Do you have a funny little Valentine? Do you, and they, err on the more darkside of life? Then you might truly be ready to romance your other half with the single “My Bloody Valentine” by Who Saw Her Die?!
Get hot and heavy with the danceable beats, and the breathy vocals, groaning in your ears. Nothing says I find you deathly attractive than background screaming electronics and lyrics that speak of asphyxiation and being someone’s dirty buried secret. And you also get the extra bonus of two extended/remix versions of this artery splurging track. WhoSaw Her Die? are bringing the electronic darkwave for you to exsanguinate for the one you hate to adore. So, in that vein, will you be “My Bloody Valentine“?
Shadows Forming is new album from Helsinki based witchy rockers, Hauntees, which will be released on the 28th of February. out on Xonoring Records. Members, Aiju Salminen (bass, vocals), Heini Kauppinen (guitar, vocals, organ), Piia Jalkanen (guitar, backing vocals) and Teemu Kumpulainen (drums), have dropped the single “All Over Again” as a touch stone for Shadows Forming.
The drums are clean and punchy, with fellow rhythm section partner, the bass guitar, up and front, dusting the tune with heavy intent. There is a lilting sadness from the guitars and the vocals fluctuate from singular to the harmonies in the chorus.
“We want to reach toward other worlds with our music, beyond everyday reality, When we write songs, we describe them to each other through places, films, and moods.” – Hauntees
I really like the fact the single is not overly processed, as if I could expect them to sound like this live, which lends an air of feeling fresh and not bound to being absolutely perfect. In other words, a rawness as the Hauntees wrap their vision around your ears. We don’t mind listening to the Hauntees “All Over Again.”
It is 2026, but it still feels like we are holding our collective breath, and you have to let truths be heard. Based in Fort Collins, Colorado, also goes by the moniker of Veil of Shadows, his gothic music project. He has released the single “Familiars,” which was recorded, mixed and mastered at The Cat Mansion.
The band wears their influences on their sleeve. The guitar speaks of a love of the way Wayne Hussey plays, between early Sisters of Mercy and The Mission, and even the raw emotion of his vocals in that vein. The drums provide the perfect background as they thunder true, adding weight to the lyrics.
“Familiars” is about the current political machinations of the US government, who say one thing and do the exact opposite, creating uncertainty and dread for many Americans, and indeed for those overseas watching. Veil of Shadows has a track that speaks volumes, and it gives hope. When people openly recognise wrong doing, they drag a spotlight onto those that shrink from truth.
Ahead of the debut album release for Trans Atlantic group Death By Love, they have dropped the new single “Sellenno.” The new album, from the Polish/USA project, will be hitting us on February the 20th, called 444, out on Distortion Records
Leaning into the cyber industrial sound, the track is buzzing with electronics, creating a heaviness, with the vocals as a guiding light. The topic is even heavier than the electronics, which dips into mental torment of being a survivor, and never coming to terms with what happened, therefore becoming disassociated.
Inga Habiba and Peter Guellard are Death By Love, and “Sellenno” packs a punch whilst being a bit of a bad arse dance number. Maybe this track is the catharsis they have been searching for.
Before Christmas, three remixes were released, reimagined by Norway’s Karl Morten Dahl, that guy behind the guitar based post-punk project Antipole. These three tracks are Haunt Me’s (USA) “Cemetery Rendezvous,” The Spoiled’s (Italy) “Love Is Pain” and “Depeche Mode” by Occults (USA).
“Cemetery Rendezvous” is a gorgeous darkwave track, with the remix cloaking this Haunt Me single in swaths of shimmering guitar, elegantly enhancing the hushed tones of the low vocals.
The Spoiled already had a wonderful jangle guitar sound in “Love Is Pain,” but Dahl has worked his magic, creating guitar lines that are sonic eddies, while also bringing to the fore the lovely synths.
The original Occults track, “Depeche Mode,” is a perfect song that captures the sound of Dave Gahan & Company from the 80s, while the remix has a more ephemeral quality, with dreamy, Cure like guitar and echoing vocals.
Karl Morten Dahl has excellent taste in music and a great ear for the delicate remix, so you should do yourself a favour and have a listen. If you know the bands, then enjoy the remixes, however, if unfamiliar, you might find yourself a few new wonderful post-punk bands to immerse your ears in.
F.I.V.E, also known as Fear Increases Violent Emotion, is the soon to be released fifth album for Italy’s darkwave group, Christine Plays Viola. Massimo Ciampani (vocals), FabrizioGiampietro (guitar), MarcoDiIanni (bass guitar) and GianlucaOrsini (drums) have dropped the single “MyRedemption” as your first taste for the new album.
The deep resonance of the vocals sets the shadowy mood, while the guitar sparkles and spars for equal billing. Easily danceable and even easier on the ears, “My Redemption” is pure darkwave goodness and definitely has that European sensibility. One might say a cool touch that burns the skin, so you might want to catch up with Christine Plays Viola, and check out the vintage gothic video for “MyRedemption.”
Italy’s VidiAquam released the album Lights and Shadows, in September. Full of post-punk goodness by members DanieleViola (electric guitars, bass, drum machine) and Nikita (voice, lyrics, synth, programming), we are going to look at the single “The Last Man on Earth.”
Purposely dark, with the only true brightness being the guitar as it twinkles between the drum machine, the heavy bass and grave vocals of Nikita. Even the synths creep through the cracks in a bleak manner, as is befitting a tale about a man who is truly alone in a apocalyptic world, living each day with only the memories of what used to be. The music video is an absolute must to watch with a nuclear nightmare vision rendered in animation. There is such sorrow in being “The Last Man on Earth” and it is beautifully conveyed by VidiAquam.
Author Edgar Allan Poe, is recognised as one of the progenitors of gothic story telling, writing tales that are both beautiful in prose, and full of lurking and foreboding grimness. Canadian Ian Revell has retold the Poe story, The Tell-Tale Heart, via his project Double Eyelid, which is an EP in four parts, set to its own gothic soundtrack.
Revell’s low and gravelled spoken vocals rumbles forth, in track one and behind him, wavers a lone violin, eerily scratching away, high pitched. The words are unhurried, with a sense of menace, and with the inclusion of a guitar, piano and drums, the singing begins. It is akin to listening to RozzWilliams (ChristianDeath), which sends me down the rabbit hole of wondering if Williams would have loved to do this. I think so. The guitar is the major driving force for the first rack, while track two, it is mostly a lone piano, that wanders and is yet to hint of the on coming terror.
The third track is where the murderer hides the body, and the proud fellow whistles along, assured of his cleverness. It is most interesting that the music has taken on, one could say, a more militaristic semblance, with the rat-a-tat of a snare drum, a popular instrument of British and American armies of the 18th and 19th centuries. Track four has a delicacy with the singular piano and when you perceive the stringed instruments, the atmosphere is quickly changing, with Revell perfectly putting across the spiralling mind of the murderer, lost in the culmination of alarm and dread.
The Tell-Tale Heart was first published in 1834, yet, like most of Poe’s compositions, it is ultimately about the human condition, the recognition that people are flawed and more to the point, we are able to see this is all still relevant. A narrator speaks of planning and murdering an old man, thence hiding the dismembered remains under the floorboards. They lie to the constabulary, but knowing the truth causes guilt and the narrator begins to mentally breakdown. It is the fear of being found out, and the overwhelming terror as they believe they can hear the heartbeat of the dead man, haunting them until they confess their wrongs. Already a powerful short story, DoubleEyelid has brought The Tell-Tale Heart to life in all its true gothic glory, letting you listen to a man’s decent into psychological torment, and every moment is a pure delight.
It is Onyx’s great pleasure to premiere the new single from Melbourne’s goth-tastic duo, Velatine. “We’re Not Suburban” is HollyPurnell’s second single with the band, after joining fellow musician and producer Loki Lockwood, on the darkwave journey to create fabulous songs, and it comes out on the label Spooky Records.
Let the night sweep you away into its dark embrace, as the synths sensuously ask for surrender, and the sirens of emergency services, reminds us the city after sunset it full of life. Purnell’s singing is unhurried and so easy on the ears, as she elucidates about how being suburban can be perceived as being suffocating and ‘normal’, something artistic types are constantly at war with. At times, the synths caress the vocals, before becoming spikey. You can hear Lockwood’s vocals, deep and in unison with Purnell, as the track goes on and the sirens become increasingly intrusive.
Lockwood told me the track is autobiographical, until the lines ‘Despite the odds, The un-dead, you’re not, So be a little reckless, And make the life you’ve got,’ which is more of an ethos that many of us should take note of for ourselves. Velatine have made a lush video, walking and driving through those same suburban streets, so you can see those two beautiful people haunting your screen. The song itself is slightly reminiscent of that Portishead style, and I think Holly’s vocals are perfect. I can’t wait to hear go from strength to strength as she proceeds. “We’re NotSuburban” is yet another showcase of Lockwood’s composition mastery and proving Velatine don’t care to be run of the mill, because boring is for other people.
Have you people in your life, where every time you interact with them, you feel flat, tired and just plain drained? You could be dealing with “Emotional Vampires,” a serious parasite and also the title to the latest single from Toronto’s Spectral Eyes. Rosie Cochrane, the gothic soul behind Spectral Eyes, has described the single as a cross between Kate Bush and Death Grips….. feeling the intrigue yet?!
Cochrane’s vocals waver between spoken word and sickly imploring, for she inhabits the psyche of an anima sucking being, drawing you down into her vortex of selfishness and self obsession. There are erratic rhythms, bleeping electronics and synths that all come together, and when that voice soars, looped into singing in harmony, the track takes on a whole new level of wow. The last line really hits home. with the vampire finally telling it’s victim, ‘Don’t tell me I can’t have it all‘.
“Emotional Vampires” is quite experimental in many ways, using tone and pitch of the vocals to great emphasis of the character, as well as glitchy beats giving a sense of instability. It is a bit groovy, a bit dark and a lot of spectacular. So, remember when out in the big, bad world, use your Spectral Eyes, and do not let the “Emotional Vampires” bite.
Onyx Music Reviews 