Post Summary
John Carpenter is putting out a new album called Cathedral later this year and he’s unveiled the second single. “The Ferryman” comes from the dual album/graphic novel release. It features work from John Carpenter and his longtime band mates Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. Cathedral releases on August 7th on Sacred Bones Records alongside the graphic novel of the same name on August 4th from Storm King Comics.
“The Ferryman” officially drops on June 30th.
A Subterranean Journey On The Track
Each track of Cathedral goes along with a chapter in the upcoming graphic novel, with liner notes guiding listeners through the story. We might not be getting a new John Carpenter movie but this is the closest thing we’re getting to that.
“It was so cinematic and vivid,” Carpenter says of the dream that inspired the story. “I thought, ‘I have to score this.’ It’s kind of our first heavy metal album.”
In a story rich with River Styx iconography, “The Ferryman” scores a scene in which we encounter the subterranean character of the same name. “I like that one because it really seems to feature all three of us in a special way,” Davies says. “It has interesting harmonies that Cody put together and John’s signature pad-style string parts. It’s more of an electronic metal track in a way, but we just wanted to make it as heavy and driving as possible.”
Inspired by a vividly cinematic dream he had in 2024, the Cathedral storyline centers on an abandoned church in downtown Los Angeles that becomes the site of a waking nightmare. After the killing of a police officer draws attention to the long-ignored cathedral, Lieutenant Christine Marks and detectives Paul Hernandez and Steve Mayfield are pulled into an investigation that leads them deep into its catacombs and toward a centuries-old evil imprisoned within. “The story informed everything,” says longtime musical collaborator Daniel Davies of the album. “John would describe a scene and say, ‘We need a heavy riff here.’ We didn’t set out to make a metal record, but it evolved that way.”
Whereas the Lost Themes albums were written as scores to movies of the mind, Cathedral scores the first original graphic novel written by Carpenter, in collaboration with his wife and long-time creative partner, producer and editor Sandy King, and writer Sean Sobczak, fleshed out by illustrators Federico De Luca and Luis Guaragna, colored by Sian Mandrake, and lettered by Marshall Dillon. Fans can get a first peek of its look via the visualizer for “Lord Of The Underground” out today and its first chapter as featured in John Carpenter’s anthology Tales For A HalloweeNight Vol 11.
While the ‘Cathedral’ album was crafted to be listened to as one reads the graphic novel, it was important to Carpenter that the music stand on its own. “That’s first and foremost,” the director says. “It’s all about making the music work. This is somewhat different sounding stuff that we’ve done, but it’s done with the same desire in mind,” he adds. “In other words, put this thing on and imagine you’re watching a movie. That’s what we want you to do.”
With ‘Cathedral’, Carpenter extends his world-building into a tightly wound, cross-medium experience; part score, part story, and unmistakably his own.
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