s officially October, better known as “Spooky Season” or “Spooktober” in Casa Goat. As a time that inspires many a metalhead to simply be themselves out in the open — the darker side of human imagery, skulls, witches, demons, erections, having a welcome place in the open —we here at The Goat Review embrace both the spooky in sound and in picture. Today, our own Scuttlegoat steps forward to recommend you an album from the wild, industrial side, Tropical Sun (by Fulci), and a classic of undead rising, Zombi 2 (by Lucio Fulci). Partake in one or both or neither, just make sure you can tell apart Fulci from Fulci…
Fulci – Tropical Sun (2019, Time to Kill Records, Death Metal)
Fulci’s Tropical Sun seemed to come out at just the right time. The intersection of brutish, simplistic death metal that borrows as much from the old school as it does brutal death and hardcore had, at the time, not been as over-explored as it is today. Tropical Sun even predates, by a couple months, Sanguisugabogg‘s seminal Pornographic Seizures EP that had brought this kind of sound to higher acclaim and mainstream press recognition. Fulci‘s main idea of focusing their lyrics around the films of abject Italian horror auteur Lucio Fulci seems gimmicky at first, but ends up fitting on a sonic level, with sudden bursts of atmosphere undercutting the barbaric violence of their death metal sound. Admittedly this representation is an inverse of Fulci’s cinematic style, which takes otherworldly and dreamlike atmosphere and undercuts it with absurd and often unfitting violence. Fulci, in turn, deliver a platter of caveman death metal that does everything right. The samples are just too long, sitting perfectly in the zone where ironic enjoyment actually enhances the sound, and Fulci seem to always know which brand of stupidity to dish out at what time. Take first proper song “Tropical Sun”, which opens on a classic Cannibal Corpse-scented riff only to slow down more and more from riff to riff, letting its hardcore inspiration and groove fly until the pace swells at the midpoint and culminates in a creepy melodic section. This song and the remainder of Tropical Sun show an awareness of flow that other acts in the same ballpark do not have, albeit likely not in a calculated manner as later Fulci releases lack this balance.
And for that reason we’re pairing it with…
Zombi 2 (1979, dir. Lucio Fulci)
Look, I get it. Pairing Fulci with, you know, Fulci might seem cheap. But there really is no better way for me to talk about Lucio Fulci, and I get to talk about horror films once a year, so bear with me. Fulci‘s unofficial and unauthorized sequel to Dawn of the Dead (which was marketed as Zombi in Italy) is a janky movie. And other than the existence of the undead, Zombi 2 has nothing to do with the original. Frankly, Zombi 2 is a quick cash-grab, capitalizing on the fact that the word ‘zombi’ cannot be trademarked — a stab at the dysfunctional status ofItalian copyright law — to produce quickly to hit the presumptively short fad of zombies. As is usual with Italian cinema, the actors are dubbed after the fact, with no sound being recorded on set. And since the cast was one of international has-beens (compare this to the career of Rick Dalton from Tarantino’s Once upon a Time in Hollywood), actors would speak in their native language. Yes, they might be aware of what the other was saying but not being capable of reacting to it in the traditional sense of acting. However, characters in Fulci’s films seem off because of this fact, leading to a strange, dreamlike atmosphere.
Fulci’s films are sleazy, unnecessarily violent, misanthropic, and hateful, yet also ethereal and hazy. Compared to, say, a Dario Argento, Fulci is a much more intuitive filmmaker, whose troubled career and mental problems inform a lot of what is on screen. Attaching the adjective “nightmarish” to a film usually indicates strobe lights and excessive set design, but Fulci manages his films to be abstract simply by the act of being slightly wrong in all the right ways. Zombi 2 starts slow, too upbeat and cheery, partly being informed by its island setting. The famous scene of a zombie being bitten in half by a shark is goofy and was clearly conceived before a script had been written. It does not prepare for where the film leads. As the score pumps relentlessly, the final act sees the characters fight off zombies in a shed. For every zombie killed, two more seem to appear — a lifeless advance and what seems like a hopeless endeavor. It is that scene that really sells the movie, capturing a scenario where there is no way to escape and even fighting for your life seems like an act born out of denial.
Fulci is not beginner’s horror. Fulci is an acquired taste, one that requires a hardened stomach. But just as everyone hates the first beer they drink, the only way is through. And one day, you’ll find yourself craving the hard stuff. Pour yourself some absinthe and put on some Zombi 2 this Halloween. Stick with it and give it a chance — give in to what is weird about the film and maybe, just maybe, you’ll get why people go crazy about these janky Italians.
