Reviewed by Nathan Ford
This one probably should have made its way into our Halloween coverage but never quite got there. Dertroit trio Voyag3r (that's pronounced Voyager 3) are the latest in a long line of Carpentercore practitioners to find their way to us, and are certainly a cut above the majority.
John Carpenter devotees often struggle to add that little something of their own identity when constructing their own fuzzy VHS soundtrack homages, perhaps for fear of treading too far from the path they're attempting to evoke. Voyag3r however are more adventurous than most, and aren't mere replicators. While their arsenel of vintage synths and chunky, tube amplification certainly point towards a certain time in the mid to late eighties where post-apocalyptic cyborgs were the coolest thing out, "Doom Fortress" rocks a whole lot harder than any of the trashy original soundtracks that inspired it. If it wasn't for the insistent vintage synths you could be excused for thinking the intro for "Doom Fortress Escape" was an early Megadeth recording, palm-muted guitars and all. And the drums, when present, are enormous behemoths. This being the case, it took me a couple of listens to acclimatise and allow myself to admit that Aaron Greene's thrashy guitar parts actually mesh amazingly well with the vintage keys and sequencers. And those vintage keys are pretty great. After a few pensive "Halloween" style moments on opener "Summoning the Forgotten One", Steve Greene settles into a solid sci-fi / action groove that conjures images of a loincloth clad Dolph Lundgren trekking across a desolate, post-apocalypse wasteland.
So, a little different to the sort of horror-synth material that we often cover here, but every bit as worthy.
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