2022 has begun with a bang, with a plethora of new and more
established artists unleashing new material around the turn of the year. The relative
uniformity of 2021’s Best Of … lists showed the increasing importance of
quality song-writing in the crowded goth/post-punk/darkwave marketplace, a
trend that seems sure to continue this year, judging by the best releases of late
December and January which are featured in this countdown. With the gradual
retreat of the global Omicron wave, and with ever-increasing vaccination levels
leading to hopes that 2022 will ultimately be less affected by mass gig
cancellations than the previous two years, despite a similar start, the future
is looking more promising for the worldwide gothic/darkwave scene, with new releases from Finland to Columbia and from Russia to Germany. This first round-up of 2022 features a couple of exciting and unlikely new pairings of major players from the current goth hierarchy, as well as new music from established artists from across the genre, from coldwave to trad goth rock.
1. Neonpocalypse – Broken Circles
Having risen to the top of the guitar-based goth scene with his band Then Comes Silence, Alex Svenson has this month conquered the synth-based genre with the release of his first-ever solo record, -ISH, under the name Neonpocalypse. Unashamedly retro in feel, yet using the best in cutting edge technology, the vintage synth swirls, plinks and plonks are a perfect side dish for Svenson’s velvety baritone croon, with lead track Broken Circles (which also features on the “-ISH” EP) remixed by Italian darkwave leading lights Ash Code) featuring a strong Fad Gadget/Fashiøn vibe for the most part, although the unexpectedly portentous instrumental coda is more reminiscent of Tubeway Army.
2. The Black Capes - Apokalypsis
After two solid albums of traditional gothic rock, Greek band The Black Capes return with teaser tracks for their March LP Looks Like Death, showcasing a subtler but equally powerful approach than on their previous releases on tracks like album opener Apokalypsis. Whilst there remains a strong Nephilim influence, additional elements such as a muted trumpet, and occasional piano flourishes enhance the overall sound, adding extra dimensions. Bandcamp link to Apokalypsis.
Video for one of the other featured tracks, The Rejects' Anthem:
3. This Eternal Decay – Death Doesn’t Lie
Death Doesn’t Lie is the title track from the Romans’ excellent third album Nocturnae, released in the first week of 2022, and it’s dark driving synthwave is typical of the band’s full-blooded approach. Whilst there is still an undeniable prevalence of a keyboard-based dancefloor oriented vibe, Pasquale Vico’s strong bassline and Alessandro Schiavi’s reverb guitar add extra levels to what can be a very one-dimensional sound in the hands of lesser projects.
4. Black Angel – All Or Nothing
There is no-one on the current scene who can seemingly effortlessly produce album after album of high-quality, fresh-sounding, The Cult-influenced gothic rock like Black Angel can, stuffed with ear-worm riffs and an undercurrent of uber cool film noir intrigue. The first two singles teased from 2022’s forthcoming fourth LP The Black Rose, Breathe and All Or Nothing live up to the high standards of the previous three albums. Had they been around in the late 1980’s, Black Angel would deservedly have been filling stadia around the world.
5. Slow Danse With The Dead – The Candle Burns Away
More lugubrious heavy synth melancholy on the latest single by Albuquerque-based SDWTD. The Candle Burns Away begins with a lengthy, repetitive instrumental section that establishes a suitably funereal atmosphere before Johnny Ray Montoya’s deadpan baritone adds an extra layer of angst to another excellent example of the miserygoth sub-genre.
6. Suffering For Kisses – Monsters
This month saw the first new song for a while from Seattle’s Suffering For Kisses. Monsters follows his usual minimalist template, with a memorable if depressive, miserabilist baritone vocal over a simple descending bassline and driving backbeat, fleshed out on this occasion with brassy keyboard flourishes.
7. Stella Sleeps - Avalanche
Swedish band Stella Sleeps operate in the same up-tempo dark pop coldwave area as bands like Actors or the late-lamented Holygram, and their strong sense of melody and wistful ambiance should appeal to aficianados of classic songwriting at the lighter end of the genre. The descending bassline and mournful guitar on Avalanche (last March’s debut single which is one of the pre-release tracks on next month’s Anemic City album) lend an effective counterpoint to a more positive vocal on a very promising release.
8. Je T’aime – Another Day In Hell
French act Je T’aime have previously been hailed as their nation’s “saviours of post-punk”, and lead track Another Day In Hell from forthcoming Icy Cold Records release Passive announced this month is a confident piece of guitar-driven dark pop which tingles and soars to the same registers as colonised by Actors on Acts of Worship, retaining sufficient edge to remain intriguing. Highly promising.
9. Datura – Phantasma
Phantasma is the strongest of the tracks pre-released from Datura’s Arcano Chemical album which is about to be released on Californian record label Sell the Heart (and via Bat-Cave Productions in Europe). Jerky yet melodic guitar-based post-punk, Phantasma refines the band’s signature sound which first rose to prominence with 2020’s Bury Me.
10. Vacuum – Castigo y Silencio
Not content with providing the mind-blowing guitar fog that made Diavol Strâin’s album the number one release of 2021 in our end-of-year round up, Ignacia Strâin plays bass and keyboards on the debut album from her other project, Vacuum, another duo in which she teams up this time with Danko Stillborn, who herself played keyboards at Diavol Strain’s album launch party towards the end of last year. Stillborn’s vocals are more subdued and anguished than Lau M’s, but otherwise the drum machine driven sound is very similar to that of Diavol Strâin, with an emphasis on occasionally cacophonous interplay between bass and guitar.
11. Motuvius Rex – Sermo Vulgaris
One of the most innovative and eclectic gothic releases of the past few years, the debut set from Motuvius Rex (Kentucky Vampires bassist Shahn Rigsby) gets a well-deserved physical release in this extended version, which includes a re-recording of Sermo Vulgaris with vocals from another of the past decade’s most under-rated acts, Colombia’s La Procesion de Lo Infinito. Containing elements of darkgaze and folk noir as well as more traditional gothic rock, In Club Records’ release of Crescent Moon Magus should continue the word-of-mouth slow-burning critical success of Motuvius Rex.
12. Leonora Post Punk – Luna
As a Christmas gift to fans, Mexican gothic darkwave act Leonora Post-Punk released a new four track EP including 2021 single Polvo and this version of Luna, typical pieces of detuned doomer post-punk that has garnered them fans across the world, as the 1.2 million YouTube hits for 2020 song Eternos will testify, further evidence that Latin America remains the continent where the goth heartbeat is currently at its strongest.
13. Rope Sect – Proskynesis
Releasing a new EP in mid-December might not always be the best marketing move, but Rope Sect’s Proskynesis has already sold out in CD format amongst rave reviews for its unique take on classic gothic rock, with clean, folky vocals over a heavy foreboding yet beautiful melodies that give their complex songs a timeless feel.
14. Vazum – Gallows
Having established themselves as major players on the goth scene in 2021, Vazum raise the ante in 2022 with hypnotic new single Gallows. Emily Sturm’s ethereal vocal and waltzing, spidery basslines lends the track a Cocteau Twins vibe in its initial section, whilst Zach Pliska’s more restrained, less pedal-heavy, tense-as-tripwire guitar wizardry ensures that the overall sound retains an air of underlying creepy menace, much like the thrillingly dark 1979 Siouxsie and the Banshees singles The Staircase (Mystery) and Playground Twist.
15. 1919 - Satellite Man
If 1919’s last album, Citizens of Nowhere, saw the
band mellowing musically whilst retaining their polemical lyrics, Christmas
giveway demo EP Satellite saw a stunning, snarling return to musical
form, channelling the spirit of classic 80’s Yorkshire post-punk bands like The
Three Johns, Gang of Four and The Expelaires. Bandcamp link to Satellite Man
16. Who Saw Her Die? - Play Dead
The second Louisville (Kentucky) act in this countdown, Who
Saw Her Die? released a stunning series of musically varied EPs towards the end
of 2021, culminating in December’s The Winter EP. Lead track Play
Dead continued the project’s upwards trajectory, with a strong chorus,
memorable guitar and synth riff and classic 1980’s dark pop stylings.
17. Deathhawk - Светобоязнь
Described on their Bandcamp page as “a young and active deathrock band from the city of St Petersburg (Russia)”, Deathhawk play thrilling, energetic, doom-laden angular deathrock that owes as much to The Dead Kennedys as it does to Christian Death on tracks like Светобоязнь, the title track of their December EP. Being a little rough around the edges production-wise only adds to the power and drama of a track which creates a suitably spooky vibe.
18. Jyrki 69 feat Rosetta Stone – Dreamtime
It transpires that 69 Eyes singer Jyrki’s cover of White Rabbit, featuring Billy Idol sidekick Steve Stevens on guitar which featured in one of our rundowns last year, was the precursor of an album of collaborations for the Finnish legend, American Vampire, which sneaked out at the end of last year. Pick of the tracks is easily Dreamtime, which marries Jyrki’s almost cartoonish drawling gothic profundo delivery with Porl King’s legendary eight-to-the-bar bass, sparkling, jangling guitar lines and synth swathes which have made Miserylab and Rosetta Stone releases such comforting companions over the past two decades.
19. Vlimmer – Erdgeruch
Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, Alexander Leonard Donat returns with another strong new single Erdgeruch which is very much in the style of his critically-acclaimed 2021 album Nebenkörper, with a complex, claustrophobically breathless synth-based backing and a multi-tracked angst-ridden other-worldly vocal. The release also features a cover of Muse’s Space Dementia, an entirely appropriate choice as like Matt Bellamy, Donat is a genre-defying ground-breaking musical visionary.
20. Sweet Ermengarde – Standing By The Sea
Possibly the most exciting news in the past few years for fans of trad goth rock was the revelation that All My Thorns (and former Sometime The Wolf) singer Drew Freeman is to join forces with German project Sweet Ermengarde, thereby uniting the current singer whose vocal style most resembles Carl McCoy with a band which builds very firmly on the foundations of the guitar sound of The Fields of The Nephilim. The first fruits of the collaboration can be heard on this excellent cover version of Husker Du's Standing By The Sea (a track originally featured on Zen Arcade).
