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A hex is a spell or a charm, bestowed by a person that might otherwise be called a witch. Margot Day is Metamorph and March saw the release of the new album HEX on Distortion Records. Day has been in the New York gothic scene since the 80s, which means the lady has a wealth of experience and as a practising witch, imbues her songs with the spellbinding heart and soul of her craft. If this wasn’t bewitching enough, May 31st sees Metamorph drop the EP Wasteland Witch RMX, with re-imaginings by Silver Walks and Vetica in order to get your woo woo on. So, we played our tarot cards right and managed to conjure up a link to the enchantress known as Margot Day in order to ask her a few pressing questions about herself and HEX.

Where night nor day ever meet, welcome Margot Day to the ritual grounds that is Onyx.

Margot, you play the flute, so are we to gather you are classically trained and if so how do you think this drew you into the gothic scene?

Yes I am classically trained in flute, and my voice in opera. I drew a lot from this classical background in the arts. My mom was a dancer and theater person who put me on the stage as a 2-year-old, and my dad a artist who played the piano – I joined him on the flute when I was 7 years old – playing classical music as a child. Gothic literature. High-art with its deep meaningful themes of darkness, life and the hereafter, immortals, the supernatural, all these elements of haunting beauty—it was a natural bridge. I wanted to create music with layers of depth, timelessness, enhanced by a mystical witchy vibe – gothic is the perfect genre for me.

You have been a fixture of the New York post-punk scene since the early 80s, playing with bands such as The Plaque and Slow Walk 13. What was it like back then, and do you look back with great nostalgia or is it all a bit of a blurr?

More of a blurr! A glorious wild blurr… But honestly maybe because I am always creating something – I kinda naturally live in a blurr anyways.

Since that time, you have gone on to create the project Metamorph, where you are the lead singer. Could you give us a little background on how the band started and also members please?

I had a profound healing experience. I had lived with chronic pain for many years and then went through what I consider both a psychic and medical miracle. Its chronicled in the “Metamorph Healing Documentary” On YouTube. I had temporarily given up on making music because of the pain – during the healing process I reconnected with my life destiny and the promise I made to the powers that be that I would make music in this life-time. The Metamorph line-up is me, Thaliana on back vox and keys. My twin flame and partner Kurtis Knight sings and plays soundscapes. Our daughter Julifer Day sings on some of the Metamorph albums and contributes lyrics.

2024 has seen the new album “HEX” drop. Coming out of covid, etc, how long have you been working on this album and was it an easy or laborious task?

Covid stopped me in my tracks – I went into a deep funk grieving for all the shows that were cancelled. Everything fell apart. A time of re-evaluating who I am and what I wanted. Facing myself and my pain ALONE. It took about a year of curling up weeping – and then… I realized how much I wanted to create new songs in a way that was my own – isolation was key.

The songs poured out of me – nothing laborious about it – like a waterfall that just keeps flowing – I reached out producer Erik Gustafson of Adoration Destroyed and Eva X, and with his musical talent and production skills this phase of Metamorph was born. Erik is the Metamorph Alchemist and an integral part of the current Metamorph projects. First album after Covid was “Kiss of the Witch”. Then came HEX. We are deep in it with the new songs for the next album.

The album drips in subjects of witchcraft, occultism and walking between two worlds, spiritual and physical. Is this a subject that has always fascinated you?

Absolutely – Metamorph drips with Witchcraft. I am a Witch. Nature magic. Vortexes and altered dimensions. Pure healing magic.

For me, I see a lot of your music as an expression of feminine power and resilience, especially as witches are often thought of as being female. Do you think this a true statement and what are your thoughts?

My parents never made me feel like “being a girl” was some kind of handicap. So I don’t really think about myself in terms of feminine power. However, power and resilience are my mantra. It is my hope that Metamorph encourages by example for others to find their own power and resilience. Are Witches only women? I don’t know. But I doubt it.

We have to ask…what do you mean by “Woo Woo,” does it have the same connotations as the more British version of getting up to a certain type of mischief and what has this all to do with cats?

Woo Woo – I mean sexy witchy magical fun. To me black cats are the emblem of witchyness….

Here at Onyx, we are most appreciative of the title track “HEX”, and delight in the lyrics ‘Your eyes, like onyx stones, A power source deep and dark.’ You got that right baby! Do you have any favorite tracks off the new album?

No favorites. Each track has its own life. Each song is its own multidimensional jewel.

You have excellent taste in who you work with as far as remixes go including Adoration Destroyed and SPANKTHENUN. This album has some stonkingly good remixes by Assemblage 23, Grendel and MORIS BLAK. How did you get these guys involved?

Shout out to William Zimmerman of Moon Coil Media for connecting me with some of them. Having my music remixed by these brilliant successful remixers is one of the greatest joys for me. Gratitude. LOVE IT!! Just got a HEX remix done by Chris Hall of Stabbing Westward – out now all platforms. AMAZING!! My intention is to honor the Metamorph HEX album with various remixes over the next few months. Wasteland Witch remixes drop May 31 featuring Silver Walks. HEXPLAY – THE HEX CD REMIXES EP” drops July 12 with a remix from Leaether Strip and a surprise witchy chant from me – and an intense version of Red Roses from Third Realm plus a few other surprises from my label Distortion Production.

Metamorph is definitely electronic influenced but within you hear the classical music influence, and you still play the flute. How would you describe the sound of Metamorph?

Goth Pop – meaningful, deep, danceable, witchy, catchy and fun.

What music and acts drew you into the gothic genre?

It’s all a blurrrrrr lol…

Who do you get a kick out of listening to now?

I have Metamorph on repeat in my head 24/7 – songs I am writing they haunt me. Sadly not much airspace for other music….

If you were granted the ability to have one extraordinary witchy power, what would you choose and why?

The superpower to inspire others to be creative – opening their hearts and minds. I want to be the ripple in the ocean that spreads into infinity leaving a trail of fairy dust, sparkles and love.

What is next for Margot Day and Metamorph?

The next single drops at the end of the summer – this is first single for the Metamorph 2025 album…..

HEX | Metamorph (Margot Day) (bandcamp.com)

Wasteland Witch RMX | Metamorph (Margot Day) (bandcamp.com)

https://www.facebook.com/Metamorphmusic/

http://metamorphmusic.org/

https://www.instagram.com/metamorph_music/?hl=en

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Dolly Dagger is an ex-pat Australian, living in the USA, creating her own style of dark pop music. Her new single is called “Tower,” on which she has collaborated with guitarist Jesse McInturff and producer Louie Diller.

Photo by Kim Peterson

The slow burn start builds the tension, and when we reach the chorus, there is the iteration of I’m not your prey. A call to arms amidst growling guitar work and shrieking synths, about the power of the female character.

There is also a lush video saturated in a fantasy vision of history directed by Dagger that accompanies the single. “Tower” is Dolly Dagger’s ode to never giving in no matter the odds, or how much people tell you that you shall never succeed by being your own tower of strength.

Music | Dolly Dagger (bandcamp.com)

https://www.facebook.com/DollyDaggerxo

Dolly Dagger (dollydaggerxo.com)

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The new album Glimmer came out in April, but right now I am going to drag your attention to Lunar Paths’ single release “A Star At Dawn.” It dropped in March for the duo of Diane Dubois and Kevin Hunter, and I think it deserves its own time in the moonlight.

A depth to the electronics, an undercurrent of something ancient in the Middle Eastern lilt of the vocals and instrumentation, while the drums pick their way on the odyssey. Like Venus at the end of night, Dubois‘ vocals light the way and are a bridge between the past and present.

Lunar Paths are masters of intertwining darkwave with world music. Entrancing and exotic, they pour themselves into these tracks because they see the beauty in how an instrument sounds or can influence the overall ambience. I love the ability to express themselves in such an alluring manner and “A Star At Dawn” might my favourite to this date while following the Lunar Paths.

A Star at Dawn | Lunar Paths (bandcamp.com)

https://www.facebook.com/LunarPathsMusic

https://www.lunarpaths.com

https://www.instagram.com/lunar.paths

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Now here is a conundrum…. Washington based project Zabus has dropped two albums within three months of each…this year. Soooo, I have decided to showcase the latest release, The Future Of Death, which is out on the non-profit label Saccharine Underground. Jeremy Moore (Thee Rise Ov Sadistic Youth, Zero Swann, Garozde) started Zabus in 2023, joined by fellow musicians Peter Hallock (Garozde), Alkane Shimizu (Zero Swann) and, for this album, Jeroen Achterburg. By the way, is it just me or is the cover channelling New Order’s Movement?

From the get go, there is the jangly guitar with reflective echoing and sweetly morose vocals. The guitars do not seem to want to follow the script as evidenced in “Columbarium” where they go from Southern Gothic plucking to wandering through the track, all the while the electronics blow through in the background. “Subversion” is in the territory of causing your skin to gooseflesh with its haunting simplicity, slowly tracing ephemeral fingers, raising ghosts of 80s British post-punk bands in their wake.

Necro means death and graphs are a pictorial way of representing data, so possibly the track “Necrographs” is about wanting an organised knowledge of what happens after the last breath has left the body. The ability to quantify the final moments and beyond if there is one, “Necrographs” eerily drones with rhythmic oddities holding it together, while the synths wend their way, with the occasional instrumental scream into the void.

The drawling “Captor” leads you down a road of torment of when lovers no longer feel that pull and yet cannot leave, maybe due to fear. The heavy bass is beautiful in “Retribution,” married to the fabulous striking guitars and clicking beats. Honestly, the guitars are the feature of this track and I really adored it. We are thrown into the far more experimental and psychedelic “The All Light,” filled with reverb and distortion, and I can’t help but smile as it reminds me of Bauhaus in some ways. There is also some pretty intense imagery within the lyrics.

There is that Southern Gothic feel again in “Burst Oppression,” and it is eloquent in both tone and vocal imagery, with a true sense of loss and complete hopelessness, dropping us in an expansive desert of mortality. Last track is “Solstice,” and it is poignant and dark. Perhaps it is looking back to a point in history where life was given so that life could continue, in the form of sacrifice or mayhap star crossed lovers, but it lets your imagination run wild with the possibilities.

Moore’s vocals are very reminiscent of Ian Astbury and are a delight to behold. For me, this is the essence of gothic/post-punk music. There are the tried and true expressions of the style from the guitar flourishes, introspective lyrics, brooding vocals and looking through a romanticised lens, a vision of dark beauty encompassing life, death and spirituality. However there is also an experimental pushing of the boundaries, asking instruments to make sounds that they are not necessarily meant to make and not sticking to set musical formulae, which makes Zabus just that little more exciting. Both “The Future Of Death” and “Topography Of Iconoclast” are really worth treating your ears with, so you might savour the intricacies of weaving more traditional gothic, with something I would equate in the region of when you first hear Einstürzende Neubauten and it just blows your mind.

The Future Of Death | Zabus (bandcamp.com)

http://www.twitter.com/@zabusmusic

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Arguably, Robots In Love is one of the best dark electronic rock bands in New Zealand right now, lead by front woman Elenor Rayner (vocals, synths, programming), with Alex Burchell (drums), Tony Lumsden (bass) and Brett Lemmon (guitar). These very experienced musicians have dropped the new single “Unbreakable” with two bonus remixes.

A slow and purpose filled build up from the start, with the rumbling affirmation of the title, wrapped up in tendrils of a classical edge, enticingly liquid next to the unwavering, steeled vocals of Rayner. Of the two remixes, the first is the EBM remix by Rayner, which has adopted a faster pace, and has a really tribal ambiance with enhanced electronics, while the second, Magnetique remix, happens to be bandmate Burchell behind the desk, creating a second dance track that again exudes an indomitable spirit.

“Unbreakable is about how we feel the minute we walk on stage. It’s about being in the place where you feel at your strongest, and connecting with other people to increase that strength.” – Elenor Rayner

Oh my, for me Rayner exudes feminine power, not to mention wearing that lovely corset, made me think of that other female warrior, Xena, in the video, which makes my heart melt a little more for Robots In Love. This is a boot stomping affair, which I associate with epic anthems such as Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” with its positive declaration that doing something you love with like-minded people can make you “Unbreakable.”

Unbreakable | Robots In Love (bandcamp.com)

https://www.facebook.com/robotsinlovemusic

https://www.instagram.com/robotsinlove

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From Athens, Georgia, you can find deathrock roaming wild in the form of Tears for the Dying. The band’s current line-up consists of original member Adria Stembridge (guitars, synthbass, synths, vocals) and Cody  White (guitar, bass) and we thought we would check out the single “Dancing Dead Girl” off the album In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun.

The beginning is reminiscent of Switchblade Symphony, delicate feminine vocals with ringing guitar work that tinkles down, and it mirrors that classic sound throughout. Entrancing in the extreme, the music flows mystically, and it leaving me wondering if the girl was dead before she danced or like the lass in the Hans Christensen tale of the dancing shoes, she expires al la Saint Vitus disease.

“Dead Girl Dancing” is thoughtful and sweet, in that ghoulish gothic way and Adria’s vocals are quite lovely, but trust me when I say that this band can be heavier when they want to be, yet it is nice to hear this side as well. Tears for the Dying are one of those hard working bands, and you will often see them on Facebook, on the road touring, so if you get the chance, get out and check them out

Dead Girl Dancing (single) | Tears for ʇhe Dying (bandcamp.com)

https://www.facebook.com/TearsForTheDying

http://tearsforthedying.com/

https://instagram.com/tearsforthedyingband

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Paul Devine is a wordsmith, a musician, a composer, a scholar, a historian and at heart a humanitarian. The single “Leader of the Free World” (2024) has been born from the stark reality that Donald Trump might win the next North American election, even though he tried to usurp the White House in a coup in front of the whole world and equally is one of the most sexist and slimy humans in the public eye, that has absolutely no remorse for anything he does or says.

The thrumming bass and Devine’s snarled punk vocals, sneer at the propaganda of making America great again through guns, extreme Christianity and perversion of laws. He is the leader of the free world is the sing song chant, because in the end, it as all a joke. Angry guitars and booming drums highlight the truths of how backwards things have become as women have lost rights to their own bodies and racial tension overwhelming.

Not that I think this sounded wholly like The Clash, but I think Joe Strummer is probably sitting somewhere with a smile on his dial. “Leader of the Free World” takes no prisoners and tell no lies. This is a protest, taking a stand against a rising tide of misogyny and intolerance, in the hopes that history does not repeat itself, plus it is an ace song.

Leader of the Free World (2024) | Paul Devine (bandcamp.com)

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For those that remember the 80s, or are connoisseurs of goth/post-punk music of that period might be familiar with the band Siiiii, a UK band that sprung onto the scene from 83-86, with Paul Devine as the lead singer. Devine released his debut solo album called We Are The Compass Rose, the beginning of 2023 (you can read the Michel Rowland review here —-> https://onyxmusicreviews.com/2023/02/26/paul-devine-we-are-the-compass-rose/) and in October, he dropped a second album, titled ADHD.

You know when the first instrument you hear is a deep, rolling bass, that you are in for something rather exciting, and so we are plunged into the punk affair that is “Leader of the Free World.” With the snarled vocals and grating guitar, it is a sneering two fingers in the air with contempt. “The Tardigrade Song” is dedicated to the micro animal who is also known as the moss piglet or water bear. One may ask what is so impressive about these creatures until you realise that they are near indestructible and in that light, the track conga lines, engaging with indifference of the humans, as the tardigrade will be here long after you are gone. The sawing guitars squeal and reverberate, collapsing into charming wistful chiming, over and over again in “Remembered Voices.” Everything is delicately layered into a powerful wall of noise with Devine’s poetic prose stirring the ghosts of yesteryears.

They say youth is wasted on the young, but also that time flies fast for a mortal soul and this feels true of “She Was Married in June,” a delicate track, with beautiful instrumentation with the air of an olde lament. The tragedy of a life so fleeting while the natural world continues without noticing the loss. “Dulle Griet” (Dull Gret) also known as Mad Meg, was a female of Flemish legend, who supposedly led an army of women into the Mouth of Hell to plunder. Peter Bruegel the Elder immortalised her in his painting of the same name, and there is debate as to whether the artwork depicts Meg as a shrew or a woman brave enough to face her own demons. And true to form, this track is a harsh descent into the madness that is the painting, portraying a lady who will broker a world created by men no more, stalking the Devil, before setting her intent on destroying God. Rebecca Antrim is responsible for the vocals of Dulle Griet and they are wonderfully cutting, where you can feel in your bones her aggrievement.

There is a surreal presence in “Stillness,” a sinuous calm before the storm, the focus being between Devine’s vocals and the soaring guitar, foreboding and at odds with itself. I love the juxtaposition of punk music married to lyrics written in a much older form of English in “Mary’s Ale.” Both bewitching and modern, using the English language as ornamentation and gilding the track in golden hues. The jauntily joyous feeling “One Skin for Another,” tinkles with guitar shoegaze swirls and couldn’t be much further in difference to “The Song of Just Because.” With its southern twang and Cool Hand Luke style vocals, you can imagine sitting on the open plains in twilight, though nothing is so simple. “O Happy Day” holds the promise of a 50s do-wop for the damned, and yet there is a sweet reminder that maybe, in the end, we should just enjoy the each day as it comes. The last track “Leaf” is an ephemeral piece, immersed in a classical fashion, a spoken word experimental tale that captures your imagination with its sorrowed sweetness.

For those wondering why the album is called ADHD, this is because the musician behind it all, is neurodivergent. Paul Devine recorded all these songs in one take, no practice runs with the other musicians, and it really is a tribute to the craftmanship of the tracks, as well as all the contributing talents. Each track feels fully formed and gloriously intricate, exploring the depths of Hell, the brevity of life, love and even celebrating the smallest creatures most people have no idea exist. ADHD is a plethora of styles held together with dark romanticism and is a modern classic.

ADhD | Paul Devine (bandcamp.com)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paul-Devine

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The album Crystalline was released in 2023 and spawned the intensely rich single “Bleached,” via the Norwegian and British collaboration of Antipole & Paris Alexander. US based musician, Mareux has taken “Bleached” and given it a 2024 remix treatment.

MAREUX AND ANTIPOLE

The low rumble of electronics perfectly showcases Alexander’s ghost in the machine style whispered vocals. The synths and programmed rhythms, sinuous in their way above the oppressive fuzzed undertones.

There is an unease created with the mechanised mix by Aryan Ashtiani (Mareux), that slowly ignites and bristles with smouldering intent, building on a track that already dripped in sensual tension. “Bleached” remixed by Mareux just proves what great songsmiths Antipole & Paris Alexander are.

Music | Antipole (bandcamp.com)

http://www.facebook.com/antipoleband

Music | Paris Alexander (bandcamp.com)

https://m.facebook.com/parisalexandermusic

Music | Mareux (bandcamp.com)

https://www.facebook.com/mareux

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Label Negative Gain has dropped the newest single “Necessity Meal” from Florida’s darkwave based Astari Nite, a follow up to their previous Thin White Duke inspired track, “Bowie In Daydream.”

From the beginning, there is an air of tension, set by the stressed and wavering synths, matched by the keening guitar. The vocals tell a tale about not living up to expectations, having fears and even needing drugs in order to appear perfect. Those vocals lilt and melt over you with dark intent, while the drums power on.

On first listen, the track feels off kilter, a loss of control is conveyed, and yet it is this state of honest disclosure that truly brings “Necessity Meal” into focus. It is the seeing beauty in what is not perfect, because in the end, perfection will never fuel creativity. If Bowie had been a goth, I can imagine he might have sounded like Astari Nite.

Necessity Meal | Astari Nite (bandcamp.com)

https://www.facebook.com/astarinitemusic

https://instagram.com/astarinite43