Live Review - Then Comes Silence and Agent Side Grinder at Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, 10th January 2024

Just ten days into the New Year and already Scotland was hosting what looks likely to be one of the stand-out gigs of 2024, the very welcome return of the self-styled “Swedish captains of post-punk”, bringing their infectious gothic darkwave groove to the capital for the first time since a pre-pandemic double bill with 1919 in July 2019 in the atmospheric arched vault of Bannerman’s bar in the spooky Old Town.

This year’s gig took place just around the corner at the equally cool subterranean venue Cabaret Voltaire, with gig-goers having to find a drizzly path through the patrons of Auld Reekie's Ghost Hunter tours led by hyperbole-obsessed ‘resting’ actors accompanying  their gullible charges to Edinburgh’s allegedly hidden underground ghost town.

The name of the Cabaret Voltaire venue could hardly be more appropriate for the other band on an enterprising bill promoted by London’s Reptile club night, fellow Swedes Agent Side Grinder, whose 80’s influenced electro post-punk is partially indebted spiritually to the Sheffield band of the same name, who themselves were named after a short-lived Dadaist cabaret club in Zurich over a century ago.

Although representing very different musical styles, the two bands on show have much in common, apart from being based in Stockholm: both are at the more melodic end of their genre, both have not only survived but thrived after multiple line-up changes, and recently TCS figurehead Alex Svenson played bass on ASG’s 2023 album Jack Vegas.

        Agent Side Grinder, Edinburgh, 2024. L-R Peter Fristedt, Emanuel Åström, Johan Lange,

On this occasion, both bands were billed to play a full hour set, with ASG on first, and they won over an initially somewhat hesitant crowd with a varied set which spanned their career, from earlier hits like Wolf Hour to tracks from the last album, for which Svenson joined them on what became a very cramped stage, with the slow-burning Madeleine a highlight from this section of the set. Traditional crowd-pleaser Giants Fall also went down well, as the audience slowly warmed to an always eclectic increasingly EBM dancefloor-oriented retro synthwave set.

Visually, Emanuel Åström  remains the focus, half-Stiv Bators half-Andy McCluskey as he writhes around the mike stand and dances his way through the set in front of the band’s A/X logo, with founder member Johan Lange providing strong backing vocals and some wonderful old school analogue synth sounds alongside fellow stalwart Peter Fristedt, looking ever more like the mad professor, frantically seeking out the right tape loop from his box of tricks in the sound laboratory and constantly twiddling knobs and dials to tweak the ASG sound. After a brief encore, the band and their equipment left the small stage to be replaced by that rarity for darkwave bands, a drumkit, along with the usual pedalboard, only serving to accentuate the two very different strands which are pre-eminent in modern gothic culture.

        Alex Svenson joins Agent Side Grinder on stage, Edinburgh 2024

With a career stretching back to 2012 and soon to release their seventh studio album,  Then Comes Silence exude a solid dark professionalism, despite their relatively recent reduction to a three-piece, from the opening chord of a set which features songs judiciously selected from their last four albums, but all with the same energy and melody which has seen them rise to the very top of the current scene.

Set-opener Tickets To Funerals from the most recent album Hunger is a strong statement of intent with guitarist Hugo Zombie’s chugging riffs a perfect counterpoint to Svenson’s dusky vocal, with behatted drummer Jonas Fransson laying down a powerful beat behind them. Any sound mix issues were sorted quickly during the next two songs,  Flashing Pangs of Love (from 2017’s Blood) and Apocalypse Flare (on 2020 album Machine), in time for the first highlight of the set, Good Friday from the former release, Svenson’s powerful and moving paean to his late father, with Zombie absolutely nailing the solo after pummelling and pirouetting through the opening sections of the song in his own unique style, which is typical of the band’s obvious enjoyment of being back on stage again.

      Then Comes Silence on stage in Edinburgh, 2024 L-R Alex Svenson. Jonas Fransson, Hugo Zombie

As a trio, the band now has a raw power and energy in a live setting which is in contrast with their increasingly sleek critically-acclaimed studio releases, and the simple, descending dark punk riff of the evening’s next song, She Loves The Night (from 2015’s Nyctophilian) shows this to full pulverising effect.

Whilst some songs – Strange Kicks, and Dark End, for example – do lose some of their subtlety with the slimmed-down line-up, others have gained in effect from the more simplified structure, such as Rise To The Bait, the first song where the audience really cuts free and the first half-dozen rows of a very decent turnout for a wet midweek January evening become a lively two-step throng.

                               A rare shot of Hugo Zombie standing still enough for a photo

The next song, the “whisper to a scream” classic Mercury (from Blood) builds slowly to an epic impassioned crescendo from the peerless Svenson, with the sole guitar again providing a wonderful tonal range and the uplifting finale echoing round the walls of the subterranean chamber to a rapturous response. Predictably, the band has saved some of their best-known classics for the end, with Strangers and Animals from Nyctophilian book-ending a typically excoriating version of Blood’s The Rest Will Follow, with Fransson’s frenetic punky drumming dominating once more, leaving crowd and band exhausted yet fully sated, with the latter promising to return soon. The double headliner mini-tour now moves on to Manchester, Bristol and London (Saturday), and anyone within travelling distance is strongly encouraged to attend.

Reptile’s next Scottish show at the end of next month, also to be held in Edinburgh, is an even more eclectically impressive bill, featuring local 80’s goth punk stalwarts Twisted Nerve, now stretching their infamous Five Minutes Of Fame into a fifth decade, twenty-first century Italian synthwave darlings Ash Code, with 90’s French gothic legends Corpus Delicti topping the bill, all for a mere twenty quid. Tickets for the show on Feb 28^th at La Belle Angele are available here.

Bandcamp links:  Agent Side Grinder    Then Comes Silence

The Top 15 Goth/Post-Punk Albums of 2023

 

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link

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.

Bandcamp link