The Goth/Post-Punk Revival Blog Top 50 of 2021 - Final part: The Top Ten

The ten artists included in this year’s countdown can be justly proud of their work in 2021 which has been rightly lauded by review sites and fellow musicians across the globe, further extending the once tight musical boundaries of the goth/post-punk scene. Whilst 2021 has seen the release of more incredible archive material (such as The Sisters of Mercy’s and the March Violets' seminal BBC sessions, or the excoriating Red Lorry Yellow Lorry live set) and belated vinyl releases of classic albums of the past decade (La Era Oscura by La Procesion de lo Infinito springs to mind), there is so much incredible new music that these have been excluded from the countdown. Here, then, is the Goth/Post-Punk Revival blog’s Top 10 of 2021.

 

10 Vazum – Haunted House

Rarely does a band come along with a startlingly new take on the gothic genre, but there’s a refreshing originality about Vazum’s instantly recognisable “deathgaze” sound which permeates 2021 album V. Since Emily joined the band the previous year, the signature sound has truly taken shape and the claustrophobic, horror movie creepiness is enhanced by some buzzsaw bass from Emily, Zach’s atonal, often pleasantly discordant but always inventive guitar mush and the highly effective twin male/female vocal assault of a style which has enhanced alternative music since the days of The March Violets.

9 Vlimmer – I.P.A.

Very occasionally, an artist comes along who seems to create sound in an extra dimension, constructing mind-blowing soundscapes that result in a thrilling sensory overload for the listener. Trent Reznor was one such musical genius, The Soft Moon’s Luis Vasquez is another, and Vlimmer’s Alexander Leonard Donat can now be safely added to that list. His Vlimmer project’s debut album, Nebenkorper, after a series of bewilderingly eclectic EP’s, was a stunning showcase of his talent, with I.P.A. the standout track.

8 Whispering Sons – Vision

This Belgian post-punk band is young, original and brave – three words not always associated with bands in the genre. After the success of debut full-length album Image, the five-piece returned in 2021 with a more challenging yet ultimately rewarding set of generally more stripped-back tracks where raw emotion was very much to the fore. Stand-out track Vision has a typically subtle, tight and complex song structure with a wonderfully off-kilter chorus and dramatic climax that recalls the heady musical days of 1981, when angular chord changes and intense endings were ten-a-penny. Having become festival headliners in their native land, the general expectation was that they would work on the more commercial aspects of their sound, but their retreat into more introspective mode is the sign of a band who both believe in themselves and are in it for the long run, and Whispering Sons have proved themselves to be true artists who deserve to be taken seriously.

7 Ground Nero – The Furnace

Ground Nero Mk 1 was one of the most aurally rewarding and exciting new bands of the 2010’s, but the departure of wonderfully charismatic frontman Gwijde Wampers has ushered in a more polished sound with potentially broader appeal with the recruitment of Mark E Moon’s Mark Sayle on vocals. The three singles released in 2021 confirmed that the band’s trademark gothic “wall of sound” is very much in place, with guitarist/keyboardist Nomad still very much to the fore. The Furnace allowed Sayle to showcase a darker vocal perfectly in keeping with the driving power of the musical backing underpinned by bassist Peter P. A new album is promised for 2022 which should see the band scale further heights.

6 Antipole/Kill Shelter – All For Nothing

The album A Haunted Place brought together two of the brightest stars on the post-punk scene in recent years, Antipole’s Karl Morten Dahl and Kill Shelter’s Pete Burns. The synergic effect of the Norwegian’s uniquely uplifting reverb guitar tone and the Scot’s razor-sharp backbeats can be heard in full force on All For Nothing, with other tracks on the album creating a more mellow vibe on one of the most consistently excellent releases of the year where the skip button will remain unused after multiple plays.

5 Stranger and Lovers – Ultra

Another relatively quiet year for Stranger and Lovers, who finally released a significantly expanded vinyl version of their outstanding debut 2019 cassette release, plus one extra new single this year. Ultra, one of the new tracks on the vinyl version of Masochistic Love, emphasised the band’s unique ability to merge the classic 80’s goth sound with a 2020’s club vibe. The Mexican band, who specialise in using authentic vintage instruments combined with cutting edge studio technology, are currently working on their second album, which will surely enhance their growing global reputation as a band who can appeal to hardcore goth rock fans and basement clubbers alike.

4 Black Angel – Serene

The rise and rise of Matt Vowles’ Black Angel project continued unabated in 2021 with a third consecutive killer album entitled Prince of Darkness. Vowles successfully resuscitates the corpse of 80’s goth with a knowing blend of high production values, skilful songwriting and exquisite performances, like The Sisters of Mercy’s chart-friendly Steinman productions of the late 1980’s. Fans of The Mission and The Cult will also enjoy Prince of Darkness as Vowles makes the difficult task of producing consistently high-quality gothic rock seem effortless, on an album which has a cyclical feel. Serene is typically lush, with Corey Landis’ measured vocal multi-tracked over a lilting dark melody that creates a film noir ambiance, drawing the listener in ever closer.

3 Then Comes Silence – Where Do You Go?

As well as releasing a new single When You’re Gone and recording a new album for 2022 release, Then Comes Silence produced the excellent Horsemen project, a series of four simultaneous EPs featuring cover versions of songs originally recorded by everyone from Gene Vincent to Buzz Kull. Inventive, powerful and precise, the covers allow the band to pay their musical dues whilst breathing new life into the originals, and highlight some forgotten classics such of this dark delight originally found on The Shamen’s Drop album. The Horsemen project cements Then Comes Silence’s position as the most original and exciting act of the twenty-first century on the post-punk scene.

2 Actors – Strangers

The sophomore album from Canadian band Actors was simply stunning, a wonderful set of beautifully accomplished dark pop songs which should have massive crossover potential for the mainstream market. With their roots in classic 1980’s pop (most of which had of course originally  evolved from the more avant-garde end of the alternative genre), Actors are sonically a cross between Alphaville and Modern English, with insistent beats and strong melodies carried by Jason’s angelic voice floating perfectly over the top, in the epic pop style of Keane’s Tom Chaplin. With enough of a dark edge to still appeal to post-punk fans but with the grandiloquent sweep beloved of commercial radio, Actors deserve to be huge.

1 Diavol Strâin – El Reflejo de Mi Muerte

Like most of the acts in the Top 10 this year, selecting just one track to showcase here proved to be a real challenge, and in Diavol Strâin’s case this was particularly true, so I’ve gone for two superb examples of their craft. El Reflejo de Mi Muerte and Destino Destruccion both contain all of the elements which makes their sound so utterly compelling – the insistent drum machine backing, Lau’s impassioned, foghorn vocal and driving yet meandering basslines, and the incredibly inventive, wonderfully textured guitar lines from Ignacia who also handles keyboards. The Chilean duo’s utterly modern take on the essential elements of 80’s goth acts ranging from Xmal Deutschland to Killing Joke, and Sonic Youth to Siouxsie and the Banshees is totally compelling, each track taking unexpected twists and turns and taking the listener on a darkly thrilling mystery ride. Whereas earlier releases were sometimes mired in a muddily cacophonous mix, Elegia del Olvido, Elegia del Horror’s notably cleaner lines allow for greater appreciation of their sumptuously layered twenty-first century gothic darkwave genius.

 

Top 50 of 2021 - Part IV: Nos 20 - 11

 Looking at all of the excellent songs and albums already mentioned, it's hard to believe that there a further score of better releases, but 2021 has been that kind of year, with the quality threshold increased yet higher than last year. All of the next ten bands have been on the scene already for several years, but this year took their music to another level, regardless of the sub-genre which they represent.

20 Everlust - Land of Dreams

This track is arguably one of the least original in the whole Top 50 musically, but in terms of songwriting is deserving of its place starting off the Top 20. Owing a lot to noughties' goth rock-lite pioneers like Evanescence and Lacuna Coil, with added All About Eve fey whimsy, Latvian band Everlust deliver a well-constructed and beautifully-layered epic whose main hook remains long in the memory. Already impressive in terms of the song's dynamics and nagging melody, the final section where the vocalist unexpectedly jumps up an octave makes for one of the most thrilling track endings of the year.

19 Lucida Fila - Sinister

The ever so slightly over-the-top goth camp promise of Lucida Fila became reality in 2021 with the release of the solid Screams of The Damned album. Cartoon goth stylings, lyrics and vocals notwithstanding, the album delivered song after song of well-paced trad goth rock, with the Mexicans on particularly fine form on Sinister, which rattled along like a creepy graveyard take on The Passenger.

Bandcamp link

18 Guillotine Dream - Another

UK trad goth act Guillotine Dream released their most polished and consistent album to date in Demigods, based on their signature occult sound of pounding drums, driving bass, cruching guitar riffs and growled vocals. Pomp without the pomposity, Guillotine Dream exemplify the best of modern gothic rock.

17 Ashes Fallen - We Belong Nowhere

Ashes Fallen's 2021 long-player A Fleeting Melody out of a Fading Dream was a significant step forward for the Sacramento act, with stronger melodies, better vocals and improved production and mastering compared to previous efforts, and single We Belong Nowhere was arguably the best Goth/Post-Punk video of the year, combining an epic chorus with a campaigning lyric about the continuing scourge of homelessness. 

16 Byronic Sex & Exile - Unrepentant Thunder

Where to start with UK goth national treasure and one-man scene Joel Heyes, the hearse-driving goth bundle of creative energy whose Byronic Sex & Exile project continues to grow in both quality and popularity. When not embarking on outdoor troubadour treks across the country, running the Goth City festival, raising funds for refugee charities, performing candle-lit live sessions from his Leeds bedsit or recording goth travel guides for his YouTube channel, Heyes has combined a regular 9-5 job with releasing another impressive set of BS&E releases in 2021, from the Yorkshire Gothic EP to a live album, by way of the Unrepentant Thunder album, from which this slow-building title track is taken. Heyes continues to pack more into a year than most manage in an entire career, yet the quality control remains impressively high.

15 A Pale Horse Named Death - Slave To The Master

The undisputed kings of goth metal, A Pale Horse Named Death returned in 2021 with another magisterial album which has rightly garnered rave reviews from rock magazines and websites, although the strangely uplifting melancholy doom and familiar basslines of tracks like Slave To The Master should equally appeal to broader-minded goths, particularly those who followed Sal Abruscato's former band Type O Negative or Alice in Chains, both of whom have clearly influenced the overall AHPND sonic template.

14 Slow Danse With the Dead - Don't Be Like Me, Son

The Alberquerque one-man miserygoth project was as prolific as ever in 2021, releasing a single or EP virtually every month with an increasingly high hit-rate. Tales of despair, anguish, rejection and failure abound in his oeuvre, with the regretful tone of Don't Be Like Me, Son typical of the spartan arrangements and lugubrious vocal delivery for which SDWTD has rightly become famous on the global underground scene.

13 Mark E Moon - Event Horizon

The Isle of Man band (no longer just a duo) released their sophomore album Old Blood on Cold Transmission at the start of the year and subsequently released remixed highlights, as they had done with their debut long-player Refer. Old Blood featured a more refined, homogenous sound which matched their own description of "The Sisters of Mercy meets The Pet Shop Boys". Event Horizon was a great example, with Mark Sayle's warm vocal soaring effortlessly over a lush synth- and sequencer-based soundscape.

12 Ariel Maniki and the Black Halos - Strangers

Costa Rican Ariel Maniki has been a major name on the global scene for many years but raised his profile further in 2021 with the release of the excellent Black Light album. Specialising in Mission/HIM-style light trad goth rock bur with a song palette showcasing greater musical diversity, Maniki's band (including guests from other groups) delivered an excellent set of well-developed songs such as single Strangers on his most accomplished album to date.

11 A Cloud Of Ravens - Tithe and Offerings

Few 2021 releases harnessed the same raw emotion, energy and power as Another Kind of Midnight from Brooklyn duo A Cloud of Ravens, whose guitar-driven dark post-punk has a timeless quality and a classic, epic feel. Slower and more intense than the other tracks on a consistently excellent album, Tithes and Offerings had a stark yet melodic feel and a poetic lyric which drew the listener in.

Top 50 of 2021 Part III: Nos. 30 - 21

There's no place in this year's Top 50 for excellent releases by Ductape, Twin Tribes, Traitrs, Gloom Wizzard, Funeral March of the Marionettes, Esses, Dark, Klammer, Aux Animaux, Vision of the Void, Esses, Who Saw Her Die? and many other deserving projects who have released impressive new music in 2021, such is the breadth and depth of the current goth/post-punk scene. As we reach the middle of the countdown, the focus generally changes from one-off tracks to quality full album releases for the projects featured.

 

30 Noktva - In Deep

Italian band Noktva released one of the most talked-about LPs of the autumn, Like Seven Forgotten Tales, released on Batcave records, with its full-on goth sound with post-punk tinges. In Deep was a driving brooding delight built around a searing guitar drone that added shoegaze vibes to an overall impressive package.

29 Deliverance - The Danger 

Mexico is widely acknowledged as the current world capital of traditional goth rock, with Deliverance MX right at the heart of the movement there. Deliverance's brooding, atmospheric guitar-driven rock on 2021 album A S T R A L features well-crafted songs by Rul Delirio, enhanced on The Danger by the melodic playing of guest guitarist Zac Campbell of The Kentucky Vampires.

28 Anne Marie - Into The Light

Fans of slower, more ethereal gothic balladry will love the mellow debut album by Anne Marie on Swiss Dark Nights. Key track Into The Light's shimmering gossamer guitar strands are reminiscent of vintage Cocteau Twins and form the perfect backing for Anne Marie's warm but distantly echoing vocal.

27 Chronic Twilight - Paradime

Michael Louis' Chronic Twilight project expanded to a duo in 2021 with the addition of vocalist Kyle Andrew for third album Deadlight, with immediately positive results, as can be heard on Paradime, driven as ever by Louis' bass-driven sound, with on this occasion some impressively unpredictable chord changes on a track which is the exception to the straighter goth rock available elsewhere on the album.

26 Future Faces - Halcyon

Swiss band Future Faces followed up the promise of their debut darkwave EP three years ago with inventive and impressively polished debut album Euphoria, which explored broad beat-driven yet intense cinematographic soundscapes, as on Halcyon, which is reminiscent of mid-period Whispering Sons with its insistent backing but with a distant, plaintive male vocal.

25 Sang Froid - Death Came To Me

After a well-received debut EP released at the very start of the year, melancholy French post-punkers Sang Froid returned with the strongly melodic Death Came to Me in October, trailing their forthcoming debut LP in the new year. Death Came To Me builds atmospherically over a solid driving beat and showcases developments in the depth of the band's sound since the earlier EP.

24 Dreamscape - Dreamscape

A one-off track released in aid of charity by the duo of former Sometime The Wolf singer Drew Freeman and Westenra's bassist Dominique, Dreamscape was a wonderfully Nephilimistic treat, with Freeman's instantly recognisable growl dominating a suitably epic slow-burning piece of bombast which built carefully to a multi-layered chorus reminiscent of the Nephs in their early 90's prime.

23 Life Cult - Apparition

More FOTN influenced magick, this time from Australia on Life Cult's debut EP. Apparition chugs along beautifully with an understated crooned vocal over a Lucretia-esque bassline and reverberated arpeggio guitar lines.

22 The Black Capes - The Bride of Frankenstein

Greek trad goth rock The Black Capes did nothing to dispel their trope-filled cartoonish take on the genre with this track recorded for the soundtrack of a horror film remake in their homeland. Alex S Wamp's wonderfully lugubrious de profundis vocal is perfectly offset by some spooky guitar riffs and chilling b-movie bell motifs, with a new album promised for 2022.

Bandcamp link

21 Nox Novacula - Ascension

US melodic deathrock act Nox Novacula garnered great reviews for their Ascension album, with strong melodies, a powerful, slightly folky (at times) female vocal and some great guitar work very much to the fore on this, the title track, which was typical of the overall sound of a very strong album.

 

Top 50 of 2021 - Part II: Nos 40 - 31

 The second section of the Top 50 of 2021 features a host of new names who either appeared on the scene for the first time this year, or who enjoyed a major breakthrough in 2021. Whilst inevitably many of the acts on the goth/post-punk scene have one ear on the sounds of the 1980's and 1990's, artists of the third wave are pushing the sound ever further, taking advantage of the new studio technology available to them and of channels of distribution which weren't around for use by the early pioneers of the genre. Times have therefore changed for fans, too: in the mid-1980's, I would have struggled to track down as many as fifty active bands on the scene in any given year, whereas now the challenge is to narrow the list down to just that number, given the sheer volume of high quality releases worthy of recommendation.

40 Doubts About Waking - Winter's Game

What better way to kick off our second countdown than with a slow-burning trad goth epic, Dutch band Doubts About Waking's sombre Winter's Game. A gravel-throated chorus, quintessential descending bassline, modulating arpeggio-based guitar bursts and melancholy keyboard swirls are all present and correct on a classic of the genre.

39 Cult of Helios - Lost To The Sky

80's goth legend Scott A Campbell's latest project enjoyed its most productive year to late, with a series of single releases including an unlikely but successful goth cover of the theme from James Bond's Skyfall. Lost To The Sky featured his lugubrious croon to full effect, along with the usual Cult of Helios slightly spacey guitar effects, conjuring up aural effects not dissimilar to classic Psychedelic Furs.

38 Years of Denial - Poison Door

The second track from the Honoris II tribute to The Sisters of Mercy album to feature in this countdown, Years of Denial's dark disco take on Poison Door is the perfect template for how to approach another artist's song, keeping the melody and tone of the original whilst transplanting it to a completely different genre. In this case, Years of Denial have transposed it into a dark electro dancefloor banger that would not be out of place in the seediest of Berlin basement dives.

37 Kaelan Mikla - Svort Augu

Having mentally pre-allocated a new Kaelan Mikla album an automatic place in this year's top ten, based on the outstanding quality of their previous, very diverse albums, it was something of a disappointment to find the new release filled with relatively bland dark pop which will no doubt,  however, help to develop their career. Svort Augu was a wonderful exception, an eerie delight where the sense of mystery and menace which pervaded their earlier records was again prevalent.

36 Suffering For Kisses - To Kiss The Stars

SFK is another project which has featured regularly in this countdown in recent years, and although Seattle based musician Tony D'Oporto enjoyed a relatively quiet 2021, the release of latest EP Love and Demise featured a couple of new tracks, including To Kiss The Stars, which contained the usual deadpan vocal and downbeat melody associated with the miserygoth subgenre, but with a slightly fuller production than some of the earlier releases.

35 Animal Rojo - No Second Part

Just the one new track this year too from Guadalajara's Animal Rojo, but what they lacked in quantity they more than made up for in quality, with a stellar video for No Second Part filmed in the brilliant sunshine of the Mexican desert to accompany a scuzzy biker goth rocker of a song with legendary frontman Carolus Cat Noir's idiosyncratic vocal leading the way as ever.

34 Neonpocalypse - The Light

The Light was the first track teased by Alex Svenson for the forthcoming six-track EP from his new Neonpocalypse side project. The Then Comes Silence frontman retains his ear for a great tune and a subtle understanding of dynamics, but trades in his usual twin guitar approach for a synth dominated retro-futurist sound redolent of the early 80's heyday when DAF/Fad Gadget/Depeche Mode and others ruled the alternative dancefloor.

33 Mirror of Haze - Drifting Into the Void

Lie back and bathe in the sumptuous production of Mirror of Haze's FX-drenched modern classic Drifting Into The Void. With a very strong early 90's French coldwave vibe (with the vocal and instrumentation following the same key melody), the Norwegian project conjures up a wonderfully full and melodic sound, with gothgaze undertones on the lead track from one of the best albums of last winter.

32 The Raudive - Colours

The final track from Honoris II to feature in this year's Top 50, The Raudive's take on The Sisterhood's Colours is a wonderful revision and extension of what was merely an Eldritch sketch originally, but here transformed into a full work of art which enhances the power of the original.

Bandcamp link

31 October Noir - Serendipity

Since Fields of The Nephilim shamelessly stole the blueprint for The Sisters of Mercy's sound and look for Dawnrazor, there has been an ignoble tradition for bands who tread rather too close to another project's unique output. But if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then October Noir deserve credit for creating new music which seems to be entirely based on the creative genius of Type O Negative. Their 2021 album Fate, Wine and Wisteria is a fantastic recreation of the drab four's sound, with a slew of well-executed and carefully-constructed songs like Serendipity.

Top 50 of 2021 - Part 1: Numbers 50 - 41

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.

The best new Goth/Post-Punk Releases of November 2021

November, the month of mists and decay, always brings a bountiful harvest of new releases hoping to avoid being lost in the pre-Christmas rush and instead be uppermost in reviewers’ minds when selecting the year’s highlights, and this year has been no exception. In addition to the welcome official release of a fabulous Red Lorry Yellow Lorry live set from 1985 and a more recent gig recording by fellow Leeds act Salvation, the global underground dark music scene continues to flourish in its various sub-genres, and this month’s selections (largely by well-established acts) represent another eclectic mix of talents, all worthy of future exploration.

1)      Reptyle - Timeworn

The Bielefeld goth rock band are back with a new album and a new singer whose range and tone is pleasingly similar to The Cascades’ M W Wild. The overall vibe is of a more tuneful Fields of the Nephilim, with familiar arpeggioed guitar sounds dominating a multi-layered trad goth rock effect.

2)      Vampyrean - Blood Countess

The new album from ex Nosferatu main man Vlad Janicek does what it says on the tin, with the project name and song titles a clear indication of the vampire goth rock within. No major surprises, but tracks like Blood Countess are simply professionally done if somewhat derivative trad goth.

3)     The Necromancers Union - Crossing The Line

Matt Vowles’ Black Angel project has brought Cult-influenced light goth metal back to the fore, and The Necromancers Union plough a similar if rockier furrow on their new release.  They specialise in powerful 80's/90's goth rock that's well-played and well-produced, with Crossing The Line a prime example.

4)      Rhombus – You Depend On You

One of the most reliable acts on the UK goth scene over the past decade, Rhombus stick with the tried and trusted alternating male/female vocal style on their classic 90’s gothic rock sound, with shades of the slightly off-kilter passages beloved of late 80’s US act Caterwaul. Bandcamp link

5)      Temple - Ritual 

From Portland, Oregon come Temple, playing a new wave deathrock that combines the energy and drive of punk with some angular riffage and tribal bass and drumming on Ritual for a powerful overall effect on their new release on the always reliable Swiss Dark Nights label.

6)      Lucida Fila – Stigmata

After the Iggyesque The Passenger dark groove of previous single Sinister, Mexican trad goth act Lucida Fila are back with another track from their excellent Screams of the Damned album, the more lyrical Stigmata, filmed in the Real Under, again showcasing their guitars/synth/over-the-top baritone/bass/drums line-up to full effect.

7)      Diavol Strain - Herz der Niemand

Trailing the excellent new album finally released at the end of the month, Diavol Strain rock their more restrained, Xmal Deutschland-influenced sound on the stunning yet disturbing video for Herz der Niemand, featuring guitarist Ignacia Strain’s wonderfully inventive guitar work alongside Lau’s chugging bass and foghorn vocal.

8)      Dolorio & los Tunantes – Cara & Sello

The first album for five years from the eclectic Chilean band features a suitably bewildering variety of styles, as on lead track Cara y Sello which features an almost funky Magazine backing with added slaloming deathrock guitar, with an alternative arthouse refreshingly gothic trope-free chic reminiscent of les Rita Mitsouko.

9)      Black Veils - See You At My Funeral 

This Italian band play an intense driving style of post-punk that is typical of their nation’s current act, and the echoing death rock guitar on See You At My Funeral adds an extra dimension to what could otherwise be a somewhat generic sound.

10)   Noktva – In Deep

Italian band Noktva have arrived with a splash thanks to a fantastic guitar sound on their breakthrough album, with the pulsating beat of the lead post-punk track In Deep rattling along with the power and energy of Modern English’s 16 Days.

11)   Shadowhouse - Nowhere To Run

Shadowhouse is a Portland Oregon based post-punk act who construct a wonderfully-layered sound which has echoes of the melodic intensity of 80’s legends The Chameleons, with a soaring, chiming guitar sound pushing songs like Nowhere To Run ever forward.

12)   Smurno – Sklo

Sierpien Records have a great reputation for unearthing impressive new (to western ears) post-punk projects, and their release this month of the debut EP from Ukrainian band Smurno (originally released earlier this year) is a typically enticing example

13)   7 Rainbows In Exile – What Dreams Are Made For

From Serbia comes 7 Rainbows In Exile, another post-punk project which harks back to the reverberating brilliance of bands like The Sound and Comsat Angels, with simple but powerfully effective guitar lines, no-nonsense eight-to-the-bar basslines and distant vocals combining to impressive effect on an album (Twilight Gymnastics) released by Brazilian label Wave Records.

14)   Klammer - Broken Dreams In A Crashing Car 

The Leeds post-punk band are back with a new single on a new label, but with their Gang Of Four influenced syncopated instincts intact The chorus’ straighter new wave guitar lines are a pleasing counterpoint to the jerkier verse on Broken Dreams In A Crashing Car from a band which never fails to impress.

15)   SDWTD - Black and Blue

Black and Blue, the latest offering from the New Mexico based miserygoth project has a Cure-esque gloomy yet up-tempo intro before broadening out into a potentially more positive vibe thanks to a somewhat unlikely xylophone solo, although the customary deadpan vocal brings the usual sense of impending melancholy which the growing legion of SDWTD fans.

16)   Aux Animaux - Haunted 

Haunted is a particularly apposite title for this excellent slice of synth-based spookwave from Stockholm based solo act Aux Animaux. Over a well-crafted swirlingly atmospheric backdrop, a plaintive guitar riff accompanies a breathy, ethereal female vocal to create a dancefloor filling triphop delight with a suitably chilling accompanying video.

17)   Anne Marie - Into The Light

There’s every chance that Anne Marie’s excellent album Illusion States will be largely overlooked, partly because of an uninspiringly sketchy album sleeve that gives no clue as to its contents, but also because of an artist name for which several others are already well-known, on the goth as much as on the mainstream scene. Which is a real pity, as Into The Light demonstrates, a beautifully sculpted ethereal treat which features spangly Cocteau Twins guitar arpeggios and vocals before bursting into a spacier chorus. Another great Swiss Dark Nights discovery.

18)   Aspect Noir - Malefactor 

Yet another Swiss Dark Nights artist, Aspect Noir could not be more different from Anne Marie despite also featuring female vocals. There’s a rudimentary low-fi appeal to their Kas Product-style goth punk on Malefactor, featuring simple guitar and vocals in unison throughout in a song whose raw energy offers something different from the scene norms.

19)   Velvet Vega – My Desire

This is getting embarrassing, yet another Swiss Dark Nights treat. My Desire is a full-on 90’s-style dark disco classic, an electrogoth stomper in the style of Dark’s Nightmare crossed with the brilliant cover of The Sisters of Mercy’s Poison Door by Years of Denial on the recent tribute album on Unknown Pleasures.

20)   Ghastly Shadows – We Belong To The Night

Staying in the world of the alternative club scene, Ghastly Shadows’ We Belong To The Night has probably the most nagging, catchiest earwork of an opening classic 80’s synth riff you’ll hear this year, with the John’s breathy, spoken vocal the perfect complement to the metronomic beats and sequenced synths.

Bonus selection:   Loop - Halo  

Loop were an incredible breath of fresh air in the mid/late 80’s when the goth scene’s rich creative seam seemed to have reached an end, along with the likes of Spacemen 3, with a thematic introspection and guitar-based musical heritage that appealed to the similarly long-haired black-clad goth audience, and their influence on scenes as varied as shoegaze and grunge cannot be overestimated. This month’s comeback single Halo is not a million miles removed from dark-psych drone-based pedal-drenched classics like Collision, and although like many of the releases featured here (in this most eclectic of months for new music) not falling strictly speaking within the formal genres normally covered by this blog, will nevertheless still appeal to many fans of the current scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Review - Horsemen EP's, Then Comes Silence

 David Bowie’s Pin Ups…Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Through The Looking Glass… Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ Kicking Against the Pricks… to these legendary albums of cover versions can now be added Then Comes Silence’s Horsemen project, which cements their position as the pre-eminent twenty-first century goth/post-punk band.

A natural extension of the band’s lockdown covers, which did so much to keep alternative music fans’ spirits high during the pandemic, the Horsemen project is a suite of four EPs containing seventeen tracks in all, appropriately named after the biblical Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse.

The breadth of songs covered – from Gene Vincent’s Be Bop a Lula to She Past Away’s Katarsis via obscure tracks by the likes of The Shamen and Motörhead – hints at the Swedish band’s equally broad potential appeal beyond the narrow confines of the goth/post-punk scene, and also reveals a band well aware of its place in the alternative rock pantheon, paying its respects to those who have gone before and influenced them.

Although Then Comes Silence’s fan base has steadily increased over the course of their five critically-acclaimed albums to date, only the 2020 release, Machine, featured current guitarists Hugo Zombie and Mattias Ruejas Jonson, and the Horsemen project gave the band the opportunity to gel further as a project before undertaking their next LP.

Recorded in their own studio, the four EPs of the Horsemen side project are available in digital-only format, each featuring its own distinctive artwork and theme.

Pestilence

The first EP, Pestilence, opens with what band leader Alex Svenson has admitted was the most difficult to perfect of all the arrangements in the project, Echo and the Bunnymen’s The Killing Moon. The singer and bassist need not have worried, however, as Then Comes Silence’s version is more muscular, powerful and dramatic than the original, the combination of Svenson’s smooth, suave and sophisticated vocal and the Bunnymen’s epic chorus lending the track a James Bond-theme intensity. But this project is not just an A-Z of 1980’s post-punk royalty, as the next track amply demonstrates. It may have been written within the last five years, but Buzz Kull’s We Were Lovers has an earworm quality that effortlessly bridges four decades, particularly in Then Comes Silence’s capable hands. Hugo Zombie’s inventive reworking of John McGeoch’s genial playing on Siouxsie and the Banshees schizophrenic tale Christine will already be familiar to fans as the song was one of the band’s original lockdown covers, but the new version on Pestilence is both sharper and more focused. The final track on the first Horsemen EP, the Kinks’ Rainy Day In June, has been described by Svenson as summing up the whole project, the lyric an excellent metaphor for the lengthy global lockdown, and Then Comes Silence subtly update Ray Davies’ original without losing its wistfully melancholic vibe.

War

Of the four EP’s released under the Horsemen moniker, War is probably the least immediate, despite the presence of a very polished cover of Dance With Me, originally a minor hit in 1983 for goth supergroup The Lords of the New Church, a band which had an influence both musically and visually on Then Comes Silence. The band also takes on another of the genre’s sacred cows, The Sisters of Mercy’s Body Electric, drawing parallels in the introduction with the Swedes’ own biggest hit to date, Strangers, with Jonas Fransson’s crisp drumming a reminder of how TSOM might have sounded if Andrew Eldritch hadn’t hung up his sticks and invested in a drum machine. The other two tracks on War have the distinctively funky, offbeat angular vibe of early 1980’s new wave, with Fear of Glass (originally by fellow Swedes Cortex) and Grace Jones’ breathless Living My Life both maintaining the high tempo angst of this particular EP, bringing to mind the claustrophobic genius of vintage Talking Heads.

Famine

The third EP, Famine, is arguably the best of the four, not only because of the presence of an extra track but because on all five songs, the band manages to improve on the original, which Svenson acknowledges is the primary aim of any cover version. The minor key modulations in the chorus of Depeche Mode’s miserabilist anthem Shake The Disease have always been ripe for a gothic rock cover version, and TCS deliver the definitive account, replacing the original’s limp synths with light yet powerful layers of guitar. Dead Kennedy’s Moon Over Marin has a much simpler song structure, but Hugo’s skilful arrangement means that it doesn’t seem out of place, whilst retaining its message and momentum. The stunning cover of Be Bop A Lula is up next, distorted and reimagined in finest Cramps style, with Alex Svenson channelling his finest “goth Elvis” (to quote one YouTuber) for the unhinged vocal. From the ridiculous to the sublime for the final two tracks on Famine, superlative versions of two lesser known songs beloved of fans of the darkside, The Damned’s wah-wahed up goth’n’roll masterpiece Thrill Kill (from 2001’s Grave Disorder) and Where Do You Go?, a criminally ignored dark psych pop wonder from The Shamen’s Drop album (before they discovered techno). Svenson’s velvety baritone vocal is perfect for what is arguably the straightest and most reverential reworking of all the songs on the Horsemen project, and a track which (like Hallelujah and Perfect Day) deserves to finally reach a wider public thanks to a cover version.

Death

Like Famine, the final EP, Death, also starts with a guitar band reworking of a synth based classic, Belgian EBM legends Front 242’s Don’t Crash. The Horsemen version removes the jarring jerkiness of original, with the middle section sung by Aux Animaux’ Gözde Duzer. With the original lyric written by a woman (Valerie Steele), Svenson felt that it was only appropriate that a female vocal should feature on the new version. Current scene darlings She Past Away were originally well-known for only singing only in their native Turkish, but the Horsemen reworking of one of their best-known songs Katarsis features a stark vocal in English from Svenson, who worked on the new translation with Duzer (which was approved of by the original authors), and the new version again demonstrates the sheer quality of the music in the current scene, which may yet eclipse that of the original wave. Again. like Famine, Death ends with two sensational reworkings, beginning with Jimi Hendrix’s I Don’t Live Today (which is sadly unavailable in the US for copyright reasons). The stunning arrangement shows the wonderful synergy of the TCS twin guitarists to full effect, with the dark lyric highlighted by Svenson’s own stellar performance. Saving the best until last, Motörhead’s spine-chillingly experimental Nightmare/The Dreamtime (from the Battle Of The Somme-inspired album 1916) brings this extensive study in the art of the cover to an exquisitely epic and unexpected close, the slow power of the original harnessed to maximal effect in another sumptuous arrangement which enables modern studio technology to reveal additional layers of depth to one of Lemmy’s finest (if least well-known) songs.

In the art world, the Old Masters would refine their craft by experimenting with textures and techniques in reconstructing some of the greatest paintings by their predecessors. With the Horsemen project, Then Comes Silence have not only taken their own sound to another level by honing their craft in this way, they have redefined the future vision of the whole goth/post-punk genre, bringing together strands of the past and the present of the alternative musical genre from the rock’n’roll rebels of the 1950’s to the leading lights of today’s scene in a wholly successful project.

The Horsemen EP’s are digitally available via Metropolis Records (USA) and HaHa Fonogram (rest of the world). They can be found on all the usual digital platforms (Spotify etc) and streamed on the customary "try before you buy" basis on Bandcamp.