2023 was finally the year of the Goth Revival, but not in the way that many of us had hoped for. Rather than being the year the mainstream rediscovered the genial panoply of new sounds emanating from one of the most criminally-ignored and under-rated sub-genres, it was instead the year of Goth Nostalgia, forty years on from the original movement’s annus mirabilis of 1983 (not that it had yet adopted that sobriquet).
Not one, not two, but three critically-acclaimed histories
of the genre were published in the UK (and garnered many mainstream column
inches), one (which actually had the working title “Post-Punk”) by the drummer
of a band who frequently flirted with the goth sound and culture without ever
really being central to it, one by a then-very-young fan who became a leading
music journalist and author, and the third by an alternative scene veteran and well-regarded alternative media figure whose band was never particularly associated with the scene at the time. All three are worth
tracking down, and place the original 'gothic' music within a social, historical
and cultural context, lending much-needed gravitas to a style of music often
mocked and derided in the media as a whole as cartoonishly lightweight.
This general nostalgia-fest in the media coincided with many
of the original acts creeping back onto the touring circuit as it recovered
from the covid-enforced hiatus, with the unexpected returns of the major league likes of
Siouxsie, ‘Death Cult’ and Bauhaus, in a year that also saw The Rose of
Avalanche, The March Violets, Theatre of Hate/Spear of Destiny, Sex Gang
Children, The Sisters of Mercy, Christian Death and most other acts you can
think of from the original era hitting the road to boost the pension fund.
This should have been the signal for a surge of interest in
the contemporary gothic scene, but my own observation was that current goth
acts struggled to attract a crowd, particularly when the “heritage” acts were
in town the same month. As in recent previous years, the best chance seemed to
be for those bands who managed to get a support slot with one of the more
established bands, with A Cloud of Ravens being particularly successful in this
respect, bagging show-opening rights on tours by The Sisters of Mercy and Clan
of Xymox, but such examples were sadly rare over the year.
Perhaps one of the main reasons for the mainstream failing
to take an interest in newer goth acts, whilst wallowing in the pervading
nostalgia, was the fact that many of the leading lights on the current scene
took a studio sabbatical in 2023: well-established artists with multi-album
careers, such as She Past Away, Then Comes Silence, Kaelan Mikla, Diavol Strain
and Whispering Sons didn’t manage an album between them during 2023, although
most are planning new releases next year.
In their stead, some of the more recent acts of the current
wave took the opportunity to step up a level and stake their claim to higher
status within the scene, as most of the bands featuring in this rundown of the
best LPs of 2023 in the goth genre were not newcomers to the scene, but on
their second or third albums already, and having found their musical feet, now
producing the best music of their careers.
If 2022 had seen the resurgence of trad goth, the highlights
of 2023 feature many bands with a more melodic mainstream-friendly gothic alt-rock sound,
although more batcave/death rock/horror punk acts also fared well. This year’s
list is notable for a renewed dominance of bands from North America and Western
Europe, with fewer new artists of note from other territories than in recent
previous years,
The fifteen selections below are presented in no particular
order, but all have strong artistic merit and integrity and are all highly
recommended!
Ashes Fallen - Walk Through Fire
Husband and wife duo James and Michelle Perry’s goth rock
act released its third album in 2023 which continued the project’s development
from a more rock-based sound to a purer goth/post-punk sonic palette. James Perry’s vocals have become stronger
with each release, and with fewer guitar solos making the cut, the sound is sleeker
and more modern, yet also less formulaic. Lyrically the band has always been
one of the most political with a small “p”, taking on contemporary issues and
championing the underdog in a way that the original goth bands, who grew out of
punk roots, would surely approve of. With anthemic choruses and soaring
melodies, Ashes Fallen are reminiscent of Manic Street Preachers at their polemical
best, and are a breath of fresh air in a genre all-too-quick to regress to the
lowest gothic trope lyrical denominator.
The Bellwether Syndicate – Vestige and Vigil
TBS’s William Faith may be one of the senior figures of the
second (90’s) wave of goth, but the project’s 2023 release shows that he has
lost none of his youthful vigour, energy and righteous anger. Building songs
around bludgeoning, syncopated riffs (courtesy of Sarah Rose Faith) and grunge-esque song dynamics, The
Bellwether Syndicate’s Vestige and Vigil was a real guitar goth tour de
force, thanks to Faith’s infallible ear for a catchy chorus and a lyrical bon
mot, the sound of an artist uncompromisingly raging into the dark night.
A Cloud of Ravens – Lost Hymns
Brooklyn duo A Cloud of Ravens maintained their reputation
for angsty, earnest, pseudo-Celtic gothic rock with their latest album, which has
the same authenticity and passion that has contributed to the enduring appeal
of the likes of New Model Army or The Levellers. As effective on low-fi
low-tempo reflective pieces as on arms-in-the-air choruses, AcoR confirmed
their position in the new vanguard with another album of well-crafted 100% pure
artisan goth.
Black Angel - Lascivious
Already onto their fifth album in as many years, Matt
Vowles’ Black Angel continued their astonishingly consistent record of
producing high quality albums stuffed with unashamedly retro and respectful
references but with a full-on modern sound. With nods to the pillars of the
original mid-1980’s UK gothic rock sound – Floodland, Phantasmagoria and
Love – Black Angel create an original yet strangely familiar film noir
soundscapes which never fail to impress.
The Waning Moon – A Dream Or A Vision
With The Kentucky Vampires continuing their studio hiatus, guitarist
Zac Campbell has busied himself with a number of side projects, notably an
innovative surf-goth project Los Vampiros del Mar and this fully-fledged trad
goth project The Waning Moon, a collaboration with Costa Rican vocalist Ariel
Maniki. Campbell’s multi-layered approach and golden guitar tone makes The
Waning Moon’s debut album a delight for all fans of late 80’s/early 90’s gothic
rock, giving full rein to his genius, with Maniki’s dramatic vocal adding an
impassioned element to the overall sound.
Treponem Pal – Screamers
In a year when heritage acts like The Damned and Iggy Pop
delivered unexpectedly good albums, the most pleasant surprise of 2023,
Treponem Pal’s Screamers is the album many fans of industrial goth have
been waiting for since The Young Gods’ seminal TV Sky. With tongue
firmly in cheek and covering a range of sub-genres, Screamers is best
played at the recommended “full power” and would be the perfect soundtrack to
an all-night biker festival. This is the album Al Jourgensen has been trying to make for the past thirty years.
Ground Nero – Blood Never Sleeps
Belgian/Manx trio Ground Nero had showcased half of their
November 2023 release Blood Never Sleeps as singles over the past two
years, their first full length release since Mark Sayle replaced the irrepressible
Gwiijde Wampers on vocal duties. Ground Nero’s trademark wall of sound studio
approach gives their songs a depth and richness of texture few can emulate, and
Sayle’s velvet baritone is the perfect foil to Peter Smeets’ inventive guitar
work over keyboard soundscapes which are heavier and more powerful than Sayle’s
work with his other excellent band, Mark E Moon.
Byronic Sex & Exile – Everything But The Ghoul
The prolific Mr Heyes has built BS&E into arguably the
most expansive and original UK goth act of the last decade, and his latest LP
is by far his most consistent and accomplished set yet. Ranging from bar room
piano laments to dancefloor filling Lucretia-esque goth bangers, Everything
But The Ghoul is stuffed with a range of simply-but-beautifully constructed
songs which Heyes’ beloved Damned would struggle to better.
La Scaltra - Mater
La Scaltra started the year with a bang with this stunning
set of witch doom classics, the twin female vocal embellishments contrasting
superbly with the sleek stoner riffs beneath them in a series of hypnotic
modern gothic chants. Like most bands on the Solar Lodge imprint their image and
sound flirt dangerously with the ridiculous at times, but they have the class
and panache to pull it off.
Varsovie – Pression À
Froid
The latest set from Grenoble-based Varsovie was the
stand-out post-punk album of the year, combining intricate arrangements, a
driving insistent beat, and a timeless, semi-spoken vocal that has been the
hallmark of French language darkwave for over four decades, in songs which had
enough musical and lyrical originality to rise above the competition and mark Pression
À
Froid out as a future classic.
Maletas Vacias – Bitacora Incognita
After Diavol Strain in 2022, Maletas Vacias maintain a
Chilean presence in our annual countdown with their own uniquely singular take
on the gothic darkwave sub-genre on a stunning debut album which bristles with a
fresh energy and a willingness to dip into other genres, adding a haunting retro
80’s quirky dark pop sheen to their post-punk sensibilities.
Decena Tragica - Animal Moderno
The second Latin American selection of 2023 may only be a mini-album, but Mexican post-punk project Decena Tragica deserve plaudits for conjuring up the ghost of legendary early 80's Spanish post-punk outfit Paralisis Permanente on the main track of this release, with shades of death rock on other tracks.
Shrouds - Grimoire
Although this blog usually eschews artists who embrace
rather too enthusiastically some of the more cartoonish aspects of goth, there
were undeniably some excellent if cliché-ridden examples of Californian
deathrock in 2023, with Grimoire, the physical release of an expanded re-working of
Shrouds’s 2017 debut EP an undisputed highlight. Indeed an early version of the track below, Sin, initially featured on an even earlier EP back in 2015! Histrionic vocals, frenetic
drumming, angular spooky guitar parts, the whiff of ultra firm hold hairspray
and a wilfully muddy production mix conjure up ghosts from the 1981 heyday of
positive punk.
Cemetary Girlz – L’envol du Corbeau
France’s Cemetary Girlz are another act not afraid to tie
their colours (ok, colour) firmly to the 1980’s/1990’s goth mast, and their
debut LP L’envol du Corbeau was a thrillingly haunting examination of some of
the darker corners of the genre, exhuming corpses left untouched for thirty
years. Their songs are intriguing guitar FX-drenched soundscapes which branch
off into ever deeper, more melancholic sub-worlds.
In A Darkened Room – Sorrow
Another stunning debut, In A Darkened Room’s Sorrow was
another release which brought together previous singles alongside new material.
Slower, more melodic and more introspective than many other acts, with lugubrious shades of the 'miserygoth' sub-genre at times, Sorrow was another consistently excellent release from a North
American scene which enjoyed a real renaissance this year.
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