August 16, 2013 (Cleveland, OH) – Symphonic gothic horror musicians MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE have just released the AXE GIANT THE WRATH OF PAUL BUNYAN: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK.  The album, produced by Midnight Syndicate, features highlights from the movie score composed by EDWARD DOUGLAS along with The Ballad of Paul Bunyan performed by HICK’RY HAWKINS.

“From a simple flourish of strings to behemoth bass horns on the rampage, the score is everything I hoped it would be and more,” said director and co-writer Gary Jones.  “The perfect marriage of sight and sound, Ed’s music carries our film into that cool, cool realm of which filmmakers only dream.”;

“Gary wanted the film to have a feel similar to classic monster movies like King Kong.  I found myself trying to channel my inner (Max) Steiner and (Bernard) Herrmann, in an effort to achieve that big, dramatic, classical sound,” said composer Edward Douglas.  “The monster in the film is American folklore legend, Paul Bunyan, so it gave me the opportunity to work with some 19^th century American instrumentation as well.  I think the result is a soundtrack that will sound both familiar and at times very different from what Midnight Syndicate has done to this point.”;

The CD is available now through the band’s website, as well as iTunes and Amazon.com.

— 8 / 16 / 13

Official Midnight Syndicate website: www.MidnightSyndicate.com

Midnight Syndicate on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/MidnightSyndicate

The Axe Giant official movie website: www.AxeGiantMovie.com

Hick’ry Hawkins on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/hickryhawkins

ONLINE VERSION AND PHOTOS AVAILABLE AT: http://www.midnightsyndicate.com/axegiantsoundtrack.htm

MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE

For almost two decades, composers Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka have been known as Midnight Syndicate, creating symphonic soundtracks to imaginary films that facilitate a transcendental and adventurous escape into the secret dimensions of the mind’s eye. To many of their fans, they are Gothic music pioneers brewing a signature blend of orchestral horror music and movie-style sound effects. To others, they remain the first “haunted house band” that forever changed the Halloween music genre and became a staple of the October holiday season. And some know them as the duo that teamed up with Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast to produce the first official soundtrack to the legendary Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Their critically-acclaimed works are reminiscent of sweeping, complex masterpieces by artists such as James Horner, Danny Elfman, Black Sabbath and King Diamond and have been featured as a part of films, television shows, video games and at haunted attractions, amusement parks, and live performances worldwide.

Midnight Syndicate’s music has become integral to setting a powerful mood at top-rated haunted attractions and amusement parks as well as at costume shops, gaming and Halloween parties and Halloween-themed cruises from Siberia and Hong Kong, to Europe and the United States. The duo has released 15 studio albums since 1997, and Douglas and Goszka’s original, work also been used at Hugh Hefner’s Halloween parties, on episodes of The Barbara Walters Special and in the drive-in film “The Rage,” Universal Studio’s Horror Nights XVIII as well as by Monday Night Football and by artists Insane Clown Posse, Three Six Mafia, Twiztid and The Misfits. In 2010, Midnight Syndicate released a full-length horror film called “The Dead Matter,” directed, scored and co-produced by Douglas alongside Robert Kurtzman (“From Dusk Till Dawn,” co-founder, KNB EFX) and Gary Jones (“Xena,” “Boogeyman 3”).

Midnight Syndicate continues to pursue its quest to use instrumental music to tell explicit stories full of tension, twists and turns. Most recently, the band completed the score to the grindhouse thriller “Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan.” In summer, 2013, Midnight Syndicate released the soundtrack to that film along with “Monsters of Legend,” a tribute to the classic Universal, Hammer and Euro horror films that gave birth to horror cinema.