Since the compilation of the annual Best of Lists in early
December, there has been the usual rich harvest of dark gothic musical delights
in the frosty months of December and January, with the additional thrilling
news of ice queen Siouxsie Sioux announcing a rare live appearance at the Cruel
World festival in California in May, and an even rarer sighting of original
Banshees guitarist John McKay who is planning an “An Evening With …” show at
the Leeds venue run by former Salvation guitarist Choque Hosein. With The
Sisters of Mercy also announcing their first US shows in decades, Then Comes
Silence heading to the UK for their first dates as a trio, and line-ups for the
major European shows looking more appetising than ever, the beginning of
another new year as we enter the middle stages of the 2020’s continues to see
the worldwide gothic community in positive form.
Most of the new releases championed below, the
Goth/Post-Punk Revival blog’s picks for the winter of 2022/2023, are from well-established (and mainly trad
goth) artists renowned for the consistent quality of their work, but it is
pleasing to be able to include a couple of newer artists in the list too. It is
intended to produce this list on a more seasonal basis in 2023, and as ever, apart from the first selection, the others in the truncated list are not presented in any particular ordert.
1. La Scaltra – Mater
German act La Scaltra are one of two projects from Artaud
Seth’s well-respected Solar Lodge stable to feature in this run-down with the
title track from their forthcoming album. Mater is a wonderfully
mesmeric combination of ethereal contralto vocal and doomy goth metal guitar
progressions, sensitively produced and mastered for a counter-intuitively
uplifting listening experience, best experienced by candle light naturally. The
Goth/Post-Punk Revival track of winter 2023.
2. Alphavox – All Stars Aligned
Alphavox is a new project pooling the talents of the various
acts on the Solar Lodge label, and the extracts pre-released certainly promise
a broad spectrum of sounds. All Stars Aligned is a superbly melancholic and
reflective piece of slow-burning gothic rock, featuring the lilting sound of
Sweet Ermengarde’s Lars Kappeler and a typically strong and emotional vocal
from one of the best vocalists of the gothic rock scene, Your Life on Hold’s Jan
de Wulf.
3. All My Thorns – Enlighten Me
The undisputed king of the contemporary occult goth rock
vocal Drew Freeman (ex-Sometime The Wolf, and currently also of Sweet
Ermengarde) is on magisterial bellowing, crooning and growling form on the
debut album from his new project, All My Thorns, still ably supported on bass
by Korv Sutch from his former outfit. Enlighten Me builds impressively
from a subtle opening section (not dissimilar in tone to the likes of Crawling
by the kings of modern rock dynamics Linkin’ Park) to a full-on portentous Nephimilistic
trad gothic rock chorus. If you’ve not clambered, adopting a messianic pose onto
someone’s shoulders by the second time the title section comes around, then I
seriously doubt your goth credentials.
4. Vazum – Night Shade
Another consistently impressive contemporary act with their
own signature sounds, Detroit deathgaze duo Vazum’s first release of 2023s
features their usual breathless and claustrophobic deathrock vibe, with
inventive Pixies-influenced guitar work, buzzing bass and the synchronised
male/female vocal attack first popularised by the March Violets, revealing that
there is plenty more still to mine from their richly unique musical seam.
5. Byronic Sex & Exile – Lady Macbeth
With a typically busy year planned – the first album and
tour have already been announced for next month – Joel Heyes’ Byronic Sex &
Exile project began the year with a smouldering epic of a new single, Lady
Macbeth. Over a drum-free grandiose backing of a descending piano and synth
motif, Heyes repetitively intones in his basso profundo vocal a plaintive
rhetorical question, “What is to be done?”, a angst-ridden conundrum which has
tortured heroically sensitive souls for milliennia. In the second half, Heyes
adds additional guitar sheen, once again creating the bombastic Nick Cave meets
Pink Floyd vibe that has been the familiar hallmark of some of his best work in
recent years.
6. Motuvius Rex – Black Locust Grove
Shahn Rigsby, bass player with The Kentucky Vampires and now
(like Joel Heyes in Leeds) festival impresario in his Louisville locale,
created waves with the debut EP Sermo Vulgaris from his solo side
project Motuvius Rex which returns with another great track which ploughs the
same distinct instantly recognisable furrow, with a liquid bassline which
provides an almost krautrock hypnotic groove, pitchy baritone vocal, dark lyric
and a unique folky mandolin sound.
7. Scary Black – Everything Rots
Also hailing from neo-goth US capital Louisville, Kentucky,
Albie Mason’s one-man miserygoth project Scary Black continues to impress on
new single Everything Rots, taking Type O Negative’s already depressing Everything
Dies mantra to its logical conclusion. A spindly Night Shift-esque
guitar riff sets the tone for a cinematically atmospheric lugubrious lament about
the fate that awaits us all.
8. Graal – The Kiss
From the opening notes, the Columbus (Ohio) act treats us to
some full-bodied old school gothic rocks. Gravelly vocals, buzzing,
eight-to-the bar bass, drum machine noodlings, waves of synth and one string
guitar strings are all present and correct on the lead track from promising
debut album Angelfell.
9. Bonnie Trash – Have You Seen Her?
Originally released as a limited coloured vinyl LP last year,
Bonnie Trash’s debut set is being given a welcome boost of a CD release by
discerning European label Unknown Pleasures, responsible for excellent recent
tribute albums to Bauhaus and The Sisters of Mercy as well as albums by the
likes of Antipole, Kill Shelter and Der Himmel uber Berlin. The Canadian twin
sisters create an unholy racket that combines the low-fi power of The Jesus and
Mary Chain with the breathy gothic croon of Siouxsie Sioux, with buzzsaw and
drone guitars reminiscent of early gaze sonic pioneers Loop and the slightly
unnerving dark twang of Ritual Howls. The album featured in the Best of 2022
lists of many scene connoisseurs, and this CD version will surely propel the
duo further into the consciousness of the global gothic diaspora.
10. The Waning Moon – Scars
Meanwhile, back in Louisville, chief Vampire Zac Campbell released in December another track from his collaboration with Costa Rica’s Ariel Maniki, following the positive receptive to the debut EP from their trad goth project The Waning Moon earlier in 2022. Scars features the now-familiar 90’s goth rock elements of beautifully layered guitars, occasional keyboard swirls, a solidly reliable rhythm section and Maniki’s dramatic vocal.