Enforcing the theme and the narrative are the use of sound effects, such as a door creaking or a pendulum swinging on the Poe-inspired Shadow of the Raven. Vocals and narratives are also used sparingly to help relate a story or serve as introduction to a musical piece, for example, the voice of " Jonathan Harker" and whispered female voices of " Dracula's brides" that beckon to the listener, a carnival barker with the indistinct sounds of an audience in the distance, or " Edgar Allan Poe" and a voice calling out from the grave after being prematurely buried, the gravelly voice of a "witch" casting a spell, and a variety of low Gregorian-style chanting and choirs. Our concept has always been to create moody and melody-driven gothic soundscapes that take the listener on a musical journey through various dark realms of fantasy." Ĭarnival of Lost Souls though primarily a dark cabaret-style album, also contains a heavy metal song, while the music on the Blood of Angels album blends industrial dance and tribal rhythms with ethereal-style vocals. We utilize a variety of instruments such as piano, pipe organ, violin, acoustic guitar, drums and tolling bells to achieve symphonic orchestrations. Joseph Vargo explained Nox Arcana's style to a blogger from : "Our music is mainly classically based instrumental, although we do incorporate chanting choirs and spoken narratives for dramatic effect to achieve a blend of darkly haunting melodies that encompass the complete gothic spectrum the romantic, the mysterious, and the horrific. ![]() Their music is generally classified as dark neoclassical or dark ambient, "sometimes sandwiched into the gothic music genre" and aptly labeled "atmospheric gothic." The moods associated with Nox Arcana music describe it as ominous, romantic, lush, epic, otherworldly, menacing, spooky and eerie, Nox Arcana's music covers a broad range of subgenres within the rock and alternative music categories. Some albums also include cymbals, lutes, acoustic guitars, bagpipes and glockenspiel, depending on the theme of a given album. ![]() Instrumentation varies with each album as appropriate to the theme or time period of the album concept, and typically includes piano, bells, violin, pipe organ, harpsichord, timpani drums and other percussion. Nox Arcana's music is melodic and moody, focusing on a dominant melody line. ![]() Nox Arcana's music is often used to provide atmosphere for films, public events, role-playing games and during Halloween at theme parks, several of which have based haunted attractions on Nox Arcana's original theme albums, Transylvania and Blackthorn Asylum. Now more than half of Nox Arcana's CDs contain some sort of hidden puzzle, which is left to the listener to discover. He later went back and did the same for some of the earlier CDs. Beginning with the Blood of the Dragon CD in 2006, Vargo began a tradition of incorporating a quest or adventure within the album artwork and sometimes leaving clues in his narratives. In addition to the storytelling aspect of each album, hidden puzzles and interactive quests are incorporated into the album artwork and into the music itself. Nox Arcana specializes in concept albums based on original stories, as well as gothic fiction and classic horror literature Some of their albums also make reference to medieval themes and ancient mythology. With their third album, Nox Arcana became a Billboard Top Ten charting artist in the holiday genre. According to the Nox Arcana biography, the name is derived from two Latin words that roughly translate to "mysteries of the night." Īll of Nox Arcana's music is released independently on the Monolith Graphics label, a publishing company owned by Vargo. ![]() It was founded in 2003 as a duo with William Piotrowski, who left in 2008 to pursue a career in film score composing but still acts as its studio engineer whereas Vargo continued on as a solo act under the name. Nox Arcana is the American neoclassical dark wave, dark ambient musical project of Joseph Vargo. Gothic, neoclassical dark wave, dark ambient, dungeon synth, ethereal wave, classical crossover
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