Live Review: VAZUM, Twisted Nerve and Voodoo Twins at Bannerman's Bar, Edinburgh, Wednesday 3rd April 2024

 It’s not often that a relatively new US project takes the financial hit of a self-organised European tour, but Detroit-based grunge-goth duo VAZUM are not your typical darkscene act. Not only innovating musically with their unique take on the gothic aesthetic they have named “deathgaze”, the band had also thoughtfully released a ‘greatest hits’ album V- which collated their best songs in a re-recorded stripped-down style which more faithfully represents their live sound. Their UK shows had been due to commence the night before in Glasgow, but major electrical supply issues had resulted in a late cancellation, meaning that the Edinburgh gig at the legendary Bannerman’s bar last night was their European debut, and the pair had put together an interesting bill which included two other bands who (whilst also genre-defying) would be of interest to fans of guitar-based goth.

Vazum on the Bannerman's stage

Midlothian quartet Voodoo Twins were fresh from a recent well-received support slot to much-loved tribute band Lizzie and the Banshees, and their high-tempo new wave sound got proceedings off to an energetic start. With twin frontmen Jim Threat and Daz Voodoo alternating vocals, they ripped through songs from last year’s EP and its soon-to-be-recorded follow-up in a well-paced set. The band describe themselves as post-punk electronica, but their live sound seemed more anchored in the sweaty yet cultured sound of 1978 (Jam, Stranglers etc), meaning that they are more likely to receive an invitation to play Rebellion punk festival than Wave Gotik Treffen.

Voodoo Twins

One band who can effortlessly bestride those two events are the ubiquitous Twisted Nerve, with the eighties stalwarts back on home ground and confounding any attempt to pigeonhole their sound. Original bassplayer Norbert Bassbin can still rock the leather strides and studded belt after 45 years of pounding out the punky bassline to traditional encore 5 Minutes of Fame, whilst charismatic frontman Craig Paterson’s initial gothic phase in the band in early/mid 80’s is represented by the classics Medusa, Twisted Nervosis and Séance, the title track from their seminal 1984 EP which still changes hands for well over £50 despite a recent (and sold out) blue vinyl re-release, such is its mythical status amongst worldwide aficionados of the genre. 

Norbert

The band also blend in more recent compositions such as Magik of Trance and Lost Souls, both of which have an early The Cult goth’n’roll feel and give imaginatively-nicknamed guitarist “Dunsy” Dunsmore the chance to demonstrate his six-string skills. Drummer Dave Grave’s starring role in Air-Krasha provides another example of why Twisted Nerve remain a popular, enjoyable and dynamic staple of the live gothic scene, with further gigs within the next six weeks supporting The Doctors of Madness, 1919 and Ghost Dance lined up, as well as a slot at the Dia de Los Muertos festival in LA at Halloween.

Craig

Headliners VAZUM provide an altogether different live experience, reaching deeper into the dark soul in a performance of songs drenched in dramatic tension. Zach Pliska’s love of Smashing Pumpkins is obvious from the first bludgeoning chords effortlessly coaxed from his guitar as the duo launch into a coruscating version of Angel, with Emily Sturm’s strong yet vulnerable vocal the perfect counterpoint to Zach’s more spoken delivery. 

Emily

                       Zach

For all their horror punk visuals and bludgeoning sound, VAZUM are charm personified between songs, with Emily’s (dreadful Detroit goth pun ahoy) sassy chat in particular entertaining the several dozen punters who have braved the day’s persistent rain for a midweek gig. After sarcastically commenting on a two very inebriated young attendees whose attempts at dancing invariably ended in collapse (“those girls need another drink”), she invited the audience to come out with a name for the band’s drum machine, eventually settling on the stereotypically Scottish “Jimmy”. After second song and recent single Blush’s melodic harmonies, Sturm warned the crowd that it would be noise all the way thereafter, a prophecy which bass-heavy versions of current single Breach and predecessors Thief and Nightshade soon proved to be true. With further songs from the forthcoming album Western Violence (including the title track) also showcased, VAZUM again demonstrated their talent for powerful, angular, grungy gothic rock, played with an intensity and volume that fellow Detroit legends MC5 and The Stooges would surely approve of. After a well-deserved and somewhat more subtle encore, VAZUM’s warmly-received European debut came to an all-too-brief end, with further (and somewhat distant) tour stops in Exeter, Vannes and Lyon planned. Catch them if you can!

VAZUM Bandcamp site

Album Review: Trickery by Then Comes Silence

 It’s hard to believe that with the unveiling of Trickery on Metropolis Records this week, Sweden’s gothic darkwave maestros Then Comes Silence have now released seven albums, gradually rising to the forefront of the current scene as their reputation and their following increase with each successive LP.

Many of the bands on the original positive punk scene – Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim to name but four – never made it anywhere near as far as seven albums in terms of studio releases, and those who did – Siouxsie and The Banshees (Tinderbox, 1986), The Cure (Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, 1987) or Killing Joke (Outside The Gate, 1988), for example – were not only clearly past their creative best by that point, but had enjoyed some of the trappings of success, along with Top 20 hits, Top 10 albums, sell-out tours, magazine front covers and critical recognition, which encouraged them to continue the struggle and reach that landmark.

All of which makes the uniformly high standard of Then Comes Silence’s output -  and Trickery is no exception – all the more remarkable, as founder member Alex Svenson has coped stoically with multiple line-up changes and the continued relative indifference of the wider music industry and community,  whilst devoting over a decade to developing the project to the very highest of standards, both as a live act and (visually and musically) in their recorded output.

Over the past twelve years, Then Comes Silence’s sonic palette has gradually become more refined, whilst the key elements remain: solid but varied guitar work containing elements of dark psych, Svenson’s own lugubrious croon, powerful drumming and a commitment to excellence in all they undertake.

After a pair of monochromatic self-titled releases creating their distinctive sound, Then Comes Silence really came to prominence with 2015’s Nyctophilian, the first to feature current sticksman Jonas Fransson, whilst 2017’s Blood is regarded by many commentators as the peak of their purely gothic output, and was the first toured by guitarist Hugo Zombie on his arrival in the band the following year. 2020’s Machine and 2022’s Hunger saw the band adding a more subtle veneer to their sound across a broad range of styles, with power and dark melody always the watchwords, and with the core of the band remaining the same despite the departure of second guitarist Mattias Ruejas Jonson, Trickery continues in the same vein, a factor emphasised in the album’s cover, the purple background not too many shades from its predecessor.

Sonically, the album commences with a couple of typical TCS belters, the full-on Ride Or Die (with its chorus nod to the melody of [Ghost] Riders in the Sky) and the more commercial Like A Hammer (with very obvious lyrical steals from the band’s own back catalogue, the sign of a project comfortable in its own skin), with the Swedes’ instantly recognisable sound containing many of the elements which made their previous records such critical successes.

Already hinted at in the opening track, Svenson’s recent obsession with the analogue synthesiser sound of the Futurist movement of the early 1980’s (as showcased on his recent solo project Neonpocalypse) is added to the opening section of Feel The Cold, which broadens out into a more traditional guitar-based chorus, whilst the experimental side cranks up on the eerie and discordant opening to the goth’n’roll stomp of Tears and Cries, which likes tracks on previous albums benefits from a female co-vocal, on this occasion provided by Emma Nylen of Emmon.

Zombie’s grungy guitar prelude to the up-tempo Ramones-influenced pop-punk thrash Stay Strange (with current scene figurehead Dusty Gannon of Vision Video adding additional vocals) introduces the album’s third phase, and the one most likely to appeal to fans of the band’s middle period, with the dark psych quotient dialled up significantly on the magnificent Stiffs. Fransson’s energetic drumming, the spooky keyboard drones, and the powerful guitar of Bright Eye, maintain the dark punk feel, with hints of the spectre of a more subtly melodic Killing Joke permeating through the song.

 

The Masquerade sees a further shift change, with the emphasis on a creeping, more dancefloor friendly backbeat, a softer vocal and the return of the starker synth sounds, and is perhaps the album’s darkest moment (“There’s no escape..”) whilst Never Change finds Svensson in a more positive, reflective and unapologetically defiant mood (“We really haven’t changed much, we’re never gonna change…The light burns bright”), with Zombie’s bouncier riffs matching the lyric’s uplifting atmosphere. The Blink 182-style blitzkrieg is back for Dead Friend, which at under two minutes is more reminiscent of the shorter, punkier sketches on the band’s earliest albums and Zombie’s work with his previous band, Los Carniceros del Norte.

However, the more cinematic soundscapes of the band’s more recent releases are back for the album’s more epic pair of closing tracks, the classy dark pop (think The The) of Runners followed by the slow-building finale Ghost House which leaves the album on a more hauntingly melancholic note (“abandoned heart, abandoned soul, abandoned love”).

Trickery stands as a monument to the current gothic darkwave scene, the sound of a proud band continuing to soldier on together with their loyal band of followers through the adversity of fate whilst maintaining a strong belief in the beauty of the dark soul. With this seventh album, Then Come Silence seem to have nobly accepted that (although hope dies last…) they will probably never achieve anything like the sales or play to the size of audiences that their 1980’s predecessors enjoyed, despite the sheer quality of their ever-growing sequence of excellent albums and the ringing endorsements of all who have heard their output, but are honourably content to keep developing their sound for themselves, their fans, and their art.

Bandcamp link