July was always traditionally the start of the summer music festival season in the 1980’s, with the broadminded bookers of European staples like Torhout/Werchter and Roskilde often engaging some of the giants of the goth/alternative scene alongside more mainstream artists, although the long, hot days made the traditional black leather “uniform” almost unwearable and the scene would largely aestivate awaiting the welcoming dark embrace of Hallowe’en.
With the global music scene no longer at the diktat of major labels, the gothic world continues to produce high quality new music throughout the year, and this July has been no exception with some exceptional new sounds on release. The globalisation of the scene, thanks to the internet in general and Facebook and Bandcamp, along with the temporary death of touring due to the pandemic, has blurred the traditional concept of musical seasons. This month’s selections again demonstrate the breadth and depth of the range of music covered by the goth/post-punk genre, with more experimental tracks featuring more prominently this month, another sign of the health of the current scene, with more risks taken and less reliance on (over-)familiar tropes.
The twenty selections for this month are roughly grouped according to sub-genre:
1. Ground Nero – The Furnace
With the new “mystery singer” now revealed to be Mark Sayle of Mark E Moon, Ground Nero unleash their third single of the year and the darkest yet, with the Manxman’s deep snarl rasping out a dystopian lyric over the usual shimmering angular “gothic wall of sound” which marries the guitar sheen of the Chameleons with Killing Joke’s manic energy. The band are currently working on their higely anticipated sophomore album.
2. Kill Shelter/Antipole – Nine While Nine
Hot on the heels of thier outstanding album earlier this year, the cutting edge Scottish/Norwegian pairing combine to synergical effect once more for esteemed label Unknown Pleasures’ tribute album to The Sisters of Mercy, Honoris II. Choosing one of the more reflective tracks from FALAA, Karl Morten Dahl’s reverbed staccato guitar plucks are underpinned by Pete Burns’ dancefloor savvy backbeat and baritone vocal for most of what is a relatively straight cover, although the lengthy outro is where the guitarist really gets to stamp his mark on the original.
3. Lucida Fila – Sinister
Talking of The Sisters, the second teaser track from Mexican band Lucida Fila’s forthcoming album Screams of the Damned gallops along pleasingly like a Sisters tribute band covering Iggy’s The Passenger. The project’s sound is far more rounded than on previous releases, although the vocals are still occasionally a little pitchy, making this a promising release for fans of trad goth.
4. Stranger and Lovers – Addicted to Pain
More goth’n’roll from Central America, with leading act Stranger and Lovers showcasing a love of Cramps influenced scuzzy dark twang, with a typically echoey and lyrically instinct deep goth vocal from Axel. Biker goth for the third generation. Stranger and Lovers are another act who combine vintage instruments with modern studio technology to update the classic goth sound.
5. Gothzilla – Ilaria
More Scottish goth with the third single from the Auras album from Gothzilla, with main man Tim Jarvis roping in his daughter Holly to provide a haunting earworm of a chorus and elevate the song above more typical light melodic goth rock fayre.
6. Okvlta – Nocturna
Deathrock/goth punk/horror goth seems to have been undergoing a real revival in the past couple of years, particularly in its native US West Coast seaboard states, but this stunning new release is from Colombian band Okvlta, whose impressive album En las entranas de la bestia was released in the middle of the month. The scratchy guitar tone and foghorn female vocal have the same energy and passion as early Xmal Deutschland.
7. New Skeletal Faces – Banshee Sex Tomb
Also vaguely flying the deathrock flag are New Skeletal Faces on their new two track single, whose lead track Banshee Sex Tomb has a grungy metal riff topped with a semi-screamo vocal redolent of classic era Neurosis, a musical nightmarish apocalypse not for the faint-hearted (yes, I mean you, Drab Majesty fans!). Second track Extinction of Bodies is slower and doomier but no less powerful for all that.
8. Ariel Maniki and the Black Halos – Strangers
Ariel Maniki has carved out a deserved reputation for high quality layered gothic rock over the years, which will be reinforced by the lead single from the Costa Rican’s new album Black Light, which features sharp production and a keen sense of melody (in the style of The Mission or H.I.M. in the verse before venturing into darker territory on the chorus.
9. Deliverance – This House Again
Once again, an act from Central America takes the lead in the trad goth revival, with Mexican act Deliverance erm, delivering their strongest set to date on ASTRAL, which is now available to order for August release. Mainman Rul Deliro’s strong vocal leads the way, over solid if somewhat generic Missionesque gothic rock. The Kentucky Vampires’ Zac Campbell contributed guitar to one track on the new album, which is one of the most anticipated of the summer.
10. Mark E Moon – Event Horizon (Death and Gravity mix)
Event Horizon was always the strongest and most commercial track on Mark E Moon’s sophomore album Old Blood, and this month it was released as a three-track digital single, with the main Death and Gravity mix benefitting from an additional sequenced synth motif from Phil Reynolds which is not dissimilar to the one on Japan’s Quiet Life. Mark Sayle’s warm timbre is perfect for the strong melody and exquisite production which sees Mark E Moon straying their furthest yet into dark Pet Shop Boys territory, a perfect sound for the summer alternative dancefloor. The Crying Vessel remix of the same track takes a little longer to get going and is, as expected, a little starker and plinkier than the main mix despite a surprisingly rough guitar tone in the verse.
11. Attic Frost – Sell-out of Broken Dreams
Attic Frost is a new name to me, but their debut EP released this week is highly promising affair. After an atmospheric intro reminiscent of early Kaelan Mikla, the Bremen outfit’s lead track Sell-out of Broken Dreams develops pleasingly along the lines of classic French cold wave, with the freeze-frame shimmer of Pornography-era Cure.
12. The City Gates – Le silence
Also playing classic upbeat melancholic wave are Canadian act The City Gates, whose album Age of Resilience is rightly picking up praise for its infectious hooks and distant, echoing vocals. This sub-genre is amongst the most highly-populated of the current scene, and only releases with the quality of The City Gates' rise above the generic standard.
13. The Blue Hour ft Barry Galvin – Cold and Bare
On a more experimental tip come The Blue Hour, whose album Lore, out this month, compiles tracks from the past couple of years, many of which feature guest artists of the calibre of Barry Galvin (Mephisto Waltz) and Michael Louis (Shadow Assembly), who both feature on lead track Cold and Bare. The real star though as ever, is vocalist Marselle Hodges, whose “goth Kate Bush” musings dominate an ethereal, almost trip-hop gothic reverie.
14. Abrasive Trees – Now You Are Not Here
There’s another impressive female performance on Abrasive Trees’ well-crafted latest release, with Jo Beth Young guesting on key track Now You Are Not Here. The song’s acoustic/drone backing gives off goth psychedelia comedown vibes like the more ambient moments on Floodland, cementing the reputation of another project capable of attracting high quality guests (Peter Yates of Fields of the Nephilim fame features on another track).
15. Voidant – La Loba
Having featured on several tracks on Caroline Blind’s acclaimed 2020 album The Spell Between, the Red Lorry Yellow Lorry guitarist Dave "Wolfie" Wolfenden again teams up with the former Sunshine Blind vocalist for a new side project, Voidant. La Loba features a spooky, twangy, bluesy guitar riff over a classic triphop backbeat, with Blind’s meandering vocal continuing the dark, dreamlike ambiance. Expertly engineered by 1919’s Ding and mastered by David Whitaker (ex-Danse Society), Voidant’s debut release is a sumptuous yet tripped-back delight.
16. Clan of Xymox – The One Per Cent
Having drifted ever further into She Past Away territory on recent releases, veterans Clan of Xymox are back with a more introspective album with lyrics focused on the pandemic lockdowns, whilst musically following the usual dark layered synthpop blueprint, which makes the slow-burning track The One Per Cent even more of a refreshing change to the somewhat generic fayre available on the new album Limbo. Starting with a reverb drenched guitar intro, Ronny Moorings’ vocal is multi-tracked in the style of classic Perry Farrell, giving the track an epic feel whilst retaining a slowed-down electro-goth pulse.
17. Vlimmer – Fensteraus
Berlin-based Alexander Leonard Donat must be one of the hardest-working and creative men in the business, a kind of goth Prince, and recording under the name Vlimmer, having completed his genre-defying XVIII part cycle, has produced an outstanding two track new EP, whose lead track, Fensteraus, begins with a haunting analogue synth riff which has the same unsettling effect as solo John Foxx or early Human League. With shouted distant vocals a la Nine Inch Nails, the song takes on a vaguely low-fi industrial feel, before imaginatively taking a different turn over a post-punk bass riff, before combining the elements in a dramatic closing section. The imaginative whole has the cumulative cinematographic effect of a more daring Kissing The Pink, a less intense The Soft Moon or even a more avant-garde Imagine Dragons, such is the epic feel of the song from one of Europe’s most prolific artists.
18. Slow Danse With The Dead – You Are Not My Friend
Talking of prolific, as usual this month there’s another new low-fi track to enjoy from Albuquerque one-man band Slow Danse With The Dead. A typically catchy mournful synth riff over an authentic 70’s Wurlitzer drum machine drumbeat is the perfect backing for a basso profundo deadpan delivery of another tale of disappointment from the current king of the “miserygoth” subgenre.
19. Beneath Black Waves – Rites and Passage
The Meunier brothers from Vermont combine to great effect on the dark surfgaze of Rites and Passage on Beneath Black Waves’ highly promising debut release, an introspective track driven by a dark twang guitar riff.
20. Deathtrippers – Burn
Leeds band Deathtrippers have been favourites of Goth/Post-Punk Revival blog over the past couple of years, and they enhance their reputation in taking on one of the goth holy grails, a track off The Reptile House EP for (like the first track of this round-up) the Unknown Pleasures tribute album to TSOM. The Deathtrippers’ version keeps many of the key elements of the original – the stumbling, driving beat, the psychedelic guitar swirls, the masked backwards vocal – whilst adding a cool new ending and avoiding the pitfall of imitating the original vocal too closely in what is a highly respectful tribute to their hometown heroes. The band's previous releases have also recently been compiled on what is already a sold-out limited vinyl release from Spain's Dead Wax records.
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