[seb]

Pre-orders start on May 4th

Taking you back to the seventies for a german classic. Riz Ortolani and the taxi driver score comes to mind on this one

[Occhionero]

"Mark of the Devil" - so excited about this!!!!

[seb]

One Way Static Records is proud to bring you their latest release, one where we had the chance to work with German composer Michael Holm.

Mark Of The Devil was released in 1970 and is certainly a film that has achieved a real cult status, it is notorious and known by many horror fans for being given the first ever ‘V’ for violence certificate (or was it a ‘V’ for vomit, since vomit bags were handed out at screenings of the film). A sequel was also produced in 1973, both soundtracks are featured here on this release.

Multi-talented German singer, musician, songwriter, producer and composer Michael Holm was hired to score Mark Of The Devil (released as ‘Hexen’ in Germany). Mr. Holm is primarily known as a singer of traditional German music, with an almost constant presence in the hit parade it is of no surprise that he is a million-copies selling artist who has been presented with gold records on several occasions during the seventies.

Outside of Germany, he is best known for his work as a member of the new age band CUSCO along with Kristian Schultze. They produced 22 albums and semi-albums, and consistently charted near the top of the New Age charts. A long time artistic collaboration and private friendship also connects him with musician and producer Giorgio Moroder. As a duo, they released several singles together.

The musical score penned here by Michael Holm is surprisingly melodic for a horror movie, but also contains dramatic and atmospheric compositions. It has that sort of luxurious and haunting sound, very European and romantically slanted and maybe a little pop orientated. The central theme evokes the feel of Riz Ortolani’s theme for ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, which ironically was only written ten years later. Even spaghetti westerns of the 1960s and 1970s written by composers such as Morricone and Bruno Nicolai come to mind when experiencing this album.

Strings & the use of a spiteful and venomous Slavic sounding electric violin on this score (which literally scratches out the jagged and virulent variation of the romantic theme) has the effect of making the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Almost in a similar fashion to that of composer Jerry Goldsmith in his more mischievous and threatening sections of GREMLINS and LEGEND.

The second soundtrack included on this release is MARK OF THE DEVIL II, which was released in 1973. The main music for this particular movie was the work of Don Banks, John Scott and Sam Sklair.

Don Banks of course is familiar to many via his marvelous scores for Hammer productions such as, THE MUMMY’S SHROUD, THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN and the excellent work that he did on THE REPTILE and RASPUTIN.

John Scott too contributed some music for the score, Scott who is now a seasoned film music composer respected by many, began his career in film scoring as a composer by writing the music for another horror movie A STUDY IN TERROR, which was released during the mid 60s. John also had another career as being the legendary sixties producer who recorded several artists like Tom Jones, The Hollies, The Beatles, etc. John is also known for his saxophone work on films like ‘Goldfinger’ and several Henry Mancini projects. Mr. Scott won 3 Emmys through out his career.

Today we bring to you the original Motion Picture Soundtracks to MARK OF THE DEVIL (AKA HEXEN) in the original MONO recording from 1970 and MARK OF THE DEVIL 2 in STEREO from 1973.


Available in the following versions:

DELUXE EDITION : LIMITED COLOR VINYL : packaged in a deluxe gatefold old school tip-on jacket with printed insert. Comes on ORANGE CRUSH SPLATTER VINYL and COKE BOTTLE GREEN VINYL. These variants are inserted randomly and are limited to #500 copies each worldwide. They come sequentially foil numbered (2 series of /500).

BLACK VINYL : limited to 1000 copies worldwide. Packaged in a deluxe Tip-On Gatefold jacket. Comes with a printed insert and obi strip.

CASSETTE EDITION : limited to 300 copies worldwide with alternate artworks. Static Club members with a cassette option will automatically receive the limited hand numbered edition (Lim. #150 copies). Left-overs will go to non Static Club members who order first.

All versions come with extensive and exclusive liner notes from: Michael Holm & Udo Kier. More liner note contributors to be announced.

Available from
www.onewaystatic.com
www.lightintheattic.net

[nick_rising]

OWS, you guys are (pardon the cliche pun) KILLING it with these releases. Love that the LPs boast new artwork and the cassettes are classic. Curious as to what the deluxe cassette will be for this one...understand if it's too early to say

[slybonethetownie]

Yeah, the ol' numbered vomit bag is the obvious choice for this one, just like OWS did for the Cannibal Ferox cassette, since they were both vomit bag gimmick films, but who knows? Maybe OWS will come up with something not as obvious.

[seb]

Thanks guys, nope won't be a vomit bag… there is the obvious connection indeed but we did that one before!

[StrangeVices]

Couldn't be more excited for this! I love this film so much.

[maxlevel]

Very exciting stuff. Only downer is another couple of months to wait... but I guess the download version will have to do!! Static Club RULES

[albatard]

I didn't know there was a Mark of the Devil II before...according to IMDB's comments this one looks terrible...

[Ignatius]

The sequel was directed by Adrian Hoven, who wrote the first film and was going to direct it before the production company replaced him with British director Michael Armstrong, who totally re-wrote the script. Which lead to Hoven trying to basically sabotage the whole shoot.

There's some really interesting discussion of the behind-the-scenes drama on the Video Nasties: Draconian Days DVD set.

[albatard]

Thanks for the infos @ignatius

[seb]

[bitewerks]

I watched the Arrow blu-ray not too long ago. The film was as I remembered from my video-trading days: kind of dull except for the torture scenes. The music is okay but only a small bit of it was truly interesting- the violin parts. I do think I'll pick up the LP as the gatefold imagery is pretty cool.

I've seen the sequel on vhs but remember nothing about it.

[Occhionero]

@seb
I can not decide which option should I choose! Can you describe the variants, or when can we get a first look?

[ninjur]

Looks really nice! Was the Diggler records CD used as source?

[flapdoodle]

I watched this recently, and am surprised it caused so much controversy. The torture scenes are pretty tame and badly done, highly unconvincing.

The behind the scenes shenanigans are probably more interesting than the film!

[seb]

We'll have variant pics a couple weeks before release date!

[seb]

Yes!

[seb]

It was a different time, pretty brutal for a late sixties-early seventies movie!

This was YEARS before films like Texax Chainsaw, Last house etc
So you can imagine the impact it had on audiences at the time. Audiences from that era were watching 'the sound of music' etc

[StrangeVices]

Totally! You have to put it in context of the era it was released in.

[NathanLurker]

I've been listening to the digital files this week and it's a great soundtrack, I dare say this might be one of my favorite OWS release musically.

[flapdoodle]

There were other violent movies before and around this time - LHOTL was only 1972 (Two years later) and TCM was 1974. Stuff like HG Lewis's Blood Feast had been throwing the red stuff around for years, and Night of the Living dead was already making horror contemporary and started a trend away from the 'costume' dramas. It's a bit like a slightly more violent Witchfinder General (Which it's a clear rip off of.) I'm not sure audiences in 1970 were watching 'The Sound of Music'! That predates MotD by 5 years. Even the Hammer films from the late sixties and early 70s were getting quite bloody - I seem to recall a fairly graphic beheading in Twins of Evil and Vampire Circus was quite gory. There was also the Spanish stuff as well.

In general. by the late 1960s and early 1970s exploitaton/horror movies were getting bloodier...

[seb]

Yep you strike a good point, there was a lot going on at that point. The road was beeing paved.
Blood feast was extreme for that time. I forgot to place that one in, hard to top!

Cheers

[prettybleak]

just got my cassette. this is really great! reminds me of a finders keepers type release. gonna have to pick up the vinyl for this!

[Occhionero]

@OWS thanks so much for adding a test press of "MotD". I usually never win something ....