Album Review - One Thousand Graves, Sonsombre

Sonsombre’s eagerly awaited album One Thousand Graves was released this month, just six months after its predecessor The Veils of Ending and only a year on from debut set A Funeral For The Sun received a CD release.

With two albums of high quality guitar-driven gothic rock under his belt, and an unashamedly overtly gothic lyrical and visual aesthetic, Brandon Pybus was unlikely to break the mould for the latest release, but early reviews of the new album on its release last week suggested that One Thousand Graves was pretty much a carbon copy of The Veils of Ending.

To be fair to those reviewers, the opening trio of tracks on the new release, Fire, No Warning and When The Sun Goes Down, could all be described (in 80’s vernacular) as “mid-tempo rockers”, and therefore create the same tone as the opening tracks on the preceding album (Coming For You and Night Child), with classic gothic rock verses and bridges and more traditional epic rock choruses that would have a fan of 80’s hair metal (Europe, Scorpions et al) tapping an appreciative toe. So far, so generically Sonsombre, although seasoned listeners will detect a fuller production sound from engineer Jason Ledyard, stronger and less pitchy vocals from Pybus and a slightly harder edge to his guitar sound.

Those who prefer the more melancholic, darker “cemetery” feel of deathrock tracks like Mirror, Mirror, and Unfit For Endings or the alt-dancefloor stomp of Fear and The Future is Black from the previous album need not worry, as from track four One Thousand Graves takes a distinct turn in the direction of the misty crow-haunted graveyard that graces the album’s cover. Like Rats begins with a spooky - and spookily familiar to Sonsombre fans – minor key piano riff, rudely interrupted by shredded guitar shards and a slow-burning deathrock vibe, with Pybus delivering his most melodious vocal yet over an understated verse backing before the downtuned guitars return for the chorus, as Pybus exorcises and indeed exercises his own doom metal past to scintillating effect.

Although retaining some of the minor key misery, following track Darker Skies also succumbs to a rather musically and lyrically cliched stadium anthem chorus (think: The Cascades) after a wonderfully lugubrious goth verse, complete with Lucretia-style bass and growlingly Nephilimistic vocal, with the lyrical theme becoming ever gloomier. The central track on the eleven song album, Lights Out, was released as a video single teaser for One Thousand Graves, and in many ways it now seems the natural choice, allying the dancefloor sensibility of the best moments of The Veils of Ending with the slightly more angular guitar sound and harder edge of the new album.

After half a dozen turkey-trotting fist-in-the-air in-your-face goth guitar anthems the listener is in need of a musical pause, which is perfectly provided by arguably the most interesting track on the album, the slow-paced Slumber, which starts with a musical box and organ opening and on which the power chords uniquely never feature. Pybus gives another impassioned vocal, showcasing the improvement in his vocals from the debut CD, on a track which is reminiscent of Rammstein’s more pastoral moments. This is hopefully a direction will be explored furtheron future albums, but the same organ and music box combination also feature immediately on the intro to the next track and arguably the album’s highlight, Highgate, which similar Like Rats features a claustrophobic jagged guitar riff in the chorus with a more dramatic, slightly histrionic and largely guitar-free verse. Heavier, more discordant and darker than any of the tracks on The Veils of Ending, Highgate is the sound of an artist pushing his creative limits, providing an exhilaratingly dark and dramatically gothic listening experience.

The title track, One Thousand Graves, continues the harder, darker edge, with a chorus guitar riff with shades of blackgaze pioneer Penance Stare, but with its galloping bass and dancefloor friendly verse, it recreates the atmosphere of Fear from the previous album and would make an excellent single at some stage, as it also boasts the most overtly gothic lyric on the album, “When I close my eyes, I hear the dead”. None more goth!

The stunning run of tracks continues, with the final pair of songs rounding off the album perfectly. This Procession slows things down briefly with a piano and semi-choral intro, before branching into a full-on driving goth rock classic, with again (encouragingly) a more intrusive guitar riff on the verse, and a chorus that combines melody and intensity in a way that the album’s opening tracks never quite managed. Album closer Remember Me begins with Pybus intoning the opening lines (seemingly observing his own funeral) in his deepest, gothest baritone, over a piano motif and the semi-choral synth drone that could have been directly lifted from the start of Between on the previous album. Indeed, throughout the song the listener is reminded in turn of moments of many tracks from the previous two albums, making this the perfect ending to Sonsombre’s opening trilogy.

In the space of just eighteen months and three impressive albums, Brandon Pybus has established himself as the leading light of the gothic strand of the Goth/Post-Punk/Darkwave revival, creating a new musical aesthetic for the genre’s fifth decade. A skilled songwriter with a strong appreciation of dynamics and melody and a clear and respectful understanding of the genre’s history, he is also an outstanding performer as a vocalist, guitarist and producer. Whilst One Thousand Graves is only a subtle evolution from The Veils of Ending, and notwithstanding a somewhat predictable opening salvo of tracks, the new album is Sonsombre’s most complete to date, and hints at multiple even darker directions for the future. To paraphrase his own catchphrase, Pybus will clearly be staying goth for some time to come.

One Thousand Graves is available to buy on Bandcamp and the usual deluxe eight-panel CD version is available in Schengen zone Europe via Post Gothic and the band is now signed to  Cleopatra Records for the US.

Ten Questions to... Suffering For Kisses' Tony D'Oporto

Some Hurt More Than Others is the new EP out this week by Suffering For Kisses, available via their Bandcamp site. SFK is the latest project by Seattle based Tony D’Oporto, and his 2018 debut album of songs of lost love, Forever Waiting, was an instant word-of-mouth success amongst the global darkwave diaspora, with hauntingly effective songs made all the more fragile by minimalist arrangements and D’Oporto’s distinctively naked vocal, creating a “beautifully dark” aesthetic (to quote one of the song titles. Follow-up EP Love, Loss and Regret was released in 2019, “the sounds of a drowning romantic”, and like all SFK offerings was available only as a “name your price” download on Bandcamp.

The new EP out this week starts with Done, whic hbegins with an echoing drum beat and reverb guitar which is more prominent than usual. before D’Oporto’s familiar baritone intones a typically melancholic opening verse “Well I’m done with you, I was nothing but nice to you, but you’re rude and you're mean, you’re as cold as ice can be” over an understated chugging backing that wouldn’t be out of place on Floodland. Culture a previous single, continues in a The Sisters of Mercy vein with a No Time To Cry style bass line, and a repeated guitar riff in the style of Antipole’s Karl Morten Dahl, whilst D’Oporto warms to his theme: “Culture is dangerous, culture is violent.” Following track Maybe begins with a surprisingly plinky plonky synth sound which is quickly interrupted by a descending bass riff and twang guitar Ritual Howls style. “Maybe it was all just a fantasy” muses the misanthropic D’Oporto whilst Fuchsia Angel of Bella Lune on backing vocals gives the track a darkgaze dreampop vibe, a juxtaposition that works particularly well.

The following two tracks are pure poetry, literally: another previous single Invictus features a sequenced bass and synth intro with a familiar descending pattern reminiscent of Foghorn Lonesome before D’Oporto begins to recite the familiar Victorian poem in his trademark deadpan lugubrious baritone, whilst Summer List harks back to D’Oporto’s previous project Gnome and Spybey with a beat-free lush minor chord synth and piano soundscape, over which former regular collaborator Mark Spybey recites a descriptive spoken word piece in which, in a Geordie lilt, he reflects nostalgically on summers past.

Final track War reverts to more familiar territory, with a simple spoken vocal “War, this is war” over a typical SFK backbeat.  D’Oporto’s lyric rages against a human race which is both the culprit and victim of the impending environmental catastrophe. “Nature’s revenge will come our greed” is the melancholy conclusion to a noteworthy EP which reveals an artist at the top of his game.

Eager to find out more, I approached Tony to see if he would be willing to feature as the second guest in this blog’s “Ten Questions to…” feature, and to my delight he responded with even greater alacrity than my previous victim Brandon Pybus, no mean feat.

I am grateful to Tony for his insightful responses and can heartily recommend the new Suffering For Kisses EP and the back catalogue which is available via Bandcamp. His ambient collaboration with Mark Spybey can be found on Facebook, and his EBM project with David Trussell, Crisis Actor, is also on Bandcamp.

1.

Suffering For Kisses is one of the few bands on the current darkwave scene that has an instantly recognisable sound, with your deadpan semi-spoken vocals and spartan keyboard/guitar over a minimalist bass and drum machine backing. How did that signature sound develop?

I get inspired and just write what comes out. No real plan or anything. A lot of it I develop in my head as I am walking around. I will take things I am thinking about and kind of put it with music in my head, then implement it in the studio.

2.

The band name, the lyric themes, the music and the visuals – everything about SFK seems to represent a certain wallowing in misery yet many people somehow find your music thoroughly uplifting. Did that come as a surprise or was it the effect which you hope that your music will have on people?

This is probably the most personal music I have ever written. All the lyrics are something I am thinking about, emotions I am feeling or things I am going through at the moment. I think perhaps a lot of other people are feeling the same thing and can relate. They find comfort in knowing others are going through the same issues. 

3.

You said in a recent interview that your first musical attempts in the late 80’s were in the goth genre. Were any of these ever released?

No, nothing ever released. Just random projects or bands I played in when I was a teenager.

4.

Most of your recorded output until Suffering for Kisses began a couple of years ago was on the more ambient, experimental side of music. What at that point influenced you to move in a darker, more lyrical direction?

I have always been somewhat involved in this scene on some level, but at the time I was dating someone that showed me several newer “post-punk” bands I was unfamiliar with…but I really liked them. I thought, I can do this and it sounds fun. The first few songs I wrote where actually just for her. But I ended up putting them online and they immediately received a really good response. It just kept going from there…When we parted ways, I was quite upset and it became an outlet to express those emotions.

5.

You combined with ex-Zoviet France musician Mark Spybey for many years on the project The Gnome and Spybey, and he appears on a track on the new Suffering For Kisses EP which is very different to your normal style. How did that come about?

I always loved those little ambient bits Depeche Mode had in between songs on their albums. I was working on one for this release and could just hear Mark’s voice in it. I sent it to him and asked if he would do a vocal for it and he agreed. I think it turned out quite lovely! Reminiscent of old Coil in my opinion. 

6.

You’ve had guest musicians on most SFK releases so far, such as Su Eko of Velvet Kills on Culture and Natasha Taylor on one track on the first album. Are there any other artists who you’d love to collaborate with on future projects? Which other current darkwave acts do you particularly enjoy?

I would love to work on something with Shannon from Actors. Her own project Leathers is outstanding. I love her voice and she is extremely talented. And a very nice person as well! Ally from Bootblacks guitar playing is phenomenal. My favorite style of guitar playing. I definitely would love to have her play on one of my songs. Bootblacks are also an excellent band. I have seen them play 3 times now and enjoyed it each time. And also really nice people! 

7.

What was it about the famous poem Invictus that made you want to set it to music, as featured on the new EP?

It’s a very inspirational poem. I suggest people look it up and read about the different situations it has been used by various people to survive some very hard times.

8.

Ricky Hart plays guitar in your live shows and you’ve had him, Harris Iveson (Velvet Kills), your producer Nick Brennan and Mark Hjorthoy help out in the studio. Do you think that using a variety of guitarists helps to broaden the project’s musical palette, as was the case with Siouxsie and the Banshees who kept things fresh by bringing in a different innovative guitarist every couple of albums? Or is just a question of circumstance?

It really just depends…different people enter my life at different times. I pull resources from whomever I happen to be close with at the time.

Rickie and Nick have been the most consistent and are pretty much my main guys.

9.

None of your releases is available in a physical format, although you will clearly have had many offers of product distribution. Why is that?

I do not believe in physical product anymore. I think it’s wasteful and outdated. 

10.

What are the next steps for Suffering For Kisses. Will we ever see you play live in Europe, for example?

No idea! I just take it as it comes…I like to just mainly play local shows and just every so often. It’s a lot of work putting the live band together.

Ten Questions to ........ Sonsombre's Brandon Pybus

Dark glasses…..check. 

Broad-brimmed hat….check. 

Brooding, guitar driven gothic rock….check. 

Bombastic, ghostly baritone vocal….check. 

Sonsombre’s Brandon Pybus IS the new Godfather of Goth. And this month he releases the project’s third studio album in only sixteen months, matching The Sisters of Mercy’s Andrew Eldritch’s total over his whole, forty year career!

Sonsombre’s debut set A Funeral For The Sun, released on Bandcamp in September 2018 immediately caught the attention of most seasoned observers of the scene, who were impressed by the sheer quality of both the songwriting and the performance. That same month, Jason Ledyard of NYC’s Absolution posted this introductory interview with Pybus, who at that stage was very much a one man band, giving a fascinating insight into his motivations and influences. (Another great interview with Brandon was released on YouTube by vlogger Skullgirdle last year)

Ledyard helped with production on the more varied and rounded follow-up, The Veils of Ending which was released in June 2018, a year in which Pybus also released an LP under the name Shadow Assembly, moonlighting with Michael Louis of fellow US one man project Chronic Twilight. Louis will join Pybus’ touring iteration of Sonsombre for their 2020 shows, which will include a visit to the UK in June, but later this month Pybus will release the third Sonsombre album, One Thousand Graves (with Ledyard again helping out at the desk), from which the pounding debut single Lights Out was released in December.

Having also recently helped to produce the forthcoming album by The Kentucky Vampires, Pybus is clearly a man with a very strong work ethic, and it will come as no surprise that he returned full answers to my interview questions within 24 hours!

1.       You’d been a member of bands for a number of years prior to starting the Sonsombre project, but they were all on the dark side of metal with no real discernible goth influence. You’re clearly a long-term and keen fan of the genre, so why hadn’t you formed a goth rock band before 2016?

You’re correct… I’ve been in bands since I was 10 years old but never in a purely Goth band until Sonsombre. I credit a lot of this to where and when I grew up. I didn’t have a lot of access to a real Goth scene growing up in the Southeast United States… What used to be Goth nights in the 90’s turned into Industrial and EBM and I honestly thought Goth Rock was a thing of the past. We kept playing black metal and listening to Goth… haha. I was literally listening to the same old classic albums over and over for 25 years… and just finally wanted to make something new. It wasn’t until I released the first Sonsombre record that I was connected to the huge online Goth scene (I was not very active on any social media platform before). Of course, I am now amazed that Goth Rock (while it never truly went away) is making a huge resurgence. There are so many good Goth bands popping up all over the place. Sonsombre just came at the right time and place I suppose to take part in this revival. As an aside… the lyrics to Coming For You make an attempt to answer this question.

2.       Have any elements from the previous bands had a direct influence on the music that you’re now playing with Sonsombre?

Yes… I think I’ve brought some of the darker aesthetic from some of my previous black metal bands and some of the chord structures (like the bridge in Lights Out, and Like Rats on the new album). This was in Goth from the start, but over the years it trended out. People didn’t want to be too Goth or come off as “campy” I suppose. That’s never bothered me… haha. I love dark music, horror, old-world elegance, etc. It’s just who I’ve always been. It’s the reason I loved Goth in the first place… it was dark! Somewhere along the way people shied away from the term, then shied away from the vibe altogether in many cases. I think an infusion of the old-world is underway, and so many of us are very happy to see this going on.

3.       There were some distinctly Southern rock tinges to the debut album – a bit of slide guitar here, some cajun plucking there. Was that a deliberate way of showing where you’re coming from, or just subconscious soaking up of local cultural reference points?

The latter I think… Of course I’ve always loved Fields of the Nephilim and the darker Western sound, so I’m sure that influence is there, but mostly growing up in the South, I think I just soaked up the Southern Gothic vibe.

4.       You use quite a lot of church references, in your style of dress, the album sleeves, even lyrically (“have mercy on my soul” etc). Was that an important part of your upbringing and why does it feature so strongly in your imagery?

This is really a great question… Again, it’s probably mostly subconscious reflections of my upbringing in the South. My grandfather was a Methodist preacher, and I of course grew up around a lot of very devout religious people. History has taught us that people love symbols. We absorb them without thinking. I honestly haven’t consciously tried to look like a preacher, but it seems be a universal vibe that people take away. It’s an archetype, and I find it interesting on many levels that it comes across in this way. Our design elements are simply the things I think are dark and appeal to my “style”. I think our imagery is a projection of who I am.

5.       Although Sonsombre played live dates as a four-piece last year, it’s still very much a one man project in terms of studio work. Is that likely to stay the same for future releases? How do you see the band’s sound developing?

I have one song written for the fourth album… Beyond that I haven’t really begun the process of planning too deeply for it. All I can say for the band’s sound is that whatever we do it will be as Goth as I can possibly make it. If it’s not, please personally tell me to hang it up.

6.       Michael Louis is joining the band on bass for the European tour later this year. Will you just be playing Sonsombre songs, or will there be some Shadow Assembly tracks too?

Another really great question… I honestly had not even considered that until I read this. It could be a lot of fun. The struggle is that we will have 3 albums worth of Sonsombre material to cover so I will say likely “no”.

7.       You recently did some mastering for The Kentucky Vampires for their new LP. Are there any other artists whom you’d like to work with in the future?

Honestly, I would love to work with any band that is making Goth Rock. It’s an honor to have worked with Zac and Mike because I value what they are doing. The same can be said for any number of bands.

8.       Which other artists on the current scene worldwide do you most admire?

Guillotine Dream, NU:N, Miazma, October Burns Black, Mosquito, Long Night, Ground Nero … too exhaustive of a list to enumerate! Any band that plays guitar driven Goth and/or Death Rock. Not that I don’t like other styles, I just see the need for more guitar driven bands to continue the revival. For whatever reason synth-based stuff has taken over… nothing wrong with these bands at all, but it’s harder to get traction as a pure Goth Rock band these days. I greatly admire all who try.

9.       You’ve recorded tracks by some of your idols (The Wake, Fields of The Nephilim etc). Are these any closer to an official release? Which other tracks would you most like to have a go at?

I have indeed, and I still struggle what to do with these. An EP, bonus tracks, singles?? I have recently revisited and polished a few of these in case I can make my mind up, so perhaps they are closer to release? As for the second part of the question, I’m currently working on a Ghosting cover. That one is very interesting to me!

10.   What are your ambitions for Sonsombre for 2020?

This year we plan to do a lot of shows… far more than 2019. Honestly that is my favorite part of it all! We will be announcing as much as possible within the coming weeks, but we already have three big US festivals booked and a trip to Greece and the UK planned. People will see a lot more of us on the road. We will also be shooting a video for the next single from the new record (Fire) in two weeks. We plan to release at least 3 videos this year along with everything else.

I am most grateful to Brandon for taking the time and trouble to answer my questions, and strongly recommend Sonsombre to fans of both the first (Sisters, Nephs) and second (Nosferatu, The Wake) waves of goth. Their music, including One Thousand Graves which is out on January 21st, can be streamed and ordered via their Bandcamp page. CD copies will be available via Post-Gothic in Europe and Cleopatra in the USA.

The fifth goth decade is upon us!

Forty years on from the movement’s birth, the recent "third generation revival" means that the gothic musical community enters the new decade in a better shape than ten years ago, when the genre seemed to have almost fizzled out.

With new labels, podcasts, vlogs and blogs having sprung up to support the worldwide network of innovative bands helping the music to evolve ever further, goth music is now in a robust state and more than ready for the mainstream musical community to start to take a more serious interest in recent developments.

Then Comes Silence photo by Jonas Fransson

2020 looks as if it will start the new decade with a bang, with new albums in the immediate pipeline for some of the movement’s stellar acts. Swedish stalwarts Then Comes Silence have recently announced new distribution deals with SPV for their new album Machine which is due to be released in March, preceded by a new single We Lose The Night as early as January 10^th, their first new release in over two years, and the first to feature the stunningly revamped 'live' line-up with Mattias Ruejas Jonson and Hugo Zombie on guitars joining founder member Alex Svenson and drummer Jonas Fransson, who had joined the band for their last album Blood in 2017. With the buzz about the band having grown steadily over the past two years, the impetus of a new album and slots at major European alternative festivals later in the year should propel the band firmly to the forefront of what will hopefully be a fully-fledged global revival.

Classic goth rock act Sonsombre are also getting the new decade off to an explosive start with their third album, One Thousand Graves due out on January 21^st. The teaser single from the album, Lights Out, which was released in hints at a slightly darker tinge to the classic Sonsombre sound, along the lines of Fear on the previous album. With the band making its first venture to Europe, 2020 is likely to see Brandon Pybus and his acolytes consolidate their position as one of the leading lights of the gothic revival, projecting an image that is both familiar and unique, capable of attracting new fans to the genre whilst appealing to returning fans from the original gothic wave of the mid-1980's.

A third leading goth revival act to have a new album slated for the very start of the new decade is The Kentucky Vampires, whose sophomore set Darkest Hour is due for release on Secret Sin Records early in the year. Again, there has already been the opportunity to gauge the direction the band will be taking with the release of the Blood And Tears EP (with mastering by Sonsombre’s Pybus) towards the end of 2019. Holy Heretic, the lead track, showed that the band has lost none of the graveyard charm that made their unique vocal and guitar style a critical success on their debut LP in 2018, whilst other tracks on the EP hint at a darker, slower heavier approach but retaining the key elements that make their records so instantly recognisable.

Also ready for release in early 2020 is The Diabolus, the latest album from The Society, the band formed by Paul Gilmartin (drummer for seminal 80’s post-punk band The Danse Society) to continue the Barnsley group’s musical heritage. With Paul “Grape” Gregory and Dave “Wolfie” Wolfenden (ex-Red Lorry Yellow Lorry) from Leeds legends The Expelaires (the original band of The Sisters of Mercy’s Craig Adams) recently recruited to The Society’s ranks, the ten new tracks will build on the legacy of the most recent Night Ship EP and will feature the dark atmospherics and powerful drumming that made the original Danse Society one of the original movement’s most successful bands.

With Stranger and Lovers, Mark E Moon, Grooving In Green and Scary Black amongst others also this week announcing new releases in 2020, the fifth decade of goth could not get off to a more secure start. Stay goth!