Amanda Norman
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Who is Joseph Vargo?
You should know by now that I am well impressed with Nox Arcana’s piece of music titled Night of the Wolf that is heard playing while a vampire exorcism takes place within a Russian film called Evil. If you haven’t seen this beautiful clip with the haunting melodies of Nox Arcana, click here now to see it.
When preparing the piece below about the release of Nox Arcana’s latest CD, The Dark Tower, I decided to find out more about the man behind Nox Arcana and I’m in awe.
Joseph Vargo is an amazing artist, full of creativity with a passion for revealing his vision of Gothic realms that are dark and enticing. He’s almost like my soul mate, because after reading his biography, I feel like we have so much in common. If you click on his image, you will be able to read his biography in full.
Joseph, is a writer, composer and an artist from Cleveland, Ohio. Together with William Piotrowski, he formed Nox Arcana and seriously, if you like dark and haunting melodies that are filled with passion, click on the links below to sample their music.
Within Vargo’s biography, it states that he tended to gravitate towards horror movies, monster models and anything that could warp his young and impressionable mind. His artwork, which can be seen by clicking this link here, is full of his passion for the creatures of the night, gaunt vampires, beautiful women in dark, fantasy realms and his love of fairy tales. There’s one image that captivates me and it can be found in his Vampires category and it’s the final image. It shows soldiers impaled in a dark and cold realm with the vultures circling above and an evil looking tower standing strong in the background. I look at this and immediately think of Vlad Dracula or you might know him by his common name of Vlad the Impaler.
I can see Vargo’s vision clearly. He is so passionate that in order to bring his world to life, not only does his skilfully recreate these Gothic paintings, he creates the music and the stories to bring them to life. I’ve only just found this out myself and I’m certainly hooked. As soon as payday comes, I’m certainly investing in one of his books.
Anyway, in time for Halloween, Nox Arcana have released a new CD titled The Dark Tower.
Born of the Night, they lurk in the shadows–gargoyles of living stone, lost souls who wander mist-shrouded cemeteries, and vampires who dwell deep within forbidden crypts. They are the spirits that haunt the blackest wells of midnight–trapped between the realms of the living and the dead, forsaken and cursed to forever dwell beneath the shadow of The Dark Tower.
Nox Arcana invites you to explore a realm of gothic mystery, horror and romance with this dark symphony of the night. Eerie piano and pipe organ melodies echo through haunted halls, ghostly choirs chant to the rhythm of tolling bells, epic orchestrations stir powerful emotions, while the cries of wolves, ravens and restless spirits echo in the dead of night.
The Dark Tower marks Nox Arcana’s 16th concept album, each of which offers a unique and different Gothic theme. Joseph Vargo brings his dark visions to life with his masterful blend of haunting melodies, ominous orchestrations and chilling sound effects, creating a brooding soundtrack of mystery and menace for his Dark Tower book series. (21 tracks. 66 mins.)
Listen to music samples and pre-order CDs
http://www.noxarcana.com/darktower.html
http://www.monolithgraphics.com/music.html
CDs are scheduled to ship Sept 26th.
For those of you who prefer downloads, we will be sending the files to Amazon, RPGnow, CDbaby and iTunes after Sept 26. It may take those companies from one to three weeks to post the downloads online. *Please do not fileshare our music.
Book I: Tales From The Dark Tower will be in stock again by Sept 28th.
The sequel, Book II: Beyond The Dark Tower is slated for a fall release—most likely November.
The Gothic Tarot Droid App has been upgraded for the Tablet format, and offers full-screen images!
Get the app at: https://market.android.com/details?id=liberus.tarot.monolith.gothic
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Visit Monolith Graphics and Nox Arcana:
http://monolithgraphics.com
http://noxarcana.com
Follow Nox Arcana:
http://www.facebook.com/NoxArcana
http://www.facebook.com/MonolithGraphics
http://www.myspace.com/noxarcana
http://www.twitter.com/NoxArcana
http://www.youtube.com/grimstone442
The Hammer Story and Quatermass II
The Hammer Story is the authorised history of Hammer Films and it’s a stunning book and simply a MUST HAVE for any serious Hammer Horror film fan.
I received my copy for my Birthday and I’ve only just began reading it, but the print quality, information and the photographs are of excellent quality.
The book has a foreword by the wonderful Christopher Lee and after an introduction on how Hammer evolved, we’re presented with each of the films Hammer produced with nothing spared.
It’s my intention to watch all of the Hammer films and the book starts with The Quatermass Experiment released in 1955, then X The Unknown, which was once considered as a legitimate sequel to The Quatermass Experiment, but the writer Nigel Kneale turned down Jimmy Sangster’s and Anthony Hinds suggestion of using their character Professor Quatermass. The book also reveals how Hammer wanted to capitalise on the X rated certificate following the success of The Quatermass Experiment.
I haven’t seen these first two movies, but I did watch the third movie listed, Quatermass 2 and much to my surprise as I’m not a fan of sci-fi and aliens, I quite enjoyed the film although I was disappointed that Professor Quatermass didn’t 
suffer a violent death. The way he spoke to his secretary was I suppose typical for the 1950’s, but if a pompous arrogant idiot spoke to me like that, he’d be leaving the room like a scared dog with its tail between its legs. Who did he think he was?
As you can see, that has wound me up and I have no sympathy whatsoever for the character of Professor Quatermass. The only person I felt sorry for was Sid James (Carry on films) who played a drunken reporter and his acting skills were the best in this film.
The Hammer Story reveals how Brian Donlevy who played Professor Quatermass was drunk for most of the filming and how they tried to protect his wig from being blown off his head, but they didn’t succeed and at one point it blew off and floated in the wind like a bat. Oh how I would have laughed to have seen that.
The next film listed in the book is The Curse of Frankenstein and as soon as I’ve watched it, I’ll be back with another post to promote this beautiful book. To buy the book click here.
The Spirit of Transilvania – Sinaia
Back in May 2008, me and my partner Luke toured Romania for a week and it still is to this date, the best holiday I’ve been on. Hopefully the photos below will tell their own story and I can’t wait to go back there. In fact, I would live there if I could as the people are so warm and friendly.
Check out the view from our balcony above!
The setting and scenery were stunning and all you could see was forests for miles and miles. No wonder Transilvania means ‘The land beyond the forest’.
This hotel was in a ski resort called Sinaia and the hotel was just like the one out of the film ‘The Shining’. Massive, grand and white!
Something quite unexplainable did happen to me during the night. Something woke me up and although the room was pitch black, I sensed something rushing past the bottom of the bed.
At least I didn’t see any twin girls or a little boy cycling down the long dark corridors.
Peles Castle
Peles Castle in Sinaia was built between 1873 and 1914; its inauguration was held in 1883. The architectural style is Neo-Renaissance and it was built on a medieval route linking Transylvania and Wallachia.
The castle is simply stunning with its painted walls, numerous statues and fancy architecture. The landscape surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains makes this a magical place and the photograph below has a fantasy feel about it.
If you’ve enjoyed looking at the photographs above, a book titled ‘Treasures of Romania – A Photographic Tour ’ has been put together by me and Luke and is available to purchase from Blurb.
Click the book image to your left or click here for a preview and price.