Roller

Goblin had been ELP-influenced The Cherry Five before director Dario Argento enlisted them to score 1975’s Profondo Rosso, and with both a new name and sound, the band landed upon their signature proggy horror aesthetic. One of the few albums Goblin recorded not for a film, 1976’s Roller is more overtly prog rock-leaning than much of their soundtrack work (check the title track’s guitar and church organ led pomp), perhaps because the band could stretch out and explore on their own terms rather than working to a director’s cues.

As a result, the group’s playing and their considerable chops come more to the fore here. Perhaps none more so than on the surprising “Snip Snap” – Fabio Pignatelli’s bass lines whiplashing against Agostino Marangolo’s drum brakes, and clavinet from Maurizio Guarini for an out-and-out funk jam that would impress on a Sly Stone or Stevie Wonder LP.

Like with much of the group’s acclaimed soundtrack work, Roller serves as a bridge between prog rock and horror/synthwave. Indeed, transpose its live instrumentation to synth, cut out the David Gilmour-like guitar solo, and Aquaman could easily pass as a John Carpenter score. Even when not accompanying images of blood and gore, the skin-crawling sonic textures that creep into the almost Can-like “Goblin,” or the fact that they called the final track “Dr Frankenstein,” show they still couldn’t resist putting the frighteners on.

In between recording some of the best damn non-Tangerine Dream soundtracks of the 70s, Italo prog weirdos Goblin released two of the best damn Italo prog albums of the 70s. Roller, the first one, finds the band spreading their strange wings – from the title track’s deep red nightmare fuel to the Pink Floyd riff of “Aquaman,” the synth funk of “Snip Snap” through their wild 11-minute band-name statement of intent, capped off with “Dr. Frankenstein”’s lurching monster. It took around three decades for metal acts to grok on to this black-gloved madness but once they did they couldn’t get enough of it.