Darklore Manor is an album released by gothic horror musical group Nox Arcana

Nox Arcana

Nox Arcana is an American dark ambient musical group, formed in 2003 by Joseph Vargo and William Piotrowski. Nox Arcana specializes in concept albums based on gothic fiction and classic horror literature. Such literary references include: H. P. Lovecraft, The Brothers Grimm, Ray Bradbury, and Edgar...

 on Monolith Graphics in 2003

2003 in music

-January:* January – following an investigation by The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in England and the Netherlands recover nearly 500 original Beatles studio tapes, recorded during the Let It Be sessions. Five people are arrested...

. It features a style of music that bears a similarity to Joseph Vargo's earlier work on the album Born of the Night with Midnight Syndicate

Midnight Syndicate

Midnight Syndicate is an American musical group that has been working mainly in the genre of gothic music since 1997 and is based out of Chardon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland...

, a group that he helped to establish in 1998 prior to his founding of Nox Arcana.

Musical style

The music on Darklore Manor consists of piano, violin, pipe organ, harpsichord, with vocal choirs and brief ghostly narrations that invite the listener to "embark on a musical journey throughout the haunted halls of a Victorian mansion." The accompanying booklet features a history about the Darklore family and their "stark and grim abode" of which its "former splendor was lost to the ravages of time" and where "spirits of the dead do not rest easy."

This album was inspired by a real-life haunted house

Haunted house

A haunted house is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property...

 located near Salem, Massachusetts, an old Victorian mansion built in 1889. According to local legend, a curse befell the Darklore family, resulting in many mysterious deaths. Then in 1941, the last of the bloodline, Damon Darklore, his wife Elizabeth, and their daughter Belladonna disappeared without any explanation.

Over the years, the abandoned Darklore Manor became a local haunt, something to scare kids on Halloween and a place for daring teenagers to hang out. In 1968, three teens disappeared after holding a seance there on Halloween. The old manor finally burned to the ground in 1971.

Darklore Manor has inspired others to create haunted houses using the music and storyline as the basis for their Halloween attractions, including the Busch Gardens

Busch Gardens

Busch Gardens is the name of two amusement parks in the United States, owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, a division of Blackstone Group. One of the parks is in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the other is in Tampa, Florida...

"Howl-O-Scream" theme park in Tampa, Florida, which features a haunted wedding with Darklore Manor as the setting and atmosphere.

Expanding upon the haunted house story created for this album's liner notes, Joseph Vargo wrote a novella entitled "The Legend of Darklore Manor." It appears among 12 other short horror stories in the book The Legend of Darklore Manor and Other Tales of Terror.

Track listing

All music composed and performed by Joseph Vargo and William Piotrowski.

1. "Legend" — 1:49
2. "Darklore Manor" — 2:27
3. "Threshold of the Dead" — 1:18
4. "Trespassers" — 2:52
5. "Veil of Darkness" — 1:55
6. "Sanctuary of Shadows" — 3:12
7. "The Grande Hall" — 1:55
8. "Remnants" — 2:06
9. "Phantom Procession" — 1:46
10. "Belladonna" — 2:41
11. "Nursery Rhyme" — :40
12. "Music Box" — 2:08
13. "The Forgotten" — 2:44
14. "Nightmare" — 1:56
15. "No Rest for the Wicked" — 3:12
16. "Omen" — :43
17. "Seance" — 2:56
18. "Beyond Midnight" — 3:04
19. "Darkness Immortal" — 3:39
20. "Incantation" — 1:55
21. "Resurrected" — 2:13 / 7:12* hidden track