A major strength of The 13th Hour is not just the quality of the music, but also the use of that music to tell a wordless but engrossing story. Based upon what I know of Midnight Syndicate’s work, the same goes for their other CDs. Since Out of the Darkness draws from multiple sources, the individual songs lose their context and must stand on their own merits – a bit like a compilation of songs from various movie soundtracks by the same artist.

Fortunately, those are some strong, creepy merits.

The collection kicks off with “Realm of Shadows,” an ominous, brooding piece sounding a bit like a slow, subdued version of the “Tales from the Crypt” theme.

Out of the Darkness draws its inspiration much more strongly from purely Gothic horror than it does from the music of modern horror movies, quite unlike the fairly even mix of the two in The 13th Hour. Notable exceptions include “Beyond the Gates,” “Born of the Night,” “Eye of the Storm,” and “Vampire's Kiss,” which all bear the unmistakable mark of John Carpenter’s nerve-wracking Halloween-style staccato piano.

(“Vampire’s Kiss,” by the way, is the theme to The Dead Matter, a horror movie written and directed by Midnight Syndicate member Edward Douglas in post-production as of this writing. The CD also features “Scenes from The Dead Matter,” a very short, creepy piece sounding like an ill-advised expedition into a nasty, drippy cave.)

At the opposite end of the spectrum lurks “Return of the Apparition”: tolling bells and whispery, chilling music like a foggy night in a haunted peasant village. Horror doesn’t get any more Gothic than this.

Tolling bells show up in “Darkness Descends” as well, one of the several quiet, brooding pieces on the CD, along with “Solemn Reflections” (with its excellent harpsichord work), “Noctem Aeternus” (with its chilling vocals) and “Soliloquy” (with its particularly melancholy piano). “Eclipse” proves just as quietly gloomy, albeit with tubular bells rather than tolling bells.

Given the musical storytelling that produced the pieces in this collection, several of them naturally suggest action of various sorts. Of these, “Nightstalker” is the weakest, trying to sound intense and threatening but suggestive of the theme music of a made-for-SciFi movie. “Legions of the Night” and “Forbidden Crypts” prove far more successful with their ominous marches, the former suggestive of the orcish hordes of some fantasy Dark Lord, the latter, more mysterious, speaking of undead rising en masse. “Into the Abyss,” with its driving “da-da-da-da-DUM!” refrain, makes excellent pre-climactic confrontation music, and “The Night Beckons” evokes the classic (if abysmally stupid) “let’s split up” investigation of a mysterious light/sound/shadow/etc. “Druids” proves to be a little too heavy-handed in this regard, resorting to very prominent thunder sound effects and chanting; still, if you’re in need of sound effects (rather than background music) for a pagan ceremony, this one’s hard to beat.

Other pieces evoke places more than events – “Haunted Nursery,” with its creepy music box, and “Sanctuary,” with its Gregorian chants and bells, definitely do their titles justice. “Darkfolk” musically conjures a haunted forest, and “Masque of Sorrow” transports the listener into the midst of a ghostly 18th-century ball. I’m not sure if you’d call the imagery of “Prisoner of Time” more event- or location-focused, but either way, its swirling piano, organ, and icy vocals, together ominously reminiscent of the theme from The Black Hole, certainly evoke the kind of Lovecraftian fate suggested by the title. The bells, organ, and vocals of “Theme to Journey into Dementia” maintain this delightfully devilish disorientation.

Ideally, a “Best of…” CD serves as a great introduction to the band’s work. I’m not convinced that’s the case here. It’s great music, but I think the very act of pulling these songs out of their original context and sticking them into an artificial grouping robs them of some of their power and doesn’t do justice to the brilliant musical portraits the group can create. Ultimately, I’d recommend Out of the Darkness for those interested in their work but not captivated by any of the individual “storylines” of their other CDs. Then, if you like their style (which I’m quite sure you will), see what they can do when they use that style to tell an entire tale of Gothic fear.