Grimm Tales marks Nox Arcana's

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...

 ninth full-length album in four years. Like several of their other albums, this music is also inspired by classic literature. In this case, the folktales of the Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

. Instrumentation includes piano, violin, cello, acoustic guitar, glockenspiel

Glockenspiel

A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...

, and various wind and percussive instruments, which serve to establish the intended theme. In keeping with the dark fairy tale

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

 theme, ominous narrations from a "Witch Queen" and the deep, resonant voice of her male counterpart are featured on several tracks, as well as the raspy voice of an aging Crone

Crone

The crone is a stock character in folklore and fairy tale, an old woman who is usually disagreeable, malicious, or sinister in manner, often with magical or supernatural associations that can make her either helpful or obstructing. She is marginalized by her exclusion from the reproductive cycle,...

 as she invokes a magical spell.

Artist and composer Joseph Vargo also wrote an original fable

Fable

A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...

 for this cd. Expressed in poetic verse, it tells of a wicked Witch Queen who has cast a spell upon the land of Faerie, condemning its inhabitants to a neverending darkness, and two children who fall asleep one night to awaken in the dark realm. The wayward children set out upon a quest to find a magical "Crystal Key" which is rumored to open a gateway between the "Realm of Fable" and their home.

The release date for this album coincides with Walpurgis Night

Walpurgis Night

Walpurgis Night is a traditional spring festival on 30 April or 1 May in large parts of Central and Northern Europe. It is often celebrated with dancing and with bonfires. It is exactly six months from All Hallows' Eve.-Name:...

.

Universal Studios' "Halloween Horror Nights" in Orlando, Florida designed their 2008 haunted attraction, called "Scary Tales: Once Upon A Nightmare" based on the realm of fable explored in Nox Arcana's Grimm Tales album.

Tracks

Music composed and performed by Joseph Vargo and William Piotrowski.

1. "Fable" — 2:03
2. "Twilight" — 2:56
3. "Once Upon a Nightmare" — 3:58
4. "Shadow Forest" — 3:49
5. "Eyes in the Dark" — 2:58
6. "The Hollow" — 1:11
7. "Sylvan Spirits" — 2:45
8. "Wicked Heart" — 2:50
9. "Conjuration" — 1:49
10. "Night Wraiths" — 2:30
11. "Deep in the Woods" — 2:21
12. "The Forgotten Path" — 5:05
13. "Fairy Tale" — 2:09
14. "Crone’s Caverns" — 2:42
15. "Rise to Destiny" — 3:16
16. "Labyrinth of Dreams" — 2:53
17. "Castle of Nightmares" — 4:01
18. "Hall of the Witch Queen" — 3:21
19. "Ave Sinistra" — 4:27
20. "Black Spires" — 2:52
21. "Darkly Everafter" — 3:28 +hidden track