Nox Arcana and Midnight Syndicate

Well, I've read a bit more on the shared history of these two musical groups, and the levels of pettiness, ego and douchery from both parties is pretty pathetic. But I won't bore you with the sordid and ultimately fairly boring details; suffice it to say that we benefit from it; when Midnight Syndicate decided that they wanted to go their own way without Joseph Vargo's self-professed "control freak" and "less than diplomatic" touch, we ended up with two outfits doing this kind of stuff and releasing CDs which means as Joe Consumer, we now have a lot of choice when it comes to dark mood music.

I've run around town at various Halloween stores lately (I mentioned two, but of course, that's in my suburb. There are two others a few blocks from where I work, for instance) and picked up most of the Nox Arcana CDs. I already had most of the Midnight Syndicate CDs from last year, or even the year before.

Although I don't know that it's worth my while to review them, since the reviews would all kind of blend together, I will at least list them, and point out that I've listened to them the last few nights while reading and it's certainly added to the reading experience. (Also: finished a book last night, and I'll be reviewing that later today too, assuming I have time to post the review.)

Anyway... here's what I've got.

Midnight Syndicate
• Born of the Night
• The 13th Hour
• Vampyre
• The Dungeons & Dragons Soundtrack
• Gates of Delirium

Nox Arcana
• Darklore Manor
• Necronomicon
• Transylvania
• Phantoms of the High Seas
• Blackthorn Asylum
• Grimm Tales
• Shadow of the Raven

I'd really like to pick up Blood of the Dragon assuming I can find it, because it's supposedly got a nice D&D-like vibe. I do think it's ironic that Nox Arcana apparently tried to sue Midnight Syndicate because they thought The 13th Hour was too similar to their own Darklore Manor, but they then returned the favor by doing their own thinly veiled answers to the D&D soundtrack and Gates of Delirium. Oh, well. Did I mention the pettiness?