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.
Although this blog is currently mothballed, it would be very remiss not to salute those acts whose releases have illuminated this first post-Covid year, with gigs virtually back to normal and bands no longer confined to the studio. 2022 has seen a further maturing of the current wave of bands, with most of the projects in the Top 10 on at least their third album, and now fully establishing themselves as scene leaders. With giant Euro festivals as diverse as the 80's retro W-Fest (in Belgium) and metal-obsessed Hellfest (in France) seeing the wisdom of effectively having a goth stage at their events (with Fields of the Nephilim set to play at both) in 2023, the scene continues to both consolidate and grow organically, waiting for the glorious day when the rest of the world finally catches up with the great music made over the past decade....
So here without any further ado are the Goth/Post-Punk Revival blog Top Releases of 2022:
Top 10 albums of 2022 (in alphabetical order)
All My Thorns – Further From The
Distant Sun
Shamelessly Nephilim-influenced metal-tinged occult goth rock, fantastically written, performed, produced and mastered.
Black Angel – The Black Rose
Dramatic modern film noir gothic
rock take on classic 80’s tropes updated for the discerning modern audience.
Deathtrippers – Passion and Fire
High quality atmospheric gothgaze
from the Leeds band keeping the flame alive in the scene's "heartland".
JE T’AIME – Passive
Energetically diverse French
post-punk album stuffed with good tunes.
Kill Shelter - Asylum
Stunningly produced modern gothic darkwave which at its best is an alchemical melange of The Prodigy and The Sisters of Mercy
Malefixio – Magia Ceremonial
Spell-binding buzzsaw low-fi Batcave
deathrock from the Barcelona trio, it's raw power earning the album a place in this top 10.
October Burns Black – Two Worlds
Collide
Trad goth rock supergroup deliver powerful and well-paced full debut set after a couple of highly promising EPs
Secret French Postcards – Life
Got Claws
Dreamy guitar-based gothgaze with
shimmering Chameleons-reminiscent melodies, an album to wallow in.
Then Comes Silence – Hunger
Peerless polished angular and
dramatic goth-tinged post-punk from the Swedish maestros on this their sixth album.
They Die – Emptiness Prevails
Epic dark gothic synthwave for the
dancefloor from the fast-rising Italian trio.
Runners-up (i.e. 11-20, in no
particular order): Soft Moon, Adriano Bê,
Cabaret Grey, Byronic Sex & Exile, The Doctors, Red Moon Macabre, Crows, The
Palest Grey, The Black Capes, Rammstein
Top EPs of 2022 (in alphabetical order)
Fearing – Desolate
Classy darkwave post-punk from the
first note to the last chord of a varied but fascinating EP
Gallows’ Eve – Five Hexes
Accomplished Swedish goth rock with
trad leanings
Mark E Moon – Lux Invictae
Gothier set of tracks from the ever-reliable
Manx darkwave act
Neonpocalypse – ISM
Wonderfully retro futurist solo outing
from Then Comes Silence frontman
Velvet Mist – Visitation
Unashamedly late 80’s-style melodic goth
rock from Belgium
The Waning Moon – The Waning Moon
Excellent trad goth collaboration
between Ariel Maniki and Zac Campbell (Kentucky Vampires)
Top 5 singles of 2022 (in alphabetical order)
Ground Nero – Dead
World
Strong baritone
vocal lament over the habitual upbeat gothic wall-of-sound
Kill Shelter ft
Beborn Beton – In This Place
Nagging syncopated
Hussey-esque riff underpins modern darkwave classic which nods knowingly to DM
and TSOM
The Bellwether
Syndicate – Dystopian Mirror
Surprisingly energetic and original
gothic rock from one of the scene’s most established, erm, bellwethers.
Then Comes
Silence – Tickets to Funerals
Inventively
powerful gothic post-punk from the most professional band on the scene
They Die – A
Single Frame
Descending
bassline, lugubrious vocal, club friendly sequencer BPM, shimmering and
modulating guitars. A perfect example of the current scene at its best.
After a period of reflection, I have taken the reluctant
decision to mothball the Goth/Post-Punk Revival website for the time being.
In other words, the monthly reviews of the latest releases
will no longer appear (as will have become apparent this autumn), neither will
album reviews and interviews.
I have had to take this decision because of poor time management/prioritisation on my part.
Other ongoing real-life stuff, such as increased work and family commitments (nothing too dramatic fortunately, just time-consuming) have meant that I have not been able to devote the amount of time that I would
like to this and the other blog which I run.
Fortunately, within what remains a
relatively small global scene, the number of sites offering similar material to this one has increased dramatically in the past few years, and to be frank there are
bigger and better platforms for bands to have their new material showcased. The
advent of video reviews/vlogs and interviews have really rendered written word-based
sites such as this one less useful, and there are a great many very talented
critics, journalists and DJs who do a fantastic job promoting the scene. At times, it seems that everyone in the
scene today is actively involved in some way or another, meaning that
musicians have to keep in touch with an ever-growing army of DJs and
journalists just to continue to reach the same small fanbase.
I will continue to do my best to promote great new music
when I find it, and when time permits would love to contribute occasionally to other
sites. But for now, I would like to thank my small but loyal readership (on average, five hundred views per post) and all
the wonderful artists on this scene who have without exception been an absolute
pleasure to deal with. Having had the good fortune to live in the UK in the early 1980's and therefore enjoy
the original scene first-hand, it is incredibly heartening to see the
consistency and quality of new music from all around the world within the
various sub-genres, and to see artists develop over multi-album careers which
would have brought them fame and riches in a previous generation, rather than
endless tours in a van playing to audiences which rarely reach three figures.
The slow rebirth of the live scene, this year, albeit with
initially lower audiences, gives fresh hope for the future of our scene, and as
long as the standard of music remains as high as it currently is, I am sure
that it will continue to thrive, until the glorious day when the wider public
rediscovers the counter-intuitive joy of goth.
July has seen arguably the biggest month for new releases
since the turn of the decade, with major albums from scene leaders Then Comes
Silence and Kill Shelter amongst others, along with a further incremental step
to the return of the pre-Covid gig scene, with more bands beginning to venture
further afield. The month also saw the return of a couple of big names from the
original UK 80’s scene amongst other revivals, as well as the usual smattering of
new artists from around the globe, and the Top 20 below excludes more worthy contenders than any other month so far this year.
1 Then Comes Silence – Tickets to Funerals
The Swedish act goes from strength to strength with their
excellent sixth studio album Hunger, released on the first day of July,
with opening salvo Tickets to Funerals summing up their winning mix of
subtlety and power. Whereas many current projects are one-person studio-based
affairs, TCS are very much a band in the traditional sense, with four excellent
musicians each contributing significantly and synergically to the overall
sound, even if Alex Svenson, the bassist/lyricist/singer/chief song-writer
remains the undisputed focal point.
2 Kill Shelter – Time Will Come
Kill Shelter’s Asylum is a perfect statement of the
prevailing third generation sound, a genial combination of the dancefloor-based
synth-dominated dark beats and the more traditional reverb, chorus and delay pedal based angular guitar sound of the
earlier gothic waves. Edinburgh producer and musician Pete Burns again successfully
integrates the contributions of some of the scene’s leading figures over the
past four decades on other tracks on the album, but the driving, pulsating beat and
multi-layered soundscape of Time Will Come is entirely his own work.
3 They Die – Your Hell
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: an epic album
needs a brooding, slow-burning bombastic final track to seal the deal, and Italian trio They
Die deliver in spades with Your Hell, the album-closer on Emptiness Prevails.
With the same alienated, bleak, defeated opening vibe leading to a more
anthemic and counter-intuitively positive chorus as the songs with which Gary
Numan has tended to close his more recent albums, Your Hell builds wonderfully
to a pompously thundering finale to round off one of the most pleasantly
surprising LPs of the year so far.
4 A Slice of Life – Seven Days
The very welcome return of the Belgian post-punk ensemble
with the wonderful earworm Seven Days, which has hints of classic dark
pop 80’s acts like Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cure and Modern English, but
with the energy and power which made their demo EP such a delight. Arguably
their best work to date, with more to follow shortly.
5 The Waning Moon – The Burning Woods
A sadly topical scorched summer ditty from the Costa Rican/US “supergroup”
duo playing 90’s influenced trad goth rock, with another powerful track from
their debut EP released as a single with an accompanying video to further
emphasise the project’s dark roots. Ariel Maniki’s confident vocal and Zac
Campbell’s classic goth rock guitar tones was always going to be a winning
combination, but the memorable arms-in-the-air chorus of The Burning Woods
has both a modern and comfortably familiar ring, and with over 65K YouTube views within the first fortnight, the project looks likely to bring overdue success to both parties.
6 The Golden Apes – From The Sky
The Berlin-based band, led by the Lebrecht brothers, is back
with a new single which showcases the project’s ever-evolving post-punk sound. From
The Sky’s full sonic palette has light guitar touches, a strong, deep
vocal, keyboard flourishes and a dark pop melody with an insistent beat.
7 The Secret French Postcards – Dreaming At Last
Few bands can seemingly effortlessly create the warm fuzzy
glow that washes over the listener like The Secret French Postcards, the
darkwave project of Swede Olli Ohlander. Sumptuously produced by Pedro Code, Ohlander’s
dreamy honeyed baritone and shimmering shoegaze guitar tones fuse wonderfully in a very
welcome teaser for the forthcoming album.
8 Anne Clark – Mriya, an ode to Ukraine
Post-punk poet Anne Clark’s deadpan delivery of bleak tales
of broken relationships and lives adrift had a profound effect on the youth of
certain European countries in the mid-1980’s at the height of the first gothic
wave, with tracks like Our Darkness and True Love Tales, set over
coldwave beats. Mriya, recorded with Ukranian musicians is an
impassioned plea to support those affected by the current war.
9 WMTID – The Prince Is Dead!
Another 80’s post-punk poet back on the scene is Richard
Rouska, well-known Leeds face of the 1980’s and founder of the free fanzine Rouska
and the record label of the same name which released the early records by The
Cassandra Complex. His relaunch (with typically subversive verve) of his WMTID project features melodic death disco on The Prince Is Dead!, which canters along
like Talking Heads covering James Ray’s Gangwar.
10 James Ray and the Black Hearted Riders – Now Death
Is Over
Talking of whom, James Ray is back himself with the release on Bandcamp of a six track album of bar room alt-country balladry which conjures up
images of a more cinematic Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Ray’s lugubrious vocal
and some well-crafted playing make for a pleasant mix which retains the dark
atmospheric ambiance of his early Merciful Releases.
11 Ductape – Gregor
Ductape’s new video, shot during their Mexican tour,
features one of the better tracks from the Turkish duo’s patchy sophomore album
Ruh, with their fleshed-out Kas Product coldwave punk sound enhanced by the
exotic locations.
12 Another Abyss – Black Cars
There’s a strong Editors vibe on this excellent post-punk track,
with its insistent 170 bpm backbeat driven by a dominant bass, with excellent
guitar work and a strong yet understated vocal, take from the impressive six
track debut EP from the German one-man project.
13 New Today – Flowers
Duo New Today’s album Cradle made waves last year,
and the grungy psychgaze chorus of new Flowers seems likely to attract
similar attention. There’s a deceptively simple charm to the song’s structure
and low-fi hippyish verse which explodes into the more distorted garage noisefest of a chorus in a
very 90’s way (think Catherine Wheel meets Dandy Warhols).
14 (Adriano) Bê - Soldados e Fuzis
The Belo Horizonte based frontman of Brazilian band Drowned
Man released his solo album on Plainsong at the end of the month, a wonderful
selection of mildly psych-influenced post-punk, with Soldados e Fuzis with
its Spacemen 3-esque drone the pick of the bunch.
15 Social Union – Fall Into Me
This uber cool dark electro offering from the New Zealand
duo is out on Berlin-based Blackjack Illuminist and mixes triphop heavy bass
with a dreamwave vocal, deservedly drawing rave reviews for what is a varied
but highly promising debut EP.
16 The Way of All Flesh – Killing Floor
There must be something in the air this month as there’s also a strong James Ray vibe to the driving old
school biker goth of Sheffield’s The Way Of All Flesh who have returned after a
very lengthy absence with a new EP (Shotguns and Razorwire) expertly
mastered by Gordon Young, featuring Killing Floor as the lead track, and an accompanying UK tour with Byronic Sex & Exile.
17 Dwell In Doom – Nevermore
Possibly the most trad goth release this month, Nevermore
is mid-paced melodic goth rock/metal from a one-man Swedish project with a low-key
baritone vocal from Andreas Ericsson which goes mildly screamo for the chorus,
and some welcome keyboard swathes in the middle eight.
18 Khlyst Sect – Dybbuk
Dybbuk from Seattle’s Khlyst Sect is a bewitching
opening to an intriguing EP, a spooky dark deathwave instrumental. Of the other
tracks, both with a female vocal, Broken Clock has a dark dreampop vibe,
whilst the more experimental Let Go has an excellent Mittel Europa
electro deathrock feel.
19 The Flatfield – Blood Red Room
The Finnish goth rock act release their new album Shadow Self
via Bat-Cave Productions next month, and teaser opening track Blood Red Room
promises a more subtle and dramatic direction for their sound. A plaintive
vocal, piano flourishes and syncopated drum patterns frame the innovative
deathrock guitar sound for which they are known.
Brooklyn act Spirits of Leo’s album Gossamer Blue has
an unashamedly 80’s vibe, with shades of the shimmering 4AD wall of sound, the
uplifting dark pop of The Cure and even the classic jangly melodies of The
Stone Roses or The Chameleons. Asylum’s intricately-layered sound
promises much for the album which will feature in many end-of-year “Best Of …” lists
if the quality of the first three tracks released is anything to go by.
The second album from Edinburgh-based darkwave artist Kill
Shelter (the musical pseudonym of multi-instrumentalist and producer Pete
Burns) further extends his unique uniting role at the forefront of the current
global goth revival. Not only does his music successfully combine the two oft-warring
factions of the contemporary scene - the synth-based, dancefloor-oriented dark electro
sub-genre and the guitar-based, trad goth rock strand – but having collaborated with
many of the leading up-and-coming “wave” artists on the debut Kill Shelter
album Damage in 2018, he has broadened the range of contributing artists
on the new release Asylum, which gathers together luminaries from the
past forty years of the alternative music scene, uniting in the process fans of different generations, whilst imbuing the whole project with the unique Kill Shelter sound.
From the very first bars of Asylum’s opening track Time
Will Come, it’s clear that the sophomore album will be a heavier and darker
affair, with Burns’ trademark guitar riffs very much to the fore, but more muscular and impactful than on the previous album, and now
enhanced by his own bleak baritone vocal, as is also the case with the re-recorded version of Buried
Deep, which features regular collaborator Karl Morten Dahl (Antipole) on
guitar.
The two singles released thus far further showcase the range
of sounds on offer, with the on-trend bass-driven EBM rhythms of The Necklace
(featuring vocals - and lyrics - from Johan Lange of Sweden’s Agent Side Grinder) contrasting
with the more complex arrangements of the dark synthwave of In This Place,
with singer Stefan Netschio of German legends Beborn Beton lending the track a
classy Depeche Mode vibe, with Burns’ own classic syncopated spooky guitar line adding
an extra element to a song which opens out wonderfully from an angular trip hop
intro.
The ethereal tones of Valentina Veil (of VV and the Void) enhance
the dark electro of Queen of Hearts, the stark matter-of-fact innocence
of her voice (which is reminiscent of Lush’s Miki Berenyi) magnifying the lyrical theme. There’s also a
touching vulnerability to goth royalty William Faith’s vocal on Cover Me,
which like many of the tracks begins with a trademark Burns guitar motif (with accompanying mournful synth chords in this case) which will comfortingly
return at various points during the song, which is arguably the closest in overall sound to the prevailing vibe of previous album Damage.
The other two tracks of the eight core songs to appear on
Asylum – the European and American editions both additionally feature two different short Kill Shelter
instrumental compositions, which are more cinematic soundscapes than full songs
– both feature sudden changes in tempo, with current darkwave scene darlings
Ash Code contributing fully on Feed The Fire to what becomes a full-on
dancefloor stomper of a chorus after a surprisingly stark verse section, whilst the final
main track All of This, which features the legendary Ronny Moorings (Clan
of Xymox), has a particularly epic and anthemic feel to it, with some up-tempo shimmering beats and more
classic Kill Shelter guitar motifs. There’s a clear melancholic feeling which
is only emphasised by a lyric, beautifully sung by Moorings, which speaks in portentous, almost Eldritchian tones of the
uncertainty and essential ephemeral nature of modern life – “Lost in time… all
of this will come to pass, all of this will fade away, all of this is yours to lose some day.”
Both lyrically and musically, for all of its variety Asylum
is a much more homogenous affair than its predecessor, with Kill Shelter’s sound
becoming as distinctive and easily recognisable as that of his most frequent
collaborator, Antipole. Eager to find out more about the current album and
future Kill Shelter projects, I contacted Pete Burns and was delighted when he
agreed to the interview which follows.
Asylum is available onMetropolis (US edition)and Manic Depression (Europe edition) Records, and is perfect musical nourishment for dark souls who identify with any of the myriad sub-genres of the current - or indeed historic - scene.
1.You’ve been a busy man over the past two years since I
last interviewed you, with remixes, one-off Kill Shelter tracks and of course
the collaboration album with Antipole. I remember that in our last chat, you
said that you already had the second and third Kill Shelter albums planned out
– has this second volume Asylum turned out as you had expected back
then?
I’m really pleased with the way Asylum turned out,
but it was more complicated than I had originally anticipated. When we last
spoke, Nik, the concept was pretty much mapped out and I had actually planned
to make it a double album! Unfortunately, there were a lot of things that
affected the production including contributors pulling out for personal
reasons, ill health, hospitalisation and in some cases, people just going
completely off the radar. It’s been a difficult few years for everyone, so
there were some doors I just didn’t want to push. I’m really delighted with the
quality of the contributions on the album and even though it’s different from
my original intention in terms of scope, it really has some very special
moments, and I definitely wouldn’t change it.
2. The title, Asylum, has modern political
connotations, but was also used to refer to mental health institutions in
previous generations. Are you aiming to change the political landscape, to
raise awareness of mental health issues, or is the music itself intended as a
place of virtual sanctuary?
Like all my work, there is a duality to the concept and
you are right, I was keen to raise awareness of both political and mental
health issues. Asylum goes beyond that too. Domestic abuse went up by
over 30% in the last two years and that’s a terrifying statistic. There’s a lot
wrong with this world and it just seems like things are getting worse. I would
have hoped that we’d have become a more advanced society by now. It’s
heart-breaking really. I hadn’t thought of the music being a virtual sanctuary
but I love that idea. I think we all need an escape.
3. The cover for Asylum at first glance is very
reminiscent to that of Damage, which was a close-upphoto taken at the incredible abandoned
former Yugoslav army holiday resort of Kupari in modern-day Croatia. Were you
just looking for a similar visual aesthetic of a bullet-hole, or is there
deeper symbolic meaning in the sharper, cleaner lines on the Asylum
cover photo, and will this be reflected in the third part of the trilogy?
I have to say that you really know your stuff, Nik, and
you certainly pay attention to the details. I get the feeling I’m going to have
to work really hard for you not to second guess me now!
I had the idea for the cover, along with the concept,
before I started the recording process. It’s actually part of a triptych that I
made but in the end, I only decided to use one section. I wanted the cover art
to look like it was handmade rather than found. I deliberately didn’t overwork
it as I wanted the finished piece to have a raw but unusual energy.
The label device that holds the logos and the album title
will be consistent across the series but the cover art itself may not follow
the same aesthetic approach. I’m in two minds about that at the moment
(laughs). Whatever happens, the covers should all feel like they are part of
the same series - that’s really important to me.
4. It might seem strange to be asking this when Asylum is
only still on pre-release, but I was wondering how far ahead is the planning
for the third Kill Shelter album? For example, do you have the music written,
and do you have the next tranche of collaborating artists already working on
their individual tracks?
I’m always thinking ahead so that’s a very fair question
to ask. I have some tracks put aside and there is one track that is complete
and mastered but I’m not sure if it will make the release or not. Going through
the process of making Asylum changed my perspective on a few things so I
will remain open minded about where the third and final album in that series
goes but, as you’d expect, it has a concept and working title.
I’ve also got a few concepts mapped out for future
releases too. I think I take comfort in being organised in that tiny part of my
life.
5. Many physical releases in the (sadly) niche world of
contemporary coldwave/darkwave/goth music are released by different companies
in the US and Europe, but on this occasion you have selected different tracks
for each version of Asylum, with a core of eight tracks common to both
releases, but with a further two tracks each which don’t feature on the other
version. Was this simply a way of releasing more tracks, or is there a
particular message in those extra tracks which you felt was relevant to that
particular continent?
I feel really lucky and honoured to be working with both
Metropolis Records and Manic Depression Records so I wanted them to have
something unique. The covers, liner notes and listings are different so it made
sense to me to include different tracks to make each release special. I really
love the idea of music being collectable and this seemed like a perfect
opportunity to do something a bit different with the formats and the
territories. The tracks all come from the same place but are different sonic
interpretations of the main concept.
Shipping costs can be very cost prohibitive for people so
my main reason for the split release was to make the physical formats
accessible and hopefully affordable for people. I also hope that it helps to
broaden the spectrum of people that have heard of Kill Shelter. I still think
it’s a very well-kept secret even in our niche world.
6. You released an early version of the core tracks, Buried
Deep, on a DarkItalia compilation a couple of years ago. Was the plan
always to go back and rework the song with your most frequent collaborator
(Karl Morten Dahl from Antipole)?
I was keen to revisit Buried Deep and it made
sense to have Karl add some of his guitar work to the track to give it a
slightly different feel. I redid the vocals and some of the lyrics, changed the
structure and, with the addition of Karl’s guitars, I think it became a
stronger track. It’s still tonally very complex but I can listen to it now
without only hearing the mistakes that I originally made (laughs).
7. Clearly most of this second album was recorded during the
pandemic, and as with Damage there is a stellar cast of darkwave icons
who have contributed to individual tracks. Did you manage to work with any of
them in the studio in person, or was it largely done digitally and independently?
Yes, all the contributions were recorded remotely. I’m so
used to working that way now that I don’t even question it anymore. In some
cases, I prepared a guide vocal as well as the demo and lyrics. The only track
that was different was The Necklace with Agent Side Grinder where they
wrote the lyrics as well as recording the vocals. Everyone on the album was
incredible to work with and there were very few changes along the way. It
really is quite a moment when the vocal stems come through for the first time
and you hear the track move from a demo to a song. Even though the
collaboration isn’t real time, I think the effect is still tangible - it’s a
real pleasure to work with that level of talent. I don’t take that for granted.
8. On this new album, as well as contemporary “third wave”
artists, your collaborators include Ronny Moorings from Clan of Xymox and
ex-Faith and the Muse mainman William Faith from the previous “waves”. Was this
a deliberate policy of embracing the broader history of the genre, or just a
natural widening of your address book after the success of Damage?
It was very deliberate.
I wanted Asylum to be reflective of the last 40
years or so of underground and alternative music so it was important for me to
have a spectrum of artists from each wave as well as different genres. Damage
was focussed on emerging talent from around the world and felt of its time. It
was important for me to take a different approach with Asylum so each
album had a point of difference. I’m really lucky to have worked with so many
talented people on the album and it’s their contribution that makes it so
special.
9. In between the two KS albums proper, apart from the
collaboration album with Antipole, you also contributed a couple of cover
versions to tribute albums on your former label, Unknown Pleasures, The Sisters
of Mercy’s Nine While Nine and Bauhaus’ She’s In Parties. Did
covering these songs by your idols increase your appreciation of their talent,
and will the experience of making the cover versions influence your own work in
the future?
It really did. I’d never really done covers before so it
was a challenge all round if I’m being honest. I have a lot of time for Pedro
at UPR so when he asked Karl and I to cover Nine While Nine, I couldn’t
really say no but I was very nervous about it. It’s one of my favourite
Eldritch lyrics but it’s not easy to sing. In retrospect I should maybe have
been braver with my approach to the arrangement of the track but I was so
focussed on not fucking up the vocal entirely that I think that’s where all my
focus and attention went. I still put my heart and soul into it though. With She’s
in Parties, it was different again. Vocally, I think I’m closer to Peter
Murphy than Eldritch but the register and range really pushed my almost
non-existent vocal abilities. I did all the high backing vocals too and I think
I surprised myself in the process. It’s made me think very differently about
how I approach singing and song structure. Also, with She’s in Parties,
I let my guitar playing open up in the dub outro, and even though it’s quite
minimal, it’s one of my favourite guitar parts that I’ve recorded. I
deliberately did it in one take, in fact all the overdubs were done like that -
I was keen to keep the looseness and energy associated with just going for it.
It wasn’t planned. So yes, lots of learnings that I will definitely apply going
forward.
10. You always seem to have a lot of projects on the go at
the same time, with the remixing of other artists, Kill Shelter releases and
other collaborations. What’s next for you, after the release of Asylum?
Will you be playing any live shows, or given the nature of your recordings
would that be logistically too difficult?
The Kill Shelter albums would be very hard to replicate
live, mainly from a guest vocalist perspective. The logistics and costs would
make it almost impossible. Also, my head is in writing at the moment and not
performing - I think they are two very different things. At this point I’d
rather spend my time wisely and create new material while I still feel like I
have something to say rather than rehearsing something I’d already recorded. When
I did Damage I was adamant that I couldn’t sing and had no plans to do
so. Working with Karl (Antipole) changed my perspective on that, so I’ll remain
open minded.
I’ve stopped remixing quite as much now, but I have a few
pipelined EPs. Karl and I plan to do another album together and I have a
working title as well as the cover concept in place for when the time comes.
I’ve also got two albums in my sights, one being the final part of the Kill
Shelter Trilogy. I’ve got a side project that I’m working on with Cliff Hewitt
(Modern Eon, Apollo 440, Jean-Michel Jarre, Schiller etc) so I’m hoping that
will see the light of day next year all going well. He’s an incredible drummer
but it’s very early stages at the moment so we’ll just have to see what happens.
If there’s one thing that I’m never short of is things to
do…
June started as ever with a bang, with the full return of
Wave-Gotik-Treffen, the annual scene festival in Leipzig (Germany), and despite
occasional gig cancellations as the current wave of covid infections struck
randomly at individual band and crew members, the music world continued its slow return
from a lengthy hibernation, with more and more tracks recorded since the end of
the major lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 now being released. As ever, this month’s
run-down of the some of the best new tracks covers a broad church of releases loosely befitting the goth and
post-punk tags.
1.They Die – Single Frame
Italian darkwave duo They Die tap into the zeitgeist with
two great teaser tracks this month for their July album Emptiness
Revails on Swiss Dark Nights. First track One Last Kiss channels the
dark power of Ground Nero, whilst the second track, Single Frame, our
song of the month for June, conjures up a Strangers and Lovers/Kill Shelter vibe, with a
descending reverb guitar riff over a muscular sequenced electro backbeat.
2.Vazum – Angel
Everyone’s favourite deathgaze duo had a new single out
towards the end of the month which many consider to be their best work yet.
With guitarist Zach Pliska taking the lead vocal on Angel, with bass player Emily Sturm providing
backing vocals on this occasion, the overall sound is not unlike a steroid-enhanced Pixies
trying their hand at deathrock, with Pliska’s angular guitar fuzz and unusual
chord intervals maintaining the underlying air of horror school menace which
permeates their trademark sound.
3.October Burns Black – Divide and
Conquer
If you’ve been searching for the perfect trad goth album for the 2020's,
search no more. October Burns Black’s Two Worlds Collide has everything
that the fan of 80’s goth rock are looking for. Opening track Divide and Conquer, with
its strong baritone vocal, chugging guitars, insistent bass and anthemic chorus
gives a good indication of the band’s up-tempo, driving goth rock sonic template.
4.Animal Rojo – Cvt My Skin
Charismatic Carolus Cat Noir delivers a confident baritone
vocal on Cvt My Skin, the new single from Guadalajara (MX) outfit Animal Rojo, a solid hunk
of trad goth rock with the usual upbeat and simple, driving rhythm despite the
changes in the band’s line-up since last year’s No Second Part single,
which have seen the welcome return of founding member Miguel Corvus.
5.Blood Dance – Wicked King
Blood Dance is another Mexican project gaining a growing
reputation for its classy singles, and the earworm riff of Wicked King
which continues on a loop throughout the majority of the song will enhance
their appeal further, with its dark dancefloor potential, despite another
enthusiastically pitchy and dramatic vocal performance.
6.Red Moon Macabre – Night Music For The
Night People
Renzo Tellez (under his Red Moon Macabre moniker) completed
his run of metal-tinged occult trad goth rock singles this month with the typically heavy Night
Music For The Night People, compiling all this spring’s tracks on a new
digital album called Antiquity. Pounding bass, power chords,
Missionesque riffing and gruff vocals combine in another track full of cliché
and light on subtlety, but which will delight fans of the sub-genre.
7.Sunrise Patriot Motion – Sunrise Labyrinthian
Black Fellflower Stream, the promising debut album
from US act Sunrise Patriot Motion (with those band and album names, they should approach What Three Words for sponsorship) is a powerful call to arms. The excellent
guitar work is reminiscent of Killing Joke at times, with the cataclysmic
arpeggios, whilst the angry, apocalyptic vocals create a vibe not dissimilar to
classic Neurosis (circa Souls at Zero).
8.Caput Medusae - Deus Ex Machina
There’s a distinct Giving Ground feel to this
plodding gothwave earworm from the German duo, originally released last
November but finally available on vinyl this month by popular demand. The
b-side, the innovative dark trap-wave (a new sub-genre for me) Screamdance is also worth a
listen, fusing repetitive synth noodlings with a slow drum machine rhythm.
9.Adrenochrome – In Memoriam
Releasing a new ten track cassette which also featured
previous single The Knife, Oakland goth supergroup Adrenochrome continued down
their melodic punky deathrock trail with In Memoriam, the title track,
in which the subject of the eulogy is assured that they “will never be
forgotten”. If they continue in this vein, the same will soon be said of Adrenochrome.
10.Protense - Year of the Deads
There’s a lively post-punk scene in Indonesia, with Protense
the latest to capture the imagination with their competent new-wave garage
punk. Their four-track EP shows a strong early Damned influence on other
tracks, but Year of the Deads is the standout song on this set.
The Berlin-based dark punk (a sub-genre enjoying a real renaissance at present) project released their Part-Time
Punks session on CD this month on Batcave Productions, featuring a fantastic
live in the studio of new song Closed Circuits, featuring typically (for them) subtle sax.
12.The Ire – Crisis
Crisis is the featured track from the well-named Philadelphia
band The Ire’s debut album, featuring an angry dark punk vibe, with simple rustic cheese grater Xmal guitar chords and a confident female vocal, along with the occasional
deathrock flourish. Promising.
13.Tears for the Dying – kms
Produced by Tom Ashton of The March Violets fame, which is always a recommendation in itself, kms is a
multi-faceted curio of a song which showcases the dramatic range of singer
Adria Stembridge. Beginning as a slow-burning trad goth epic dominated by
Stembridge’s ethereal croon, the song bursts into life with a scratchy low-fi
deathrock interlude with a strangely punkish feel.
14.Denner -
Sometimes
On new album Shades and Parasols, French act Denner reveal a
strong Joy Division influence with a constant lively bass, insistent drum
rhythm and stark and occasionally shrill guitar, with a typical French coldwave
light, almost semi-spoken vocal. Other tracks, such as the title track of the album, for example, add layers
of synth for a fuller sound.
15.FTR – White Light
French sonic terrorists FTR made our top 30 of 2019 with
their last release, and teaser track White Light from their upcoming album (slated for a September release) has the same fuzz-laden dark psych post-punk beat which made their
earlier tracks so entrancing.
16.The Soft Moon (feat fish narc) – Him
The very welcome (if understated) return of the musical genius Luis Vasquez with an instantly
recognisable dark electro post-punk classic, with the usual Prodigyesque air of
claustrophobia amongst the metronomic beats and melodic interludes.
17.Vlimmer – Kronzeuge
The new Vlimmer single has a stripped back and low-key feel,
but despite the coldwave feel, the quintessential Vlimmer touches are all
present and correct: unpredictable melodic twists and turns, subtle
instrumentation and changes of pace and mood, and a strong chorus.
18.Amaranth – Gothtimist
Amaranth mainman and US scene guru Ken Magerman has gathered
an impressive cast of guest musicians on his project’s new single, his own
vulnerable vocal buried deep in the mix. Sonically, the song veers from Cure
melancholia to prog rock mellowness, with its mantra of “lacing up [his] black
boots tight” and ending with a "gothtimistic" outlook, “dreaming of tomorrow”.
19.The Ancients - Eastern Sky
There’s a fabulous proto-gothic spacerock tone to the guitar intro
to Eastern Sky, the lead track from the new album from The Ancients, led
by Fred Schreck who is better known for his work with ex-Psychedelic Fur John
Ashton (producer of TSOM’s Alice)'s Satellite Paradiso project. This pleasant
slow-burner is probably at the very fringes of the genres covered by this blog.
20.Parasomnia – Cuerpos Digitales
One of three tracks pre-released from their forthcoming
album on Swiss Dark Nights, Chile’s post-punk act Parasomnia has re-recorded
early demo cassette song Cuerpos Digitales, retaining all the original’s raw power and
complex structure whilst adding a professional sheen.
“Then
Comes Silence are everything a band should be - good tunes, good playing and
singing, and good-looking. Their songs are ear-worms, once heard difficult to
forget” – Wayne Hussey
With the release of their last three albums in particular,
there has been general consensus that Then Comes Silence are indeed the leading
new goth/post-punk band of the 21st century (to quote another goth
legend, Jyrki of the 69 Eyes), and this week’s release of the excellent Hunger,
the band’s sixth album overall, continues the Swedish ensemble’s elevation to the very
pinnacle of groups who have operated in these genres over the past four
decades.
What sets Then Comes Silence apart from their contemporaries
on the darkwave scene just as much as the sheer quality and consistency of
their output is the fact that although they clearly understand their place in
the alternative rock pantheon (particularly after having recently completed the
four EP Horsemen project of cover versions, paying tribute to the
artists who inspired them), it is difficult to pinpoint any specific influences
from the goth movement’s founding fathers in their unique sound.
Hunger’s purple sleeve hints at the contents within, a
perfect amalgam of the icy cold blue of its predecessor Machine and the
crimson red of 2017’s Blood with its angular, driven gothic post-punk, whilst the diamond formation of the (faceless) band members recalls of epic grandiosity of Queen.
Opening track Tickets to Funerals shows that the band has rediscovered
its more powerful and dynamic edge – even Geordie and Killing Joke would be
proud of the muscular guitar chug that underpins the overall opening sentiment
that with Hunger, Then Comes Silence’s sound is (in singer and bassist
Alex Svenson’s memorable phrase) “warm like blood” again (and given that the
new album was mixed by Tom van Heesch, who produced Blood, this should
come as little surprise).
Second track Rise To The Bait was a great
choice for the first single, with its strong “singalong” chorus and more subtle
melodic guitars, but still with a very post-punk overall vibe, particularly in
the middle eight. Inevitably for a band with a five-album history, there are
tracks which sound as if they could have fitted on previous albums, and it’s
great to hear shades of the psychgaze of the band’s under-rated sophomore album Then Comes Silence II
on the chorus of Cold from Inside, even though the overall production
(which reminds me of David Allan’s work with The Cure and The Sisters in the
mid-80’s) is more in keeping with the more understated and polished Machine
album.
The next two tacks demonstrate the wonderful synergy of twin guitarists
Hugo Zombie and Mattias Ruejas Jonson: Worm’s
range of guitar sounds, from amplified almost Spanish flourishes on the main
riff to more innovative McGeoch/Ash-influenced effects are simply stunning, further
enhancing the typically dark atmosphere, whilst the more experimental second
single Chain is fantastic, with the sequenced keyboards, slightly
distorted guitar riff, drummer Jonas Fransson’s punishing beat, Alex’s
syncopated, staccato bass, and the surprising twists and turns on the more
melodic chorus, including the great backing vocals once again provided by
Karolina Engdahl of the band True Moon (who sang on previous single Ritual).
Weird Gets Strange begins with a Joy Division-esque two-note guitar riff
before developing into the kookiest and most eclectic track on the album, with
even a section reminiscent of the “out-there” weirdness of B52s. Days and
Years has a great “classic TCS” feel to it, with the rockier, rawer, guitar
parts, and in some ways this sums up the album – one third the mellow,
psyched-out innovation of Nyctophilian, one third the classic
guitar-based 80’s influenced gothic post-punk of Blood, and one third
the smoother, more melodic, more subtle TCS of Machine, the sound of a
band comfortable in its own skin and further refining its unique sonic template.
Just when you think the band is reaching its peak, along comes the unhinged
spooky genius of Blood Runs Cold with its wonderfully-creative fuzzy
Bauhaus-inspired spidery bassline, and further alchemic guitar interplay from
Ruejas Jonson and Zombie as the track reaches a deathrock climax. Pretty
Creatures as its title suggests, has more of an Iggyesque vibe and a more
straightforward song structure, showcasing perfectly Svenson’s unique “goth
Elvis” baritone vocal (a nickname which his all-white outfit for the band’s
festival-stealing performance at the recent WGT in Leipzig will only enhance!). With a tradition of placing an epic
slow-burning, mellower, more reflective track towards the end of an album
(think Kill It on Machine or Mercury on Blood), Close
Shot plays this role to perfection on Hunger, which finishes with
the more curious Unknowingly Blessed, which builds from an acapella
opening to a more obviously commercial chorus, although again as with the other
more melodic tracks, there’s plenty of interesting and energetic guitar work to
maintain the album’s drive and overall sense of purpose.
As Wayne Hussey has recognised, Then Comes Silence deliver high
quality guitar-driven melodic post-punk which exudes confidence,
professionalism and talent. With Hunger, they have continued their
positive evolution and upward trajectory by producing another consistently
impressive album.
Hunger is
available NOW on Nexilis (Europe) and Metropolis (America) Records.
