Maybe Big Electric Cat’s thoroughly original interpretation of the gothic sound results from being based in Sydney, Australia, maybe not. In any case, the band’s surprisingly enthusiastic method is on spirited display in Dreams of a Mad King. Guitarist Paul Sadler’s emotional vocals alternate from a sensual purr to a menacing snarl, all the while…
With a huge box set retrospective and a fired-up new solo album, Bob Mould is living proof that old punks never die.
Just as the theatrically minded LA punk scene was beginning to give rise to such morbidly themed outfits as 45 Grave and the Flesh Eaters, an androgynous teenaged street performer named Rozz Williams (né Roger Painter) founded Christian Death, one of the most prolific, enduring and beloved gothic acts of all time. Few groups have…
These folks either wrote reviews that appear on the site or wrote for Trouser Press magazine. If anyone listed below cares to E-mail us with a link you’d like added, just let us know. And ditto if anyone is AWOL from this list. Grant AldenDavid AntrobusJem AswadTroy J. AugustoMichael AzerradCary BakerMichael BakerEmily BeckerSeth BenderJohn BergstromArt…
The touristy city of Nice on the sunny Riviera might seem an unlikely hometown for Corpus Delicti, France’s only goth band of international repute. Any doubts about Gallic suitability for that gloomy genre are quickly laid to rest by Twilight: Sebastian (vocals), Roma (drums/synths), Chrys (bass) and Frank (guitars) serve up by-the-book heaviness on all…
Bakersfield, California’s Cradle of Thorns melds metal/hard rock with funk, goth, industrial, a little jazz and even a touch of opera to create a sound that, while not always pleasant, is at the very least intriguing. Feed-Us presents a young band that’s as musically ambitious and ambiguous as Jane’s Addiction once was. Countered by Tamera…
Das Ich plays hard, hard-hitting industrial music, with strictly German lyrics adding to the harsh, foreign atmosphere. The band’s bombastic, strident music is not some industrial-by-the-numbers exercise in Nine Inch Nails faux-miserabilism: Das Ich means every howl of anger and estrangement. Stefan Ackermann’s alien vocal stylings are the centerpiece of the unsettling Die Propheten, with…
With the mass-market success of grunge peaking in 1993, Los Angeles’ Dig fit right in, with distorted, aggressive guitar riffs, insidiously catchy melodies and rough-voiced singer Scott Hackwith. Fortunately, the quintet’s self-titled album, produced by Dave Jerden, isn’t some hastily thrown-together copycat shuck: the dozen tracks are uniformly well-written. Commercially, of course, Dig entered the…
Wales-to-Los-Angeles transplant Michael Aston cited the usual “creative differences” when he quit the glammy, likable-but-mindless Gene Loves Jezebel in 1990, leaving fans to wonder what musical direction the singer would follow in his new project, a quartet called Edith Grove: back to his gothic roots? Maybe a move into less stylized territory? Nah, the slick,…
Elyria, Faith & the Muse’s contribution to the Southern California goth scene, proves it worthy of a more careful listen than most of the band’s black-shrouded peers. Founders Monica Richards (ex-Strange Boutique) and William Faith (who has played in such leading acts as Christian Death and Sex Gang Children) skillfully combine haunting romanticism with Celtic…
Formed in London in the early ’80s by Welsh identical twins Michael and Jay Aston, Gene Loves Jezebel flaunted a daring, alluring combination of new wave’s melodic energy and gothic rock’s dark sensuality. The band further differentiated itself from the pack with the brothers’ unconventional singing style (a bizarre mixture of yelps, screams, howls and…
By the time Chameleon came out, Atlanta’s Hollyfaith was one of the most beloved acts on the Southern touring circuit, thanks to gritty, oversized guitar riffs, hyperactive rhythms and singer Rob Aldridge’s distinctive, Jägermeister-saturated growl. The quartet neatly binds these elements together with seemingly inexhaustible energy, swaggering melodies and a healthy dose of arrogance on…
Andrew Farriss wrote or co-wrote (with Michael Hutchence) nearly every hit song that made INXS one of the most successful acts of the 1980s and 1990s. INXS called it quits in 2012. Farriss has since reinvented himself as a country singer.
As frontman for Mary My Hope, James Hall displayed the same mysterious, androgynous qualities as Bowie’s Thin White Duke. The Atlanta group had a good deal more angst and melancholia swirled into the mix, though — its EP wasn’t named Suicide Kings for nothing. Mary My Hope’s edgy, unbalanced style would later be unknowingly repeated,…
Barry Galvin (aka Bari-Bari; guitars, bass, keyboards), David Glass (drums) and Johann Schumann (bass) played in Christian Death in the first half of the ’80s (Glass even longer); in the following decade, enlisting a vocalist aptly named Christianna, they formed Mephisto Walz, a band that has little in common with their past gothic lives. The…
England’s Nösferätu is, bar none, the most theatrical goth outfit ever assembled; the band is so devoted to its pretensions that it drives to gigs in a hearse. Unlike the members of Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Christian Death and other genre giants, vocalist Louis DeWray, guitarist Damian Deville and bassist Vladimir Janicek are completely sincere;…
After Bauhaus, singer Peter Murphy joined Mick Karn (ex-Japan) and a no-name drummer to form Dalis Car, whose one album mixed Japan’s sensuous sound with Bauhaus’ obsequious lyrical constructs. As a mellifluous noise, The Waking Hour is fine, if a bit heavy on the bass; dig any deeper, however, and what you get is a…
Liverpool’s Rosetta Stone gained widespread popularity in the gothic scene with a highly melodic, danceable interpretation of gloom. Singer/guitarist Porl King, guitarist Porl Young, bassist Karl North and the trio’s drum machine maintain classic goth’s darkly mysterious and sensual qualities, but deliver the music with an unorthodox upbeat spirit. Adrenaline‘s ten tracks feature strong, memorable…
Thurston Moore talks about his new album, By the Fire, his songwriting process, surviving the indie rock lifestyle, playing for 200,000 people and more.
On A Violent Impression, This Picture, an English quartet from Bath, seems like just another U2 knockoff: an overeager band mistaking hyper-emotive delivery for true soul and feeling. While guitarist Robert Forrester and bassist Austen Rowley churn out anthemic, ultra-enthusiastic instrumentation, drummer Duncan Forrester (Robert’s brother) backs everything with the same kind of pulse-quickening energy…
