Thursday, November 4, 2021

The best new Goth/Post-Punk releases of October 2021

 And so to your average goth’s favourite month, October. The quiet melancholy of the leaves turning russet before drifting off into oblivion, the wind chill growing colder, the daylight fading and then, at the end of it all, the spookfest of Hallowe’en. For the UK community, it’s synonymous with Whitby, but globally there is always a cemeteryful of new releases to enjoy as projects save their darkest work for the most appropriate time of the year. Selecting just twenty for this month’s review was a difficult task, but a miserably enjoyable one for all that.

1.       Suffering For Kisses – To Kiss The Stars

Given the time of year, it seems only fair to start with the latest releases from the miserygoth sub-genre starting with a new compilation from Tony D’Oporto’s project Suffering For Kisses. Amongst the previously released singles, To Kiss The Stars stands out as a slightly less depressive yet warmly melancholic offering, with a descending bassline dominating the stark early intro which broadens into a more plaintive The-Cure-play-Gimme-Shelter vibe, with a fuller sound than the usual low-fi minimalism. D’Oporto’s lugubrious vocal is perfect for the verse, with the second half enhanced by a female vocal like Ofra Haza’s stylings on the re-recording of Temple of Love. Impressive.


2.       Slow Danse With The Dead – Desolate and Wintery

This month’s new track from Slow Danse With The Dead is equal in quality to this year’s other releases from the Albuquerque-based one-man project. A complex syncopated synth riff over a discofied drum machine beat with the usual depressed vocal make Desolate and Wintery one of the more uplifting tracks from the miserygoth maestro, yet still within the expected ambiance suggested by the song’s title.


3.       Blind Dreams – Dreams of the Dead

There’s a gloomy melancholy one might expect from a Saint Petersburg-based band on a lead track called Dreams of the Dead, and the driving bass, slightly distorted vocal and maudlin synth lines do nothing to lift the depressing feel of a track that is the very epitome of musical misery.


4.       Kaelan Mikla - Svört Augu

Kaelan Mikla have reached the stage of their career where an album of largely bland dark synth pop is probably a wise move, but many post-punk fans will mourn the loss of the unhinged punk poetry of their earliest work. However album opener Svört Augu (“Black Eyes”) creates an eerie atmosphere and retains that feel of impending danger that made their other releases so beguiling, with haunting synth lines over bumbling and distorted sequenced bass showing that they are still capable of making the heart skip the occasional beat.


5.       Scary Black – American Gothic 

A very welcome return for the former Kentucky Vampires vocalist Albie Mason with a topically spooky yet muscular graveyard stomp that combines elements of dark twang, graveyard disco, and miserygoth bleakness on one of the catchiest tracks of the month, which also has a strong lyrical message.


6.       Who Saw Her Die? – Relentless

Yet another act from gothtastic Louisville (Kentucky), Who Saw Her Die? follow up last month’s The Blood EP with a dancefloor friendly 90’s goth style spooky treat with a simple repeated Halloween piano motif nagging away throughout the piece. Another one to watch.


7.       The Scarlet Hour – Blink

The debut EP from English act The Scarlet Hour’s first EP Blink begins with a Bela Lugosi’s Dead bassline and creates a atmospheric miserygoth groove with a semi-spoken Slow Danse With The Dead-style vocal and overall low-fi feel. The new project from Twitter’s “The Blogging Goth” Tim Synystr, The Scarlet Hour assemble some familiar gothic musical tropes into something impressively current and fresh.


8.       The Funeral March – Flood

Moving away from their trad goth/deathrock roots, The Funeral March (of the Marionette)s' new single Flood has a surprisingly French coldwave feel to it, with a heavy reliance on backmasking and more distant guitar, there’s a new-found depth subtlety to their work, which is all the more original as a result.


9.       Chronic Twilight – Paradime

Michael Louis’ third album under the Chronic Twilight banner, Deadlight, introduces new vocalist Kyle Andrew. Paradime is an excellent atmospheric track, with a nightmarish intro presaging an angular bassline and an experimental deathrock feel to guitars and keyboards, with a whispered vocal telling a tale of life “over the wire and under the gun” (Sisters aficionados will recognise these lyrical fragments). Louis’ imaginative chord changes call to mind his Marselle Hodges collaboration on the last Shadow Assembly album, and hints at the genuine potential of Chronic Twilight’s new formation.


10.   Plastique Noir - Asleep In The Night Train

The Brazilian goth/darkwave outfit’s first release for six years rattles along at a fine pace with pulsing bass and reverberated guitar licks, much in the style of The Sisters’ Train. An excellent update on the traditional goth rock sound with a great lyric and a memorable chorus which you’ll find yourself singing for days.


11.   Life Cult – Apparition

The Australian band’s debut EP is crammed with classic 80’s goth rock touches, with lead track Apparition combining a Nephilimistic growly croon with eight-to-the-bar bass and effect- drenched guitars arpeggio in a song that builds superbly to a climax. The combination of subtlety and power on other tracks, with further knowing nods to traditional gothic rock clichés on other tracks, make this debut one of the best trad goth releases of a vintage year for the genre.


12.   Sang Froid – Death Came To Me

After their promisingly varied debut EP at the turn of the year, the Breton band return with a new track of dark melodic brooding goth rock with a strong baritone vocal. Death Came To Me is a well-constructed song builds to fully accomplished atmospheric sound.


13.   Then Comes Silence – Thrill Kill

This month’s Horsemen side project from Then Comes Silence features seventeen superlative cover versions that pay testimony to the artists which have inspired them. It’s hard to select just one track from such a diverse selection of songs, but this cover of a lesser-known millennial song from The Damned has great energy and is perfect for Alex Svenson’s velvety croon whilst featuring typically alchemical guitar playing from Hugo and Mattias, with Jonas battering a solid beat beneath the spooky wah-wah mayhem.


14.   Skeletal Bats - Quiero Ser Santa

Mexican goth act Skeletal Bats take on one of the holy cows of Hispanic post-punk in Paralisis Permanente’s iconic Quiero Ser Santa. An asymmetrical spidery intro plays up the original’s kookiness, and the vocal is a decent approximation of Eduardo’s louche swagger although the chorus lacks the punch and power of the original.


15.   Desenterradas – Un Dia Extrano

Also influenced by Paralisis Permanente, but in their early three-chord punk incarnation are Desenterradas, a shouty female-fronted deathrock act from Majorca. Six years on from their debut cassette, their first LP is finally available, and although not the most original release of the month, it is certainly one of the most powerful.


16.   Vision of the void – Carpe Noctem

From California (where else?!), Vision of the Void are responsible for the best debut deathrock EP of the month. The superbly fuzzy tone of the guitar on the angular deathrock intro to Carpe Noctem is sufficient warning of the quality of the rest of the EP, although the track opens out like a more melodic Skeletal Family style thanks to the strong female vocals. Other tracks stray into related sub-genres and hint at the breadth of the band’s, erm, vision.


17.   The Funeral Warehouse – Can’t See Why 

One of two tracks teased from the French band’s forthcoming debut album Hours and Days, Can’t See Why, a song which has been played live for a decade, blends classic post-punk sounds with touches of dark psych and shoegaze which will appeal to fans of early 90’s bands like The Telescopes. Bandcamp link to the studio version here.


18.   New Today – Let Go

What a wonderful album is Cradle, the latest release from uncompromisingly low-fi garage gothgaze duo New Today. The final teaser track for the album’s release, Let Go is such a laid-back slacker grunge-goth delight that you wonder at times if they will actually make it to the end. These guys plough their own refreshingly original post-punk furrow in a scene where seemingly 90% of songs depressingly start out like No Time To Cry or Headhunter.


19.   The Wake – Emily Closer (Kill Shelter remix)

Smart move by The Wake, doyens of the guitar-based trad goth wing of the current scene, to draft in the leading lights of the (significantly more popular in their native US) synth-based camp of what gets classified as “goth” these days to remix some of the best tracks off their stellar 2020 album. Scot Pete Burns (aka Kill Shelter) is the best remixer in the business, as he proves on this major reworking of one of the standout tracks of The Wake’s 2020 comeback album. Emily Closer, The Wake’s original first comeback single of 2010, has such a fantastic chorus that the song’s essential spirit survives its reworking into a dark dancefloor anthem. Good work all round.


20.   The Ending Nights – Reaching New Ways

If Pete Burns is the best current remixer, Pedro Code (IAMTHESHADOW) must run him pretty close, and his own new side project The Ending Nights combines high tempo beats with descending basslines and atmospheric synth soundscapes topped by a familiar echoing baritone vocal, to bring this month’s round-up to a high-quality close.