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Since their inception in 2013, Costa Rican band, Ariel Maniki and the Black Halos have been creating guitar based gothic rock music, which very much pays homage to the brilliance that is The Cure. Maniki has always been the driving force, however, 2023 has seen a change with the line-up including members Janice Black and Eva Red in creative roles. As expected, this has brought about a change in sound, which can be heard in their sixth studio album FRACTALS. 

When you come to the end of this existence, most people will dwell on how that life was lived and how we treated the ones we love the most. “The Last Light” is a moving tribute to the nearest and dearest, that any slights, or reservations to show care were regretted. The synths wind their way through the guitar flourishes and the touching lyrics are icing on the cake.  Next is the sonically sublime single “Supernova” with the thrumming bass, mimicking the unbridled desire for your lover. Moody and punctuated synths, herald in “Hyenas”, a slower track with weighted singing, that are highlighted by feminine vocals, giving the track an eerie atmosphere of impending doom. 

The tendrils of sax coil through your speakers, binding you within the dead sexy ambience of “The Cell”, a track in a 1930s noir throe.  “Once And For All” is about the passing of your one true partner in crime, and the hole that is indelibly left, which can be heard in the words Hiéreme de muerte! or Wound me to Death!. This is yet another single and the bass echoes that wound, while the synths capture our attention converging into a funerary vortex of sadness, for nothing lasts forever. The serpentine feel of the music in “Into The Sun” is quite fitting. The image of a snake is part of this lament, of earthly destruction by the normally unseen, and unnatural forces, where the Morning Star has won.  

The vignette called “Paralysis” is a sweet duet accompanied only by a lone guitar, and is followed by the intoxicating “Love You Like The Ocean,” with it’s delicate timelessness that encapsulates a passionate devotion. Languid and deep like that huge body of water, twinkling with refracted light and hues of darkening blues. The sunlit shores of a “A Different World,” with the profound swirling ownership of a place that is yours alone and yet it will decay around the immortal. There is a taste of Latin flamenco in the evocative “Remember Me,” and yet the track waivers with the rich vocals and even richer instrumentation.

FRACTALS can be viewed as a exploration of one’s mortality but, for myself, it is revelling in the warmth of a life lived, having known a great love, a story of joy that transcends death. Ariel Maniki and the Black Halos have made FRACTALS an album that questions does love go on after the body ceases in this world? A part of my shadowy being truly hopes that love defies death and lasts an eternity, and FRACTALS is a gorgeous gothic exploration of abiding rapture.

Fractals | Ariel Maniki and the Black Halos (bandcamp.com)

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In 1997, The Cure released the iconic Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me album, and on that album was the track “All I Want“. Now, in 2023, Now After Nothing, have covered “All I Want” and released it as a single. Matt Spatial and Michael Allen of Now After Nothing can also lay claim having Carl Glanville (U2, Joan Jett) doing the mixing and the mastering by John Davis (Placebo, The Jesus and Mary Chain), while the guitars are courtesy of Mark Gemini Thwaite (Peter Murphy, Gary Numan) and Howard Melnick (Astari NIte).

“I’ve never been one for recording covers but ‘All I Want’ holds a special place in my heart. I instantly gravitated toward the song when I first heard ‘Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me’ as a kid. I was captivated by the sound and the multiple perfectly woven melodies. Years later, I thought about the feel and energy of the song during my first attempt at song writing. I gave my first song the working title ‘Sonic Goth’ as, in my mind, it sounded like Sonic Youth meets The Cure. Truth be told though, what I ‘wrote’ was a blatant rip-off of ‘All I Want.’ The noobish-ly named ‘Sonic Goth’ never came to be a fully-formed song, and likely never will. Rather than rip of the original, it makes more sense to pay homage to it even more blatantly. So here it is…my cover of The Cure’s ‘All I Want.’ Oh, but in my version, it’s ‘Doll’ not ‘Dog’ – I am an aspirational feminist, after all.” – Matt Spatial

The guitars have a heavier, more modern sound but ring true to the original, and the synths add an air of floating graceful darkness. The vocals by Spatial don’t try to emulate Robert Smith because, honestly, no one sings like our eye liner wearing floppy hero, and this works really well, giving an authenticity of becoming a Now After Nothing track… even for just a little while. The essence of a dream for this is “All I Want.”

All I Want | Now After Nothing (bandcamp.com)

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I don’t think I can quite explain how much Glaswegian band, The Jesus And Mary Chain (JAMC), held me in awe, as a kid in the 80s, with drawling vocals and waves of guitar reverb filling your ears. Label, Fuzz Club Records, is poised to release the live album for JAMC, aptly named Sunset 666, on August the 4th, where all tracks were recorded at the Hollywood Palladium, in Los Angeles, in 2018. The single “Half Way To Crazy” has been dropped to give us a taste of what you can expect on the album.

Rightly so, the quality of the recording is actually beautiful and clear. William Reid’s Gibson guitar transports us away, together with his brother, Jim Reid’s distinctive vocals, reminding is of what a magical powerhouse JAMC have always been.

“Half Way To Crazy” was originally released on the 1989 album Automatic, and the new Sunset 666, has all up, a whopping seventeen tracks, including “Blues From A Gun“, “Just Like Honey“, “Teenage Lust“, “Some Candy Talking” and “Head On“. Apparently, the recording isn’t a mirror, with occasional wrong notes, and imperfect timing, but that’s the point of live music, because it is alive at that very moment of time, and it has been captured in all its raw brilliance. As far as sonic rock music goes, The Jesus And Mary Chain have been responsible for creating songs that you feel in your gut, but also hugely influenced other musicians to push the rock envelope. This is bliss.

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Australian’s love claiming New Zealander’s as our own, and quite frankly, the talented Kieren Hills is no exception. His crust punk, crossed with industrial stylings with the project Schkeuditzer Kreuz, is perched to release a new full length album on the 25th of August, named No Life Left, and a packed tour of Europe, over this September and October (which is well worth every cent). For now, you are able to listen to “Second Life,” the latest single off the album.

Photo by Jeremy Belinfante

Instantaneously, the pummelling, heavy as fuck rhythm grabs your ears, with a taste of black metal gloom, as the claustrophobic pall tries to suffocate the breath out of you. Hills snarls and growls lyrics such as ‘free to kill, free to take a life away’, a protest of the constant gun related killings in America, where the victims and families seem to have no voice. The loops and synths ooze discontent at the failing system.

“I’ve always had a policy of playing anywhere and everywhere with SK. I’ve played in a lot of weird and wonderful places in the last 3 years – in sheds and video stores, in the forest and in car parks, house shows, club shows, in-stores, and pub shows – under bridges and in skate parks.  Anywhere at all. So, I wanted to do that for the video.

I found an alleyway choked with long-dead street bounty – sofas and white goods and old guitars, and pots and pans and cupboards and sheet metal, and building waste and everything that gets left behind when people move on or move up. All long left in the elements to degrade and die. So, I set up there and played to a few friends – interspersing my usual walls of sound with throwing stuff around and bashing on things in the pile, more or less rhythmically along with the music.‘  – Kieren Hills on the video for “Second Life“

The video is beautifully shot/produced by Shaye at DMWC Films, filmed in an alleyway in Sydney. This track hits hard, not only in the voluminous reams of auditory crush, but also the overwhelming disappointment in a society where guns mean more than people’s lives. The vinyl records for the album are already on pre-order from Bad Habit Records (AUS) and Sorry State Records (USA)

No Life Left | Schkeuditzer Kreuz (bandcamp.com)

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June the 16th probably seemed like an ordinary day… but was it? From under your bohemian Aunt’s best velvet rug comes the debut single from Scorpion Tea out on the label GIVE/TAKE. “Scarlet Misquote” is the deathrock track in question and the band is made up of Christian Cruz (guitars), Anthony Diaz (spoken elegance, ghost whispers, haunted keys), Edley ODowd (drums, percussion, backing vocals, samples, electronic manipulations) and Fern Puma (bass).

Oh yes, that heavy bass brings the funk, and the drumming is harsh and ferocious. When the guitar kicks in…. it sounds slightly off kilter, definitely setting you at unease, before we get to hear Diaz courting your ears. There is a primal glam element, with a playfulness throughout.

Also, there is also the DEATHDANCE Drag On The Night mix, with it’s wonderfully heavier electronic feel, that borders on claustrophobic and ensuring you might not be sleeping tonight. If you are a fan of Psychic TV, you might recognise the name Edley ODowd, who was their drummer from 2003 and a close friend to Genesis P.Orridge for even longer. “Scarlet Misquote” is a gem of a deathrock track, a little quirky and completely alt rock heaven from Scorpion Tea.

Scarlet Misquote | Scorpion Tea (bandcamp.com)

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Many Australian musicians are amazingly talented, and Melbourne’s Body Maintenance, saw in April, the release of their debut album Beside You, with the vinyl LP out on Drunken Sailor Records and cassette on Unwound Records. Now I am going to tell you that if you love post-punk music, and if you haven’t listened to Body Maintenance, then maybe you aren’t as cool as you think you are.

The tendrils of “Silver Yarns” wind around you and unleash the gorgeous guitars, that run and take flight. The vocals are within the mix and yet still ring clear, and you know that any song that mentions sinners and martyrs has got to be good. In fact it is an amazing start. It is a gothic gun duel at high noon in “Circles“, or at least the dark spaghetti western guitars say be there or be square. The synths swirl between and you wonder where the rattle snakes are hiding.

“The Spiral” feels like the most glorious vortex, berating your ears with tribal beats, and that is at complete odds with the far more reticent and thoughtful “Time Enough” that curls within your chest, like a hand gripping your heart. The bass guitar steadily pushes forward in “It’s Theatre“, and again those synths soar in your ears, which has a beautiful chorus and the guitar playing that could take your breath away.

The title track is the heavenly forlorn “Beside You“, which is about dedication no matter where it leads, and it has the air of freefalling. “The Fools, The Frauds” is verbose and has tinges of Virgin Prunes. The rhythm section pulls this track tightly in, while the guitars fight to contain themselves, all the while caressed by the vocals. The vocals in “Ends” catches your ears as does the big guitar sound and before we know it, there is the last track, “A Compliment“, which wanders in the ether of ghost like memories, gently roaming the shadowy paths.

Damn… how do I summarise this album. It is like chills down the spine due to the familiarity of the style, as it reminds me of British post-punk bands from another era, especially Play Dead, Danse Society, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and closer to home Ikon and The Church. Probably because it is very much guitar driven, with the use of reverb and pedals, and yet for me, it is the fact there is an air of magic in Body Maintenance’s sound, so richly dark and so invitingly warm at the same time. I am sure their influences are far more modern, but my hot take is Beside You is a brilliant post-punk album by Body Maintenance and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Beside You | Body Maintenance (bandcamp.com)

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Should you go into the woods, you might not come out the same….or then again, maybe not at all. Californian deathrockers, Black Heroin Gallery have just released a promo video for the track “Take This Rose“, which is off the album A Feast Of Bats, that was unleashed in 2022.

“Death is seeking out her mark, trying to trick the carefree artist into taking her gift: a rose. She uses a surrogate in place of herself, who stalks the artist through the forest, trying to get him to take the rose, even using spells to will his compliance, or trick him with the poisoned rose in a gift box. Ultimately, she will take him to meet the ferryman.” – Eyajo Joseph

And indeed, the music video is like watching the black and white silent movies, with a goth rock soundtrack. There is also an air of the German Expressionist movement, which would eventually lend itself to the progression of American noir cinematography. The track, “Take This Rose” is atmospheric and spiritually charged, as if the ghosts of the past are watching on, waiting for the inevitable fall of the unsuspecting soul, by the cold hand of Death herself.

Feast of Bats | BLACK HEROIN GALLERY (bandcamp.com)

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Athenian post-punk project Reflection Black’s inception was in 2022, with the EP Entering Dreamtime. March of 2023, saw the debut album released on SwissDarkNights, titled ominously, Last Stop To Nowhere. Elis Alex is the man behind Reflection Black, who previously cut his musical teeth in the huge Greek black metal scene, with the bands Ravencult and Nigredo.

“With Last Stop To Nowhere I can say that I have made an album that I am truly happy with. One record, eight tracks, each one different from each other but still forming a very consistent big picture without any fillers. One should expect quite a few surprises in the album, from catchy riffs to heavily layered atmospheric synths and even guitar and saxophone solos. When it comes to the album’s lyrics, themes such as sleep, death, dreams and the occult are being explored extensively. In the end, most of the lyrical themes come down to a general context of mental and spiritual escapism with the questioning of current realities of all forms.” – Elis Alex

The first thing you notice in “Post Sleep Trauma” is the clinking sound like a hammer in a cavernous void, that is until there is a whirl of guitars to join the rhythm, along with bright synths. Alex’s vocals smoothly light up the track with their dark mourning of not wanting to see any dreams in his sleep.. The guitars chime and sparkle but there are “No Stars In The Sky” for this mesmerising and soaring apocalyptic piece, with the heavens being consumed by a black hole, but the chorus is far more riveting.

In amongst the gloom, true love always shines eternal, and this is the theme for “Under Your Shine” as it reverberates with the melting lyrics/vocals and consuming synths, entwined with the guitar. There is an 80s synthwave vibe to the title track “Last Stop To Nowhere“, bound on a ship going to a destination that is likely doomed. “Call My Name” is atmospheric and is filled with that beautiful echoing post-punk jangling guitar. The track soars with conviction and longing in Alex’s singing.

The entrancing “Let The Spirit“, delicately picks you up and bears you along on strong and gentle hands. The bursts of synths are truly magical and one could almost believe those spirits have been freed. When you sleep, there is a vividness not experienced in real life which is explored in the dreamhouse of the track “Yet Unseen Colours“, like a prayer for more than what reality can give. “Why Believe” is the final track, and what a track to finish with. Brooding, as if the angelic and devilish sit on each shoulder, pushing their agenda. Again there as the spiralling guitars that are forever drawing you in.

Elis Alex just has this voice to die for. Smooth, evocative and sensual. The music he creates takes the wonderful saturated guitar sound, made popular in the 80s with such bands as The Cure, March Violets and The Mission, and then it is mixed in with the modern synths, to give each track a wonderful dark velvet sumptuousness. All this is topped off by those vocals giving us some rather stunningly perfect tracks, as Reflection Black takes us to the Last Stop To Nowhere.

Last Stop To Nowhere | Reflection Black (bandcamp.com)

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Murmurs in Space is the rough translation for the new Eleventh Fear EP, Murmeln im Raum. Out on Neris Records, Eleventh Fear is the electro-goth child of Frenchman, Ludovic Dhenry. We last heard from this project in 2022 with the release of the first EP, Waldhexen.

“Drachenblut” or dragon blood, hears Dhenry hissing like the very mystical creature itself, over an amazing, minimalistic electronic dance piece, with grand swirls. The bass reverberates through your chest and the keyboard playing shines through the top of your head in “Hexen des Meeres“. The music is about the watery wenches, the witches of the sea, whom want to steal away sailors and bathe in their blood. There is definitely a chill down the spine with the first serpentine words whispered on a seething tongue for “Wir werden leben“. Low fuzzing tones and vocals are offset by the angelic lighter keys, making the track feel expansive and cavernous all at the same time.

Dhenry’s persona is Eleventh Fear, and he pulls on those primaeval superstitions of what lays in the shadows, awaiting the unsuspecting victims, triggering the imagination. You can almost feel the dankness of the witches, or the greedy harbingers, rubbing together their hands, watching other’s untimely deaths, as they, themselves will never die. The music of Murmeln im Raum is evocative and darkly pleasing, so go check out Eleventh Fear.

Murmeln im Raum (EP) | Eleventh Fear (bandcamp.com)

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We are delighted to bring you a nice slice of post-punk gothy goodness in the form of a new single from New York’s’ Black Rose Burning. George Grant (bass/vocals/keys), Luis Infantas (drums) and Frank Morin (guitars), are on the verge of dropping their brand new album Ad Astra, and “Sing To Me (E.L.E.)” is the first single, released on the 23rd of June.

There is such a burst of overwhelming joy from the first strains of music. Ringing guitar with not quite chip tune synth, court your ears. Grant’s vocals come across between an ode to that which is lost and the sadness of being emotionally tortured by said loss. It is a rollicking track, foot tappingly quirky and yet it still pulls at your heart strings.

For those that do not know what an E.L.E is, the clue is in the song itself, that it means Extinction Level Event, say like a meteor hitting the Earth. Black Rose Burning are staying true to the mission statement, with their love of science fiction (as well as science fact!), fuelling the rocket engines of creativity and shooting them out into the stars, giving us aliens music to marvel at and enjoy… even if there ever is an E.LE., I would want Black Rose Burning to “Sing To Me (E.L.E.)“.

Sing To Me (E.L.E.) | Black Rose Burning (bandcamp.com)

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