The band Midnight Syndicate new mini-album Bloodlines was released back in August of 2021. I know I don’t need the date, but never know when someone is reading this. As I began listening to the album I got a sense of why the title of Bloodlines was perfect. It’s not just the fact it is one of the track titles but to me, it fits what I feel the album is doing. I will re-iterate that this is how I heard the 9 track mini-album.

As it comes to some of the tracks, Servitor, stuck out to me just after hearing the first track, Bloodlines. Servitor has a male chorus that seems aligned to the plodding sounds of the piano and church-like pipes heard within the track. As I continued to listen I could almost picture a group of people working and toiling away to the beats of the music. It felt as if those hapless people are just trying to stay sane in the insane world they find themselves in.

The following track, Ancestral Decree, opens with some violin, or string orchestral sounds that had me doing a Stargate flashback at first, which is fitting. The music began to feel more and more aggressive and up-tempo as it goes on. It’s as if you are hearing that decree being made to a group and all heads turn to the one speaking. I could almost picture banners and flags hanging around a great hall.

The last track I wish to comment on is the Wedding March. This is a bit of a disorientated version of the wedding march many know already. However, the sound and changes reflect a wedding that may not be all white dresses and black tuxedos. I got a sense of a more macabre setting. The dress was either tattered and shredded, or black. The Bride is not exactly one of the living or a very miserable individual. The same for the husband at this wedding. I can almost picture someone chained to the floor awaiting his bride to get down the aisle. It harkens back to the pre-arranged, forced marriages for family convenience, and other forms of forced marriage.

Midnight Syndicate continues to amaze me on the way they can keep finding ways to create new ways to use their music to tell a story. The fact that the group is made up of Gavin Goszka and Edward Douglas just adds to the band’s mystique. It’s not every day you find a duo together for about 25 years and keep coming up with new ways to keep their fans listening, and creating new ones as well.

Bloodlines may be a mini-album but it is surely still on point when it comes to creating orchestral music with a gothic and Halloween style of music. I must admit that it was fitting that this release arrived a few months before the Halloween season of 2021. I hope others find this mini-album as enjoyable as I did.