May 2022 saw the Cruel World festival take place in California, certainly the greatest gathering of the alternative tribe this decade and arguably one of the strongest line-ups this millennium of bands from the original wave, with Bauhaus stealing the show with a stellar performance. The month also sadly saw the loss of some leading musicians of the genre, such as Depeche Mode’s Andy Fletcher and Cathal Coughlan of Fatima Mansions fame. In terms of new music, it was a particularly bountiful month for new releases in Europe, with most of this month’s top twenty new releases hailing from “the Old Continent”, and primarily from nations such as Italy, Poland, Sweden, Germany and France, where the alternative scene remains strong.
1. Kill Shelter ft Agent Side Grinder – The Necklace
Edinburgh darkwave project Kill Shelter shot to the
forefront of the current scene with debut album Damage in 2018, allying
a strong set of songs which combined both the dark electro dancefloor trend
with more traditional descending bassline guitar-based goth, with a stellar
cast of guest vocalists from the current scene. Teaser single The Necklace
from forthcoming album Asylum further refines Pete Burns’ musical vision, allying
his own dark, syncopated rhythms with dystopian, distant vocals from Sweden’s
Agent Side Grinder.
2. Then Comes Silence – Chain
The second single pre-released from July’s sixth album Hunger sees Swedish post-punk giants at their most creative whilst retaining their essential drive and melody. Chain, which features Karolina Engdahl from True Moon on backing vocals, begins with a galloping whirlwind of a riff which brings to mind The Dead Cry For No-One from their breakthrough album Blood, but also features some fascinating modulations and dynamic switch-ups on a track which will only further whet appetites for one of the most eagerly-anticipated albums of the year.
3. JE T’AIME – Kiss The Boys (and make them DIE)
Then Comes Silence mainman Alex Svenson also guests on one
of the tracks on a new stand-alone single (with profits going to the Red Cross
Ukraine appeal) from the French saviours
of post-punk, JE T’AIME, who had already in 2022 released arguably the
strongest contender so far for Album of the Year in Passive. Kiss The
Boys features all the same features which made the album such a delight,
strong high-pitched Cure-esque vocals from dBoy, jangly gaze guitars, wonky
sequenced electro dancefloor riffs and an overall ambiance of effortless off-kilter
dark pop cool that fans of bands like Actors will appreciate.
4. The Doctors - Modern
Classic French post-punk from Bordeaux act The Doctors, with
a driving bass backbeat, genius string-bending deathrock guitar in the style of
Der Himmel uber Berlin (is there any higher praise?), and a spoken word vocal on Modern, the title
track from the band’s first new album for six years. “Tout à
fait mortel” is not only the key lyric, but a great one-line summary of this
loud and in-your-face, killer track on a typically excellent Icy Cold release.
5. Cabaret Grey - Cold Calculations
The opening of Cold Calculations by Poland’s Cabaret
Grey takes me right back to the early 1980’s, when The Cure’s A Forest
and the latest 4AD releases were all the rage. A simple backbeat, a busy guitar
and bass backing and a strong female vocal recall the ambiance of that
wonderful debut Second Still album of 2017. Classy driving coldwave post-punk
at its best, Cabaret Grey’s wonderful new LP also features the three excellent
tracks from 2018’s sold out Freezing Point EP.
6. Tasen Tea Party – Fiction Turned Real
The prolific Norwegian act has released a plethora of tracks
recently, all within the coldwave genre, of which Fiction Turned Real is
arguably the most dynamic. Distant reverb guitar, atmospheric keyboards and
low-key vocals all contribute to a powerful third generation post-punk vibe.
7. Ghosting – The Order of Things
Ghosting, like London After Midnight and Suspiria, are
synonymous with the slightly camp cheesy dark disco branch of goth which
sustained the genre in clubs in the latter part of the second generation. Who
amongst us hasn’t sucked their cheeks in and strutted slowly around the
dimly-lit sticky dancefloor of a provincial basement dives to the earworm
delights of The Lion King? Sascha Tayefeh continues his comeback with a
new track which doesn’t stray far from that original blueprint, and although The
Order of Things doesn’t quite have the same epic chorus as some of his
earlier classics, the original dark dancefloor vibe survives intact.
8. IC2 – Bad Moon Light
The one-man Italian project from Italy is back with an
excellent EP which fuses the miserable cool of French coldwave crossed with a
more tribal backing more reminiscent of a mellow Killing Joke. Title track Bad
Moon Light canters along energetically with a strong hook and a
well-developed sense of dynamics.
9. Gallows’ Eve – Death Magic
The Red Lorry Yellow Lorry reminiscent intro to Death
Magic gets Malmo goth rock combo Gallows’ Eve’s new Five Hexes EP off to a very
strong start, and the trad goth vibe continues on the remainder of not only the
opening track but the release as a whole. The languid vocal and driving chorus
has the controlled power and brooding melancholy of early 90’s bands like The
Catherine Wheel.
10. Bells of Soul – Your Name in the Sky (single remix)
The Brazilian act’s latest release has a spooky intro motif
which re-appears through this somewhat unsettling song, a sparse arrangement
and a meandering vocal adding to the b-movie vibe of a song which in an earlier
form featured on Bells of Souls’ debut album in 2005.
11. Yakutian Cult – Downpour
Rough and ready deathrock punk from Poland that rumbles
along in a vaguely menacing manner. Their Bandcamp strapline “gloomy people who
make gloomy music for other gloomy people” is a perfect description of their stark
sound, which features barked vocals over a distorted guitar and burbling bass backing,
a metronomic beat propelling the song ever onwards.
12. Air Midnight – Dance of the Vampires
More gloomy goth rock from Poland, this time with more trad
goth rock vibes, with a baritone vocal intoning a tale of the “dance of the
vampires at the masquerade”, one of the most derivative lyrics I’ve heard this
year (and there has been plenty of competition). This track, and others
including previous single Rise from the Grave (are you spotting a theme
here?) are compiled on a new five-track from Air Midnight which is now
available to pre-order.
13. Cemetary Girlz – Eternal Night
Great occult goth guitars dominant the lush dark soundscape
of the great new single from Parisian goth trio Cemetary Girlz. The haunted
house claustrophobia of first-generation goth pioneers UK Decay combines with
the gloomgaze deathrock of contemporary acts like Vazum on the seven minute
epic Eternal Night, the first track to be released from this Autumn’s LP
L’envol du Corbeau (“The Crow’s Flight”).
14. Lords of the Northern Sky – Selene
The latest of a regular series of single releases, Selene
combines the one-man Scottish project’s usual unashamedly retro atmospheric gothic
rock with a more uplifting pop sensibility, giving the new release more of a
Bunnymen vibe at times.
15. Bleakness – Dancing with Darkness
The teaser track from the Lyon (France) band’s forthcoming
album Life At A Standstill is a cracking slab of grungy gothic punk
metal, with an energy not unlike that of The Wraith. Whilst some goths’ coping
mechanism is to withdraw into moody introspection, others man the barricades
with polemical fury, and Dancing with Darkness places Bleakness firmly
in the latter category.
16. Rammstein – Schwarz
I hesitated before including Rammstein in this month's round-up, as they are widely considered to be more metal than goth, but their latest album Zeit will surely once again be the biggest-selling goth-related album of the year, and musically-speaking, they feature here on merit. Despite the occasional frat boy lyrics, puerile videos and live show pyrotechnics, underneath the schlock horror Rammstein have delivered another varied but impressive album of dark, doom-laden gothic metal, of which Schwarz is arguably the most interesting track to the wider gothic community. As might be expected from the title, Schwarz is an ode to nyctophilian melancholy, with a suitably slow-burning epic gothic chorus, with Till Lindemann's trademark distinctive vocal delivery adding significantly to the overall impression.
17. Christian Death – The Warning
The legendary West Coast death rock band’s latest album Season
of Mist dropped this month, with The Warning the latest single from it.
After a spookily chilling intro made all the more shocking by the Jimmy Saville
footage in the video, the song veers through an impressive range of styles from
full-on Manson/Ministry neo-industrial goth metal to more subtle, almost ambient
passages.
18. Red Moon Macabre – Ages
The latest single from Renzo Tellez’s one-man project is
another powerful piece of doomy trad goth rock. A lolloping bass line, great
guitar lines and a strong, deep echoing vocal intoning a tale of “paradise
lost” make this a real treat for fans of occult gothic rock.
19. Attic Frost – Happy Faces
Hailing from Bremen in northern Germany, “DIY-goth-wave” act
Attic Frost create a real impression on Happy Faces, the lead track from
new album A New Kind of Hopelessness which features an echoing vocal
amongst an ambiance of melancholy claustrophobia, with the kind of disquieting
soundscape twists and turns that fans of The Soft Moon and Vlimmer will
probably enjoy.
20. The Low Room - Nevermore
Formed by former members of the trad goth UK act The Hearse,
who put out an excellent debut album on Oskar Terramortis’ Gothic Rock records
in the mid-2010’s, The Low Room released their debut track Nevermore right at
the end of the month. Fans of The Hearse will recognise the song as a different version of the closing track from that band's album, with the band’s guitar-based 90’s style Nephilimistic no-nonsense gothic rock sound slightly beefed up on a song building superbly
through an extended opening sequence.
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