Live Review - Byronic Sex & Exile and Gothzilla, Glasgow November 21st 2023

There’s always something really authentic and deeply satisfying about going to a goth gig at Nice n Sleazy in Glasgow – perhaps it’s the steep staircase, reminiscent of that of the legendary Phono in Leeds, leading down to the dingy gig room, it could be the timeless, simple layout of the venue itself, a rectangular low-roofed space with a very low stage at one end and a small bar at the other, or maybe it’s the wall of sound that emerges when you open the sound-proofed door.

Descending that staircase on Tuesday evening, I could still easily make out (through the opaque glass in the entrance door to the dimly-lit room) the instantly recognisable monochrome figure of Joel Heyes, sole member of headliner Byronic Sex and Exile, hunched over a desk containing the paraphernalia of the modern gigging goth artiste; presale list and highlighter pen – check; handstamp for pass-outs (on this occasion bearing the legend “Goth City, Leeds U.K” in, what else black ink – in my teenage years I would have avoided washing my hands for a week to try to prolong any vicarious cool which evidence of my attendance at a particular gig may have afforded) – check; copies of CDs and t-shirts for sale, the best chance for the artist to make any money from the show – check; credit card-reader – check; candelabra (well, this is BS&E)– check. Such is the glamorous life of the modern-day gothic-rock troubadour. I don’t remember the likes of Andrew Eldritch or Peter Murphy having to work on the door or sell their own merch in their band’s early days, but this is the norm in 2023 for even the scene’s leading lights. For this gig, Joel has left his trusty (or rather, untrustworthy) hearse at home and travelled four hours by train along with his Bronte hero/villain Victorian dandy stage garb, his guitar, the afore-mentioned items on the entrance desk and his other stage props, all lugged from station to hotel to venue.

Gothzilla

Looking towards the other end of the room, I could see Scottish goth duo Gothzilla starting their set to no more than a dozen punters, which included the members of the opening act who had already performed, It (made up of two-thirds of the former members of 90’s eclectro-goth stalwarts Libitina). But rather than bemoaning the lack of attendees, Gothzilla mainman Tim Jarvis seemed to positively revel in the situation, demanding audience participation which in the circumstances it would have been extremely churlish to refuse, and he and guitarist Mike (who replaced long-serving Stuart Harbut and rejoined the band earlier this year from The Dead Seasons, whom ironically they had replaced at this gig due to a last-minute covid-related issue) treated the few of us present a storming set of classic drum-machine driven upbeat goth rock from their multi-album career, but much more energetic and powerful than their studio releases. Jarvis is an excellent vocalist and usually bills the band as “for fans of The Sisters of Mercy” to give an indication of their main influence, and the pair’s tight renditions of the highlights of  their back catalogue certainly went down well, in front of their “Goth and Proud” stage banner. Ending their all-too-brief set as usual with a barnstorming rendition of goth club classic The Temple Of Sound, they left what passes for a stage with a reminder that they will be back in Glasgow in the spring, supporting 1919 (although they are playing a gig in Aberdeen before the end of the year), another double bill not to be missed.

            Stage Fright

Equally unperturbed by the poor turnout was Joel Heyes, a gothic national treasure if ever there was one, joining the ranks of the likes of Mick Mercer, Trevor Bamford and other keepers of the UK gothic flame. Label boss, festival organiser, charity fundraiser and uber-prolific one-man band, Heyes unbelievably also has a day job and still finds the time to maintain a strong social media presence, creating a strong brand that occasionally sees him pigeonholed as Leeds’ "Mr Goth" in the same way as others begrudgingly carve out a career for example as a “professional Northerner”.  A Byronic Sex and Exile show is as much an event as a gig, and Heyes took to the stage carrying his now-lit candelabra, lurching from the back of the hall towards. and peering at, the small gaggles of attendees like a latter-day graveyard-bothering Wee Willie Winkie as he prepared for the performance ahead. Not since The Virgin Prunes' infamous Channel 4 TV performance of 1982 has someone pulled off such a dramatic candle-related start to a gig, no mean feat when the audience barely reaches into double figures. Launching into Grave Is In The Heart (from the equally puntastically-titled but wonderful current album Everything But The Ghoul), Heyes puts on a typically impassioned one-man show, strumming frantically at his guitar over the pre-recorded backing, eyes closed as he strained for the lower reaches of his lugubrious Yorkshire baritone, with the show enhanced by the usual props - his famous sword during Death and Joy and the Hamlet-inspired skull to whom he addressed the opening of the more jaunty Damned-influenced Monster Man. The centre of the set was the typical Tombstone World, again from the new album, building slowly from a simple four-chord motif like many past BS&E classics. With the venue curfew approaching, Heyes ended with two bangers from his previous album, Your Name On The Wind and Leviathan, all Floodland guitar and anthemic chorus.

                                                               Is this a cheap rubber skull I see before me?

Taking a counter-intuitively positive take on the distinct lack of last-minute walk up customers – “quality, not quantity” - (probably due to this gig being sandwiched by expensive shows by Death Cult and The Sisters of Mercy and in the same week as local gigs by Sex Gang Children and Kirk Brandon), Heyes felt that the current tour is nevertheless a success having already broken even financially, and told me that variations in attendance are to be expected at his level (the previous night had seen a larger-than-predicted audience in Nottingham for example), but his (and Tim Jarvis’) indefatigability is what has kept the scene alive - or at least undead - during (no pun intended) dark days.

                                                                                En garde!

The current scene is arguably more deserving of your support than the afore-mentioned heritage/nostalgia acts trying to re-create past glories, and the newer band scene is certainly more democratic and unified, with the acts supporting each other to try to make ends meet. Whilst pairing older and newer acts on multi-band bills gives more recent acts at least the opportunity to prise open the closed minds of the elder goth community, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that like many current acts, Heyes was born twenty (or is it two hundred?) years too late, and, realistically, barring an unlikely mainstream goth revival, his impressive series of releases and live shows will never reach the size of audience they deserve.

 Bandcamp pages: Byronic Sex & Exile    Gothzilla

 

The Best New Goth/Post-Punk Releases of June/July 2023

 

As ever in the heat of summer, goths tend to head for the shadows and the recording studios, so the number of actual new releases tends to decline a little in June and July. However, on the back of renewed media interest in the genre, thanks to the Siouxsie comeback and the recently published histories of gothic music, there is still plenty of excellent new music to keep us entertained. This month’s new selection is a real curate’s egg, with old school deathrock rubbing shoulders with everything from trad folk goth to industrial goth rock. Enjoy!

 1.       Girls Under Glass – We Feel Alright

Back from the grave are legendary German goth industrial act Girls Under Glass, with this fantastically-produced spoiler track which heralded their current comeback album Backdraft, their first for nearly two decades, built around an electro darkwave strong metallic riff that recalls the over-the-top vibe of an early nineties Nine Inch Nails dancefloor stomper.

2.       Byronic Sex & Exile – Kiss of the Firebrand

There’s an equally Wagnerian epic This Corrosion quality about the lead track from the latest EP from the prolific Byronic Sex & Exile, Joel Heyes’ one-man project which aims to keep the gothic flame burning bright in its Leeds heartland. Other tracks on the EP such as Ectoplasmic Dreams are more typical of the project, gradually building huge slow-burning  Floydesque soundscapes from an initial simple, haunting riff.

 

3.       Temple - Submission

The Portland (Oregon) trio are back with a fabulous album of hauntingly heavy deathrock-influenced darkwave. The title track features some superb reverb riffing over a wonderfully muddy rhythm section, whilst the verse has an almost Chameleons-esque purity. Another essential purchase from the ever-reliable Swiss Dark Nights label.

4.       Perish - Reliquary

Reliquary would appear to be a hardcore five-track Bad Seeds meets Christian Death deathrock demo recorded by a supergroup of San Francisco band members in 2013 and finally given a Bandcamp release last month. Heavy, unhinged, scuzzy and inventive, there’s a raw energy and power in these songs which mark this out as one of the best releases of 2023 in a sub-genre enjoying a real renaissance.

No Youtube link but here is the project's Bandcamp page

5.       Decena Tragica  - Mirame

There’s a distinct Paralisis Permanente vibe on the opening section of this excellent new track from Mexican stalwarts Decena Tragica, although the song opens into a broader gothic darkwave soundscape in the skilled hands of producer Ariosto N Uribe (of La Procesion de Lo Infinito fame).

6.       Ember Sea – Meet Me By The Fire

Soothing trad goth folk from German band the Ember Sea on this new EP, like All About Eve at their most wistful. Acoustic guitars, strings and a predictably big soft goth metal chorus for this epic and melodic ballad which will surely go down well across Europe.

7.       Varsovie - Perspective  Nevski

Great new classic French wave track from Grenoble outfit Varsovie, a wonderfully full production with a busy, driving bassline, typically semi-spoken crache ton venin/je m’en fous-tiste vocal and even a bit of dark twang in an unpredictable song whose twists and turns whet the appetite considerably for forthcoming album on Icy Cold Records, Pression à Froid.

8.       Misery Eden - Woods

Fabulously dense and occasionally cacophonous post-punk production on this dark punk deathrock track from the excellent six track debut EP Thorns and Woes from Misery Eden, a project based in Tallin (Estonia). Of the other tracks, Salvation is less breathy and claustrophobic but equally intriguing.

9.       Grinning God – Arrow of Wrath

From the Rope Sect stable comes side-project Grinning God, with Sardonicus releasing a new version of the debut Sardonios EP with a couple of extra tracks of equally high quality. The droney dreamgaze of Divine Decadence is probably my favourite of the pair, with its dark garage psych vibe, but Arrow of Wrath has the same mix of sotto voce screamo vocal on the verse changing to a warmer melodic tone for the chorus in an unusual (note how I’m clutching at genres here!) yet highly effective manner.

10.   Final Gasp - Mourning Moon

Very strong late 80’s Killing Joke vibe for this Massachusetts band, with a chugging, versatile goth-indus guitar sound, pounding bass, thumping drums, haunting keyboard riff and an angry echoing vocal. Great production and dynamics on a well-structured if derivative song.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rose of Avalanche (and Heartbreak Noir), live at Audio in Glasgow, 12th July 2023

It’s a curious fact that whilst those most associated with the goth genre (Andrew Eldritch, Siouxsie Sioux et al) are always at pains to distance themselves from the epithet, those to whom it was erroneously or extremely tangentially applied seem more than happy to don the mantle. Take The Rose of Avalanche for example. The recently reformed (2019) band were immediately labelled as goth for the simple reason that they played guitar-based music with an occasionally melancholy twinge and came from the city of Leeds on their emergence in the mid-1980’s despite their music embracing a whole range of styles on their early recordings, whether their own compositions or their choice of cover versions, from up-tempo gothabilly rock’n’roll (Rise To The Groove or Dizzy Miss Lizzy), psychedelic doom (A Thousand Landscapes or Waiting for the Sun) or straightforward eight-to-the-bar rockers (Goddess or Gimme Some Lovin’).

Since their return to the scene after a near three-decade absence, T’Rose have again been embraced by the elder goth fraternity, touring with The Mission as well as playing both the Goth City Festival in Leeds and Tomorrow’s Ghosts in Whitby, delighting the large crowd at the latter with a surprise cover version of The Sisters of Mercy’s Alice. The Rose of Avalanche never really got the credit which they deserved the first time around, due to a combination of line-up changes, contractual difficulties, and the sudden decline of the genre in general in the late 1980's, and as a result to many they remain an unexplored by-road on the great map of goth.

Their current short summer mini-tour opened with a show at Audio in Glasgow, affording me and other Scottish goths the chance to see the band headline a show for the first time in over thirty years, thanks to promoters Songs of Preys, who will have been a little disappointed to have attracted only fifty punters (the usual names and faces of the central belt elder goth gig circuit) to the show despite a generous and inflation-busting ticket price of only twelve pounds. Audio is the perfect venue for these shows, one of those dingy, spartan, under-the-railway-arches dives with a decent stage, a small bar and a no-nonsense nowhere-to-hide rectangular empty space for the audience to bunch up and create an atmosphere, as was the case at The Rose of Avalanche’s gig.

Before the band took to the stage, the appreciative audience were treated to an impressive set from Heartbreak Noir, which is effectively an acoustic duo version of The Faces of Sarah, the last great goth band of the ‘second generation’ of the genre, according to this seminal and comprehensive four-hour YouTube retrospective ofgoth’s lost decade which has almost a million views, which features the band as its final track.

The acoustic backing, provided by Emma Newby on guitar (and backing vocals), showcases the powerful and emotional vocals of Nick Schultz, who delivered an impassioned performance in a set which was liberally sprinkled with classics from their Faces of Sarah era, with the stripped back and more minimalist backing allowing those present to better appreciate the complexity of the song structures of, for example, Belief or the set—closer Misery Turns, which originally featured supporting vocals by Inkubbus Sukkubus’ Candia. Introducing the highlight of their short set,  Nick explained the reason for the duo’s recent cover of Joy Division’s New Dawn Fades, which stemmed from seeing a young Costa Rican band enthusiastically covering JD songs when playing in the country as guests of fellow trad goth act Last Dusk, emphasising both the camaraderie and the global networking of the current goth scene, which is also very much in stripped-back form these days.

            Video from YouTube posted by Vonbat

After the now traditional set-opener Dreamland from their wonderful 1989 album In Rock, The Rose of Avalanche had a further Whitby-style surprise up their sleeve for their second song of the night, an excellent if shortened cover of the goth anthem par excellence, Bela Lugosi’s Dead, which delighted the crowd and was also clearly enjoyed by the band themselves, a feature of their live performances these days which was much discussed in Michelle Corns’ excellent recent interview with the band for the Reflections of Darkness website.

My (admittedly fading) memories of seeing the band in a live setting in the 1980’s were of a rather dour group with a vocalist given to speaking in a fake mid-Atlantic drawl and whose relationship with the concept of pitch was something of a moveable feast, but mercifully the 2023 iteration of the Rose of Avalanche are very much an uplifting experience, with singer Phil Morris’ Leeds accent to the fore and his vocals significantly stronger than they were in the mid-80’s. His relaxed demeanour and confident vocal delivery were typical of a band on the top of their form, with fellow founder member and lead guitarist Glenn Schultz’s rock flourishes on crowd-pleasers like Too Many Castles In the Sky and Goddess giving the songs both a certain bite and a sense of authenticity. The recent integration of genuine goth guitar legend Dave “Wolfie” Wolfenden (ex-Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and The Mission amongst many others) on second guitar (drafted in to replace the genial Paul James Berry, who sadly left the project again last year) has not only helped to raise the band’s profile, but enhanced the overall sound, as at Audio he showcased an astonishing array of technical skills acquired in almost fifty years of honing his craft, whether imitating the eldritch (in its OED sense) scratchings of Daniel Ash on Bela Lugosi’s Dead or improvising Asheton-style howling feedback loops on the second encore of The Stooges’ Loose. Cowboy-hatted bassist Alan Davis, another original member and the band’s driving force these days, provided a solid bottom line to the melancholic slow-burning epics which were the group's real forte such as LA Rain, Never Another Sunset and the band’s signature tune, Velveteen, where Morris' lilting baritone is best highlighted, whilst efficient drummer Mark Thomson, another survivor from the 1980’s, enjoyed an unexpected moment in the spotlight at the beginning of first encore Alice when the teasing Wolfie repeatedly faked playing the opening guitar riff in what turned into an extended intro. The latter incident sums up the spirit of an evening which was enjoyed as much by the band as by the small but enthusiastic crowd, old goths enjoying themselves and revelling in some of the best music of the past forty years.

Whilst the band only showcased the one recent composition, The Man, and seem in no rush to release new material, they will surely be in demand from European festival organisers and tour promoters looking for highly competent and professional first-generation goth acts with a stellar back catalogue happy to not only acknowledge their own roots but to pay their respects to their more successful contemporaries.

Click here to access The Rose of Avalanche's website

Click here to access the Heartbreak Noir Bandcamp page

 

Live Review - Vision Video and The March Violets, Glasgow 3rd June 2023

 Two great live bands from different generations of the goth scene? At one of the UK’s most iconic venues (where Alan McGee discovered Oasis)? For just twenty quid? No surprise then that the inspired pairing of current scene darlings Vision Video and returning old stagers The March Violets for a UK tour drew a capacity crowd to the dingy upstairs room at Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, momentarily uniting the enthusiastic “baby bats” and grizzled “elder goths” of the city’s still vibrant alternative scene.

Founder and sole all-time member of The March Violets during their forty-two year start-stop history, guitarist Tom Ashton resides these days in Athens, Georgia where he runs SubVon Studios at which he has recorded and produced Vision Video’s two albums to date, the critically acclaimed Inked In Red and Haunted Hours. Both LP’s featured equally in the band’s Video’s high octane goth pop (think Head on the Door era Cure mixed with early Smiths with a bit of Chameleons guitar thrown in) Glasgow set which was deservedly well-received by an audience who know singer Dusty Gannon primarily from his humour-laden “Goth Dad” videos on the band’s TikTok account which has over half a million followers. Gannon was in confessional mood on the band’s first visit to Scotland, telling the audience that his guitar had once belonged to the late Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison, and dedicating the title track of their sophomore album Haunted Hours to him. Hutchison’s music had helped Gannon through a tough period in his life, a time covered in the song Kandahar, with the charismatic frontman confessing to those present in Glasgow that when posted there as a US Infantryman, he had a sudden realisation about the reality of war and its driving forces, and his life has changed direction as a result.

In case any of the audience were remaining in any doubt about the singer’s politics, the band’s most potent and arguably best-known song Organised Murder benefitted from a ferocious extended opening section, underpinned by the powerful rhythm section of scene veterans Dan Geller (bass) and Jason Fusco (drums), during which Gannon (a fine lyricist, incidentally) pulled no punches in describing the many ills and injustices of American contemporary society. Other highlights of an all-too-brief set included melodic opener Static Drone, their incendiary cover of Joy Division’s Transmission, debut single and crowd favourite In My Side and Comfort In the Grave, which features keyboard player Emily Freedock on main vocals, mirroring the male/female vocal assault for which The March Violets have long been renowned.

Since the Violets last played Scotland a decade ago, bassist Jo had left the band to be replaced by American goth royalty William Faith (ex-Christian Death, Mephisto Walz and Faith and the Muse amongst others) in time for the 2015 US tour, shortly after which main man Si D suffered a health issue which led to the band’s sine die suspension, until the remaining members finally decided to restart the project, with Faith also taking over Si’s co-vocal duties. The continuation of the band without Si has not met with universal approval from long-term fans (for some of whom, as in the mid-1980’s, no Si = no Violets), and the band acknowledged the significant loss of their frontman from the line-up and his key contribution to the band's legacy with both a heartfelt toast to former members of the band (reciprocated by the audience) and an impassioned speech from eloquent frontwoman and original co-vocalist Rosie Garland about the passage of time and importance of following your dreams and not putting off projects, because like the band, one day all the audience would be “old f---ers” like them (I think I still prefer the term “elder goths”, personally!).

I would love to be able to say that the Violets stormed the stage with a mesmerising opening salvo, but in reality the trio sort of shambled onto stage and opener Crow Baby false-started (“It’s always finished before it’s begun” in the words of another Violets classic), with the singer wryly acknowledging the appropriateness of this “chaos”, given the band’s history, and this theme returned later in the set with Ashton breaking a string and having to play Grooving In Green on the remaining five before borrowing Dusty Gannon’s instrument for the remainder of the set.

Once it began properly, from the opening drum-machine driven intro, Crow Baby showed that the Violets had lost none of their original power, with Ashton’s trenchant guitar sound very much the focal point. From the slashed gonzoid power chords of Radiant Boys, through the scratchy Gang of Four influenced punk funk musings of Grooving In Green and 1 2 I Love You to the one string riffs of Walk Into The Sun and modern classic Made Glorious, Ashton’s versatility and innovation marks him out as one of the premier guitarists of the original goth era, skilfully filling a musical space for which The Sisters of Mercy and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry required double the manpower. Garland herself was also on excellent form, her confident stage presence (“We’re having fun tonight, aren’t we? ….Ooh, goths having fun! ….We’d better keep that to ourselves hadn’t we, or else they’ll all want to join in!”) enhanced by her intervening time performing as Rosie Lugosi, vampire queen of the alternative cabaret scene, whilst consummate professional Faith handled Si’s vocal and Loz's bass parts perfectly for the most part and adds an effortless cool to the band’s visual aesthetic.

Although the pace of the set dipped a little during renditions of 2010’s songs like Dress 4 U and Mortality, excellent new song Heading For the Fire got things back on track, the rapturous reception delighting the band who have been working on material for a new album which should be released before the end of the year, before the inevitable Snake Dance brought the evening’s proceedings to a very satisfying conclusion.

The highly recommended Vision Video are promising to return to the UK in the autumn, and hopefully The March Violets will be following their own carpe diem advice and will also be back out on tour before too long, because otherwise, if they leave it another decade, we will all be seriously old “f---ers” by the time they return!

(My apologies to Kristeen Young who opened proceedings, but whose set I had evidently completely missed despite arriving 45 minutes after doors opened, although I am reliably informed that her theatrical performance further enhanced what was already a very strong bill and a great night's entertainment)

 

The Best New Goth/Post-Punk Releases - Late Spring 2023

 

Siouxsie’s first gigs for over a decade, including a lightning delayed show at Cruel World, The Sisters of Mercy’s first US jaunt for even longer, the definitive end (apparently) of Bauhaus, modern legends like Then Comes Silence and Diâvol Strain on tour in Europe and two new books on the History of Goth have hit the shelves. Just another average two months in the world of goth, a genre which continues to remain in an overtly "undead" state despite the constant media pronouncements about its apparent demise.

Intriguingly, the last eight weeks has also seen the release of new and well-received albums by both Ghost Dance (featuring Anne-Marie but not Gary Marx) and Skeletal Family (with a new vocalist but with Trotwood and Stan very much in situ), and German legends Girls Under Glass (with a new album next month) and The House of Usher (see below) are also making welcome returns to the scene. Treponem Pal released a great album which should please fans of Rammstein and the Young Gods, and Guillotine Dream put out a remastered version of their own latest LP. Fellow UK goth act Black Angel put on an impressive show in San Francisco and released the remastered live recording on Bandcamp within a week, showing their media savvy once again – other acts please note.

This last weekend the largest goth music event on the contemporary calendar, WGT, took place in Leipzig, and the current exponents of the genre have naturally continued to produce the high-quality new music to which we have become accustomed, making the selection of the top ten releases for April and May 2023 just as difficult as such a selection would have been in the “golden year” of 1983, forty years ago.

 

1.       Ground Nero – Stars

The Belgian/Manx trio are back with the best song yet, a slow burner with vibes of both Some Kind Of Stranger and Emma, showcasing to their best advantage both the expressive baritone croon of Mark E Moon’s Mark Sayle and the bass driven shimmering guitar wall of sound created by the two Flemish Peters, a stunning tribute to Sofie and well-deserving of the accolade of Goth/Post-Punk Best New Release of April/May 2023.

 

2.       A Cloud of Ravens – Parable

Brooklyn duo A Cloud of Ravens released their latest album Lost Hymns this month, with Parable the most recent single from it. The song showcases their earthy soft-punk appeal, melding the Celtic charm and sense of melody of Big Country with the wistful polemics of New Model Army whilst retaining their own distinctive sound. Tours this month with a most impressive trio of acts -  Then Comes Silence, Clan of Xymox and The Sisters of Mercy - should help the project to reach its rightful place at the forefront of the current scene.

 

3.       The Bellwether Syndicate – Noir Thing

Scene veteran William Faith’s current act the Bellwether Syndicate this month unleashed Vestige and Vigil, a confident and energetic album of in-yer-face punky darkwave including recent singles and this feature track, Noir Thing, which is an appropriate taster for the album, combining an on-trend scratchy verse with a hairdryer of chorus. A noted artist very much at the top of his form.

 

4.       The Shallow Graves – The Phantom Heart

More slow-burning glorious gothic bombast from German duo The Shallow Graves, with The Phantom Heart, the lead track from their new Promo EP. Derivative, trope-laden and highly unoriginal it may be, like their previous excellent work, but fans of classic graveyard goth rock will love this EP from the former Wave Records act which even contains a fairly straight cover of The Sisters of Mercy’s Peel Session classic, Good Things.

 

5.       Gallows Eve –  Oneirocide

The Swedish trad goth band return with a well-crafted atmospheric up-tempo slab of goth rock, replete with guitar riffs, a strong vocal and an anthemic chorus. Nothing stunningly original, just no-nonsense high-quality eight-to-the-bar ole-fashioned goth rock of a type which never seems to go out of fashion.

 

6.       Grey Gallows – Strangers

The title track from the Greek duo’s fourth album, which was released this month, is classic darkwave combining a distant guttural vocal, synth swirls, pounding bass and reverberating guitar in a complex and occasionally confused soundscape which will appear to those on both sides of the synth/guitar divide on the current goth scene.

7.       Words and Actions - The Snake’s Head

There’s a distinctive Amphetamine Logic feel to this debut track from a solo project from Detriti Records’ head honcho Davide Lace. Although somewhat let down by the demo quality and the under-par vocal, the classic goth one-string riff and driving bass still make this a rewarding listen.

8.       The House of Usher – Dreaming of You

Founded in 1990, German old school gothic rock legends The House of Usher released their twelfth album Echosphere last month, the first to feature their new third (!) guitarist. Whilst the sound overall remains impressively varied, the highlight for me is the jangly Rose of Avalanche-esque Dreaming of You, an upbeat love song without any of the sombre pomposity that can sometimes bedevil the trad goth genre.

9.       WitchHands – Black September

More 80’s single-string guitar riffing from deathrock project WitchHands, this time with distinctive March Violets tones, both in the slightly shouty vocal and the impressive guitar tone, on this track (one of eight) from the Colorado band’s sophomore album No Gods, No Masters, released by the impeccable Polish label Bat-cave Productions.

10.   Cemetary Girlz – The Last Kiss

The Last Kiss is the latest single from French gothic deathrock band Cemetary Girlz’s wonderful new album L’Envol du Corbeau on Manic Depression records. Outstanding post-punk guitar work, distant old school French coldwave vocals, sumptuous multi-layered production and mastering, and carefully-crafted songs make this album a masterpiece of a sub-genre which has been undergoing a real renaissance in recent years. The video, of some rather cartoonish goths doing their thang in cemeteries around the world, was released to coincide with World Goth Day last week.

 

 

 

The Best New Goth/Post-Punk Releases - Late Winter 2023

 

The cold, dark Northern Hemisphere nights of February and March were appropriately filled with the sounds of goths young and old, with old stagers like Siouxsie Sioux, The Sisters of Mercy and The Cure announcing new live dates and the current keepers of the flame keeping the internet crackling with impressive new releases.

Some of the best albums from the last couple of years were deservedly re-released after widespread critical acclaim to reach new aficionados, such as the current releases by death punk act Adrenochrome, Batcave deathrock band Shrouds, deathgaze innovators Vazum (whose album V- features stripped down versions of their best songs to date) and trad goth rockers Long Night (with their own new greatest hits compilation Miscellanies), whilst other leading lights of the current scene, such as former collaborators Antipole and Kill Shelter (enhanced by the sultry vocals of Veronica Stich on the new LP) released excellent new albums which nevertheless moved towards the starker beats-centred coldwave branch of the genre and therefore away from the more guitar-based sounds on which this blog focuses.

Real connoisseurs of the current goth scene will already be familiar with most of the songs featured in this month’s countdown, either from excellent YouTube channels such as the seminal Obscura Undead mixes and the excellent internet radio specialists, but all of them bear repetition and deserve a larger listening audience for their music.

 

1.       The Hangman’s Daughter - Serafina, Who Knows?

From the energetic drum and bass intro (which took me instantly back to the dancefloor of Nottingham’s Rock City in 1985 and hearing Rebel Christening’s Tribal Eye for the first time) through to the classically catchy chorus, this is one fantastically accomplished debut single from Ian “Danger” Michael’s The Hangman’s Daughter project, with sumptuous additional guitar from Fatally Lucky’s Anthony Manfredo, who has sadly subsequently left the act. A deserved winner of the Goth/Post-Punk Revival blog's best new release accolade. 

2.       Killing Joke – Full Spectrum Dominance

Bone-crushing riffs? Check. Haunting post-apocalyptic synth riff? Check. Punishing tub-thumping drumbeat? Check. Unexpectedly inventive bridge? Check. String-bending full-on chorus in a mind-blowingly different key? Check. KJ may on the one hand be the Status Quo of goth, endlessly recycling their best moments (to the extent that I had to double-check that Full Spectrum Dominance was actually a new song, such was the familiarity of the key elements), but on the other it’s astonishing that over four decades in they can still put out new material that outpunches bands a whole generation their junior. For those still willing to give the old guard a listen, the subtle new single from Treponem Pal (often somewhat harshly but accurately referred to as “the poor man’s The Young Gods”), which is nevertheless still some accolade) is also worth a listen, whilst the likes of The Damned, Ghost Dance and Skeletal Family also have promising new material out this spring.

 

3.       The Bellwether Syndicate – We All Rise

Anyone still doubting Killing Joke’s relevance to the current scene needs look no further than the latest releases from the most accomplished performers on the current live scene, The Bellwether Syndicate and Then Comes Silence. The Swedes’ last single Tickets for Funerals had a chugging riff Geordie would have been proud of, and the in-your-face anthemic chorus of  The Bellwether Syndicate’s latest release We All Rise is also reminiscent of vintage angry Jaz. The chorus is somewhat out-of-kilter with a more sedate, jangly, reflective opening verse and a deathrock middle eight, showing the versatility of William Faith’s talent, which is also visible on our next selection..

4.       Suburban Spell – The Lonely Man (William Faith remix)

This blog normally gives remixes a wide berth, but this reworking of Suburban Spell’s coldwave masterpiece The Lonely Man is a notable exception, drenched as it is in some stunning reverb guitar by William Faith, giving extra layers and energy to what was a one-dimensional original and pushing the song into very welcome darkwave goth territory.

5.       Damian Hearse – Cat Man Vampire

There’s a slightly deranged vibe to this graveyard trope-laden 180+ BPM horrorwave dancefloor banger, with a Fad Gadget meets current dancefloor maestro Dark sound that simultaneously gives the song a 1980’s feel whilst being right on point for 2023. Coming soon to a dingy club near you.

6.       Another Abyss – Broken

After the full-on choices so far, this understated modern classic is even more impressive, Broken’s cleverly layered sound which is reminiscent of the dark new romantic likes of B-Movie opening out into a chorus featuring a deep baritone vocal with a wonderfully warm yet vulnerable tone. Impressive work from the one-man project from Germany with a suitably lugubrious name, who featured in one of our round-ups last year and a song that would have been a Top Ten hit had it been released in 1984, and it’s hard to argue with the YouTube commenters astonished by this project’s comparative lack of success.

7.       Dark Side Cowboys – The Undertaker

Swedish goth rock legends celebrate 30 years of prairie goth with new single The Undertaker, containing all the consummately-produced familiar elements of effortlessly cool slow-burning dusty straight-from-the-plains scandi goth’n’roll that one would expect from a band that has based its entire career on the cover photo of Fields of The Nephilim’s scene-defining Dawnrazor debut. Here’s to the next thirty years.

8.       Naut – Nightfall

The Bristol (UK) band’s new release was always going to feature in this rundown after Louder published guitarist Jack Welsh’s list of “Top 10 goth songs that every metalhead needs to hear” featuring classics as diverse as Bauhaus’ Double Dare, The Sisters of Mercy’s Floorshow, The Sound’s Winning and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry’s Talk About the Weather, and that impeccable taste extends to the band’s debut album Hunt. With a dark, driving guitar-based sound reminiscent of the late lamented Terminal Gods, Nightfall canters along perfectly with a nagging grubby riff and full-on modern gothic sound.

9.       Reflection Black – No Stars in the Sky

The top ten could literally be filled with albums released by the faultless arbiters of taste at the Swiss Dark Nights label, and deciding between Pulsations and Reflection Black was particularly difficult this month. The latter won out for their slightly fuller sound, but both acts specialise in the high quality atmospheric melodic darkwave that the likes of Holygram, the Secret French Police and Mirror of Haze have popularised in recent years, and seems ripe for wider success.

10.   After The Sin – In My Mind

Poznan band’s After The Sin’s long-awaited debut album Echoes is finally out on their homeland’s Bat-Cave Productions label, collecting together their various singles over the past couple of years along with some new tracks. A homogenously excellent album for fans of 80’s-influenced melodic darkwave post-punk to wallow in, the understated vocals, spacey production and skilled songwriting  combine to produce one of the strongest albums of the year so far.

 

The following artists also had excellent new releases during February and March (click on artist name for link):

-          Byronic Sex & Exile

-          The Waning Moon

-          Vazum

-          Kill Shelter/Death Loves Veronica

-          Motuvius Rex

-          The Funeral March

-          Antipole/Paris Alexander

-          Pulsations

-          A Cloud of Ravens

-          Cliff and Ivy

-          Batboner

-          Dark Narrows

-          Ritual Howls

-          Night Goat

-          La Scaltra

-          Orphans of Dusk

-          Koma Koma

-          Who Saw Her Die?

 

The Best New Goth/Post-Punk Releases Winter 2022/2023

 

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.