It's time for the annual Goth/Post-Punk Revival countdown of the year's best releases over the various sub-genres, and as in most recent years, narrowing down a Top 50 proved to be surprisingly tricky, such is the current health of the goth/post-punk scene. This year seems to have witnessed a further revival of a more trad goth rock sound in many parts of the world, with the US in contrast continuing to major on a more synth-based industrial sound destined for the alternative club market. 2021 saw some slightly underwhelming releases from one or two of the current scene's more established names, with new projects taking up the slack in spectacular fashion, repeating the pattern of recent years.
Here then is the first tranche of selections, a personal countdown from 50-41 of the best releases of 2021.
50 Sex Gang Children - Death Mask Mussolini
This year's countdown begins with one of surprisingly few bands from the original early 80's scene to have released new music. Whilst the verse of Death Mask Mussolini might have more of a Gene Loves Jezebel vibe, the chorus sees Andi wailing in more familiar style over an intense, claustrophobic backing, as the song builds to a fabulous crescendo.
49 Abrasive Trees - Without Light
Matthew Roachford's Abrasive Trees project enjoyed a very productive year, and collaborations both artistic and musical with Fields of The Nephilim legend Peter Yates further enhanced the English band's profile. If your favourite track on those 80's goth compilations was The Church's Under The Milky Way, Abrasive Trees are definitely for you, creating mellow soundscapes like Without Light that build slowly and draw the listener in.
48 Double Echo - Melody Saw
Classy, Dubstar-influenced dark pop from Double Echo on their 2021 album, especially on Melody Saw, that begins with one of those hypnotic reverb guitar motifs before launching into a layered synth soundscape over an insistent dancefloor beat. St Etienne meets The Passions.
47 Into Grey – Low
2021 was a quiet year for Jermaine Artis' Into Grey project whose debut EP made our Top 20 last year, but his September release Low, was a welcome return, with the familiar, slightly menacing driving bass, Curtisesque melancholic vocal and incongruously sunny guitar lines all present and correct on a song which showcased his developing song-writing skills, whilst hinting at more to come in 2022.
46 This Eternal Decay - Lights
Pasquale Vico's typically fabulous bassline kickstarts the lead single from the forthcoming long-awaited new album Nocturnae from Italian post-punk supergroup This Eternal Decay. There's a dynamic energy and authenticity about the Rome-based act's songs which lifts them above the genre norm, and the strong chorus on Lights only heightens the sense of anticipation for January's album.
45 1919 - TV Love
Another line-up change for goth veterans 1919 in 2021, but still the same political fire in their belly, although the music continues to mellow somewhat. Tracks like TV Love on their Citizens of Nowhere album showed that they still have the power and energy to create exciting music with the drive and passion of their 80's heyday, although much of the LP had a more commercially appealing slant.
44 Deathtrippers - Burn
Arguably the best current band in Leeds, Deathtrippers saw their earlier EP's released on vinyl earlier in 2021, but as in 2020 their new material was restricted to a contribution to a compilation album, in this case their version of The Sisters of Mercy's Burn for the excellent Honoris II tribute set on Unknown Pleasures. As ever, Deathtrippers create a fantastic post-punk sonic groove and imbue the stark original with layers of trippy fuzz and fog, enhancing it for the twenty-first century alternative dancefloor.
43 Adrenochrome - The Knife
The Oakland supergroup (featuring members of Otzi and Cruz de Navajas) signpost their goth tendencies with their Sisters-referencing name, but the band's high-octave sound is arguably more distorted punk than post-punk, featuring a simple repeated riff and a shouty female vocal of the Brigandage genre.
42 Night Ritual - Eidolon
The lead track from the Philadelphia solo project album's Unbecoming is another deceptively simple delight, a nagging guitar hook again to the fore, with the overall effect not unlike a dancefloor remix of classic Rose of Avalanche.
41 Sweet Ermengarde - Once You Break
There were only two tracks on the comeback EP from the slimmed-down German trad rock giants Sweet Ermengarde, but enhanced by Gordon Young's crisp mastering, they quickly retake their crown as heirs apparent to the Nephilimistic branch of gothdom on the slow-burning, multi-layered bombastic tracks which highlight the emotional pull of straight occult gothic rock some three decades after the genre's apotheosis. The recent announcement of the ever-reliable Drew Freeman as new vocalist means that Sweet Ermengarde are likely to make our Top 10 in 2022 with their new material.
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