New year and new single from the transatlantic team LunarPaths. DianeDubois and KevinHunter have dropped a technoir terror in the form of “Zero Trust Mentality.”
The clatter of looped rhythms, first started as drumming that Hunter laid down, have been fed into Dubois‘ sequencer, and it almost thunders, distorted and melding with the synths. An urgency from the electronics as they pulse frenetically, exploding around the cool vocals, that are almost spoken word, building the tension.
Apparently Meta in Facebook, at the end of last year (2024) left people wondering if they had been hacked, and honestly, in recent times, our online data has come under attack from individuals and even other countries. That is what this track is about, where we are finding new ways to protect our electronic lives. “Zero Trust Mentality” is kind of like Lunar Paths’ “Sleeper in Metropolis” and this might be an unconscious nod to Anne Clark. Not to mention the synths in the beginning have an 80s feel as it kind of reminded me of Japan’s excellent “QuietLife.” This is Lunar Paths’ most industrial and dance floor friendly track in this era of “Zero Trust Mentality.”
Dark alternative music doesn’t seem to have any borders as to where it originates in the world and even the language used. Good music transcends all it feels, when everything is conveyed through sheer talent. Label Musica Tenebris are based in Warsaw, and they have released the four way split album Warsaw After Midnight, that features Polish gothic/deathrock bands Marie Laveau, Natures Mortes, Eat My Teeth and Nameless Creations.
The set list is arranged in blocks for each act, and first off the benches is NaturesMortes with four tracks, “Liar’sWeb” is the most recent release for this group, and indicative of their goth rocking style. You will be swept up from the beginning with the swift paced rhythm and ghoulish signature guitars, all the while being serenaded by the tortured sweet vocals that give no quarter and full of conviction.
Screaming fuzzed out guitar is utterly and instantly attention grabbing for the track “SaltInMyEyes,” by EatMyTeeth. The lead singer’s vibrato style is unforgettable, especially when he hits the high notes. as she almost seamlessly melds into the shrieking guitar. Discordant and rousing, all at the same time and a shout out to the drummer massacring the skins.
Natures Mortes (Facebook)Eat My Teeth (photo Sophie Louise)Nameless Creation (photo Lukasz Larakczyk)Marie Laveau (Facebook)
I get a really interesting vibe from NamelessCreations, and their use of electronics gives the track “Pain-Powered Machine” an early 80s feel, almost AlienSexFiend like, and strengthened by vocals. The music is relentless, swamping your senses like a kaleidoscope with the pulsating psychedelic assault, and this is just one of three tracks.
From the crypt comes MarieLaveau with four treats, and they are going to cast a spell on you with “AreYouBlind?“. These guys ooze European gothic cool and this latest single harkens back to stylings of France’s CorpusDelicti. The lead has a lovely dark quality to her voice and everything about this song is alluring from the classic goth rock guitars through to tight rhythm section.
Personally, I have always had a soft spot for sampler albums, and I have put that down to getting a taste of different styles and band, which opens up new musicians to further investigate. This is a great compilation from a scene that is obviously burgeoning with talent. Yes, I have picked one track from each band, but these are just the ones that first off caught my attention and in all honesty, the whole album is chock full of deathrock goodness. It is a delight to listen to these brilliant gothic aficionados from Poland and now, after falling deathly in love with Natures Mortes, Eat My Teeth, NamelessCreations and Marie Laveau, I want to visit Warsaw After Midnight.
MetropolisRecords dropped the single “Sharing Skin,” by NightRitualz on January 31st. Vincent Guerrero IV is Texas based NightRitualz and in March, his self titled debut album will be released. Interestingly he has coined the term ‘fuckwave‘ to describe his cauldron of mixed styles such as goth, electronic and EBM.
‘Fuck Wave’ is anything horny, erotic and sensual that just makes people feel good,” he explains. “I feel like my music puts people in that mood and allows them to just be themselves without judgement of any kind. Another reason is because, at the end of the day, ‘Fuck’ what everyone thinks. We only have one life, so spend it doing stuff you like and that makes you happy. I see it as an empowering term.‘ – Vincent Guerrero IV
A simple guitar and echoing fuzzed vocals greet you, haunting with the slow drawl, telling of a longing of the heart for another. Like a call to arms, the rhythm kicks in, speeding up the world around this track, and you can hear the delicate synths in the background twinkling. ‘Sharing skin and secrets‘ is cherishing those intimate moments whether that is sex or telling secrets they would never share with anyone else. NightRitualz understands that most people long for that attachment but also the fact that humans motivation comes from that which brings joy. I think the description fuck wave is very apt, for it is a dark and sexy serenade in the form of “Sharing Skin.”
Dresscode’sDavidBrichard (vocals) and FredHyat (guitars), have started off the new year with the single “FollowMe.” The Belgium duo are wooing you with their take of dark electro-rock.
The melding of electronics with guitar roll seamlessly, the synths brightness reflect the techno style, meant to encourage you towards the dancefloor. Brichard’s emotionally exhausted vocals are crooner smooth and heart felt, while the guitar in Hyat’s hands, tell part of this story going from simple trickling, and then gushing in the chorus. The theme of the track might be about disappointment and an illusionary relationship, where only one person was invested. The music video features the guys on stage, as well as their live drummer FlorianGilot, which might just encourage you to try and get to see them play in real life. The play of sadness against the sparkling rhythms and synths works so very well for “FollowMe,” so check out Dresscode.
We are going back to February of 2024, when the album If Blood Comes First was released by Dallas based Happy Phantom. This five piece is made up of songwriter JackieLegos (vocals, guitars), ZackBigalow (drums), ColbySias (percussion), JoshPrater (keyboards, synth), PhillipSozansky (bass guitar) and BrendanLadan (guitars).
It is important that the first track off an album grabs your attention, and “A StrangerWalking Shadows Through the Dark” has this in spades, from the sparkling intro, which continues through, and emotion filled jangling guitars, that harkens back to TheCure. Even Lego’s vocals remind one of RobertSmith, lending it to the feel of the legendary album Pornography, which will continue throughout. The title track is a swirling and echoing piece with the synths at the front in a winding classical soundscape domination, only broken by the vocals and occasional guitar. The lyrics in “If First Comes Blood” are beautifully poetic, and where does a relationship go to after we pass this mortal coil?
‘Waiting for the night and captured by the moon saving our goodbyes it’s over much too soon there’s nowhere left to hide when she comes to my bed with nothing but a lie dancing in my head…‘ – If First Comes Blood
“No Illusions” has great bass lines and the mood of the whole track is almost joyful, yet the lyrics tell of a loss where one cannot stay as the situation is eating them up, but they want to because of unreasonable hope. Let me guide you to track six, “I Dare To Love You,” with its booming drums rolling and subtle guitar. The conjoined voices could be a coven’s chant and the wonderful imagery of dancing on graves in a passionate tryst with a ghostly lover. The rangy guitar work is a throwback to early Cult in the track “Lust,” which is about the lack of emotion compared to love that requires as much give as take.
If you haven’t guessed, If Blood Comes First is about finding another dark soul that completes yours, bring the ultimate overwhelming gothic romance and the devastation of being bereft of that person, which leaves you a husk of your former self that yearns for what was lost. I think this album is heavily inspired by real life and also The Crow, which is about devotion, but on a deeper level, trying to be worthy enough to embrace love in death or knowing when you have to let go of those feelings that drag you under the waves of grief. Legos has professed that this is his favourite album so far, and we can hear why. If Blood Comes First is a brooding and heart wrenching ode to love, in the ideal sanctuary of a forever romance, set to a gothic serenade by Happy Phantom.
As I write, California is on fire, and Vince Grant, the man behind LA project The Sea At Midnight, sent me an email about his new single, “Our Beautiful Destruction,” and all proceeds from the song will be donated to victims.
Was this track written before the fires? The vocals wrench at my insides with the lyrics about the world being consumed in flames and Grant’s voice is truly gorgeous and swept up in the whirling guitar and synths in the chorus.
‘burning so brightly against the night sky the ashes are raining sparks and ashes are all that’s left the smoke hides the pain of all that remains of our brilliant destruction our brilliant destruction smoke hides the pain‘
My heart aches listening to this track. I live in a country where every Summer is a terrifying wait to see if bush fires will take hold…. the last huge infernos being in 2019. Lost lives, lost property, watching both wildlife and domestic animals perishing. “Our BrilliantDestruction” sadly seems to encapsulate this situation perfectly. If it were released without the LA fires, it would be considered a evocative song, but currently it means everything. It is name your price on The Sea At Midnight’s Bandcamp, so I encouraged you to give a little to help in “Our Brilliant Destruction.”
Antipole, aka Karl Morten Dahl, from the currently frozen land of Norway, and ParisAlexander of the not quite as cold UK, have just released a new single. This post-punk/coldwave track is called “Sad Lover(Desolated),” and I am not sure if this ties into anything, about seven years ago, they had another song called “Shadow Lover.”
My breath slows as I take in the drum machine beats with the bass guitar’s deep rumbling, which is old school post-punk in the style of PeterHook (JoyDivision), drawing you in. The lead guitar work is seriously sublime, and delicately echoes, supported by the equally lightly winding synths. Alexander’s vocals are smooth and subdued, reeking of cooling dusk, and yet still intensely moving.
The music video is shot between the snowy pine forests of Norway, and an old church in England, with an attached graveyard. This heightens the stark reality of loneliness and inevitable death, but it also pulls into focus that “Sad Lover (Desolated)” is also about realising that snow covered scenery is beautiful, or that there is an austere dark peace around the tombstones of those long gone. It is finding the elegance and grace in that which could be seen as desolate. Antipole & Paris Alexander have delivered another perfect track in “Sad Lover (Desolated).”
2024 marked twenty years making music for Nottingham goths, In Isolation. After two decades, lead singer Ryan Swift and bassist Mike Sinclair have decided that they need to move on with life, though they have given remaining members, Tony Ghost (drums) and John Berry (guitar,) their blessing to continue with the In Isolation moniker if they so wish to do so. They are celebrating both the milestone and finale by releasing the EP Light In Dark Times.
The EP kicks off with the title track, “Light In Darker Times,” and it truly is a lovely post-punk single, dark and maudlin, with lyrics about what I can only describe as an unrequited love or the death of said love. The music is reminiscent of the Disintegration era sound of The Cure, between the curling synths and echoing guitars that speak of a deep melancholy. There is a charming innocence to “Middle Child Millicent,” until the guitars kick in. A girl with a name from the Victorian age, has found herself the unfavoured sibling, in comparison to her brothers. The Mission could have written this track I feel, especially with the wandering guitars lines and sentiment.
The name makes me think of the Japan single “Ghosts” and overall, “Phantoms” did give me a little start when I heard it, for it does throw you back into that early 80s. It is a sweet lament of wanting what the heart cannot have and unable to move on from the loss. “Middle Child Millicent (Mat Pop Extended Mix)” rounds out the EP, with far more synthpop flare and aplomb. It is amazing how different this is to the original and yet you can hear it is the same track.
Kids in shadow filled rooms and a myriad of phantasms connected to a heart denied…. this is how you get goths. And it might be an EP, but Light In Darker Times is an epic celebration for In Isolation to release. Is it the end? Who knows, however, the music lives on regardless
ST///LL (Stiiill) we last heard from in 2023, and these three brothers in musical arms have released a double single in the form of “Empty Room” and “Shout Out.” With members spread out over the UK and Ireland, they are gearing up for their second album to drop in 2025 but in the meantime, this is a taste of what is to come.
A lone piano plays, to be joined by an electronic beat and then the track launches itself with a hail of guitar, and the vocals exude a forlornness in the vein of IanCurtis (JoyDivision). The bass thunders with the rhythm while the guitar flourishes and the piano wanders through like a ghost in “Empty Room.”
“ShoutOut” is full of atmospheric synths, with a grittier energy and purpose. The guitars and synths meld into a cacophony of melodic noise in the chorus with the vocals punctuating the urgency of it all.
I really enjoyed “Shout Out,” but for me, “Empty Room” kind of grabs you, full of melancholic emotions. I don’t think it is intentional, however ST///LL have created two track that could be on a Joy Division album and this is never a bad thing.
In 1979, Gary Numan released The Pleasure Principle, which was his debut solo after two albums with the Tubeway Army. “Metal” is a standout track that is favoured by Numan and has been covered many times…. even by Nine Inch Nails. Rob Hyman (drums, synths, programming, production) and Jax Allos (vocals, bass) are Chicago based [melter], and they have put out their own version of “Metal.”
PHOTO – JASON KRAYNEK
Those flourished synth lines are the staple essence of this track, and they are very much present, but I am also glad that this is not a carbon copy. Having the altered vocals of Allos brings a new element, compared with the memory of Numan’s cleaner singing style. The percussion is just so strong and perfect in propelling “Metal” along.
This is definitely a gritty version that pays homage to a great track, and takes it on a more experimental tangent. A case of sweet and industrial tang that is satisfying to hear if you know the song, and a guarantee that if you haven’t, it is going to pique your interest in following up the original and the back catalogue of [melter]. “Metal” is such a great single and [melter] have polished it up and given it teeth.
Onyx Music Reviews 