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.