CLEVELAND, OH — Midnight Syndicate, the dark symphonic duo whose music has scored haunted houses for nearly thirty years, released their new studio album Plankett’s Grove today. The 18-track album is out on physical media and all major streaming platforms. It is the latest chapter from composers Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka, whose instrumental soundtracks have become a fixture of the haunt, Halloween, and tabletop gaming worlds.
Trailblazing dark symphonic composers Midnight Syndicate have officially released their new studio album, Plankett’s Grove, available today on physical media and all major streaming platforms. Celebrated as foundational audio architects of the haunt, Halloween, and tabletop gaming industries, duo Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka return with an 18-track immersive orchestral work designed to transport listeners into a shadowy realm of gothic mystery and dark fantasy. Building on nearly three decades of pioneering “soundtracks to imaginary films,” Plankett’s Grove delivers the signature blend of orchestral composition, haunting melodies, and immersive sound design that has defined the group’s legacy.
Midnight Syndicate describes the album that way.
A Folk-Horror Turn
For Plankett’s Grove, Douglas and Goszka moved away from the setting of their last full-length album and into rural, folk-horror territory. The record is built around the town of Illswich and the grove that shares the album’s name. Goszka explained the change:
Our last full-length release was inspired by a themed 19th-century European nightclub, so we thought we’d take things in the opposite direction for this one and set it in a world that is far more rural and secluded.
The direction came in part from the band’s fans. Douglas said:
We asked our fan community, Legions of the Night, where they’d like to see us go next, and that definitely helped make the decision. Folk horror is a treasure trove of creative inspiration with so many directions you can go.
He added that the shift “made exploring this new section of the Midnight Syndicate world both rewarding and exciting.”
This time, the setting is not a ruin waiting to be explored. Goszka described Illswich as a living place:
Plankett’s Grove is set near the town of Illswich. Rather than making the town abandoned, where the listener’s task would be to uncover the mysteries of what once was, we decided it might be interesting to keep this location very much active and alive, although not without its own share of dark secrets.
Nearly Three Decades Scoring the Haunt Industry
Midnight Syndicate helped define what a modern haunt sounds like. When the duo started in the late 1990s, the options for haunt and Halloween audio were thin, and the band’s bio frames the gap they filled:
When Midnight Syndicate emerged in the late 1990s, Halloween music was largely limited to novelty pop tracks, basic sound-effects tapes, hard-to-find movie soundtracks, or vocal-driven darkwave. Douglas and Goszka broke new ground by blending full-scale cinematic orchestration with immersive ambient soundscapes, offering a level of production quality previously unheard in the niche genre. This distinct instrumental approach quickly established Midnight Syndicate as the premier music supplier for the professional haunted attraction, amusement park, and Halloween retail industries, while simultaneously filling a crucial void for board and tabletop role-playing gamers seeking pure atmospheric soundtracks for their sessions.
The band’s bio describes their peak reach this way:
Since 1997, Midnight Syndicate has earned an international reputation as premier audio suppliers for the haunted attraction and amusement park industries. Industry analysts estimate that at peak adoption, 75% to 90% of commercial haunted attractions globally utilized Midnight Syndicate’s music.
Their music has played at major haunts and parks, including Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights, Cedar Point’s HalloWeekends, Busch Gardens, Six Flags, Alton Towers and PortAventura in Europe, Spirit Halloween, and Hot Topic. In 2003, the duo crossed into tabletop gaming by producing the first official soundtrack for Dungeons & Dragons with Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, a move the band credits with helping shape the modern tabletop role-playing game music genre. Their catalog now spans more than sixteen studio albums, along with live theater productions and original film work, including a horror feature that Douglas directed and co-wrote.
Where to Hear It
Plankett’s Grove is available now to stream or purchase through the band’s official store, and fans can join the band’s community, the Legions of the Night, through the Midnight Syndicate website.
We have followed Midnight Syndicate’s work for years, from their 25th-anniversary retrospective to their Darkened Corners EP of rare tracks, and we hope to bring you more on Plankett’s Grove soon.
