5th September 2025
Christopher Nosnibor
Bandcamp Friday may be a regular occurrence, but it is an event, and one which surpasses Records Store Day in terms of its tangible benefits – namely, that artists get paid. Who would have thought that this should have become such a topic for discussion? The sad fact is, artists haven’t been receiving fair recompense for a long time, but the Internet was supposed to herald the arrival of a new age of egalitarianism. But then the corporatisation of the Internet put paid to that. While the world was focussed on vilifying Napster and Soulseek and the like, streaming machines like Apple and Spotify erupted like Godzilla from the depths and created a new model whereby artists got paid, but by nowhere near enough, and only of they were already raking it in.
I’ve digressed already, but the flipside of Bandcamp Friday is that there are more releases in a day than I could listen to in a month, and my inbox is battered and overloaded with updates. Sometimes, I feel inclined to simply go and lie down rather than approach their contents.
But some releases remind me why I do, and it’s worth quoting here:
After much teasing and anticipation, US goth rock veterans Sunshine Blind at last release their first new songs in over twenty years: two driving goth rock bangers, ‘Ghost of You’ and the especially rousing anthem, ‘Unsinkable’. The new tracks are released together as the Scarred but Fearless single for Bandcamp Friday, 5 September 2025.
Twenty years. Twenty years! Time does, indeed, fly. People my age struggle to accept that the 90s were thirty years ago, or that when they were 21 was anything other than the definitive bygone era. Then again, Sunshine Blind’s sound was always very much rooted in the sound of 90s goth / post punk revival, when The Sisters of Mercy unleashed the altogether more rock-orientated Vision Thing, and acts like Sunshot were taking drum-machine driven gothy goodness in new and invigorating directions. It’s not just Caroline Bland’s vocals which invite favourable comparisons to Sunshot: Sunshine Blind’s catalogue is bursting with effervescent energy, and this new brace of tunes make a most welcome addition.
The janglesome intro to ‘Ghost of You’ calls to mind The Psychedelic Furs during their 80s pop phase, and there’s certainly a melodic accessibility to the song. However, it’s countered by a thunderous, driving bass sound and screeding feedback filling out the sound at the back, and captures the vibe of The March Violets, another classic act newly invigorated. What goes around comes around, and with certain parallels between now and the early 80s, it very much feels like this is the time for a goth revival, including crimped hair and hats. ‘Ghost of You’ brings the vibe, and well as guts and hooks in equal measure.
‘Unsinkable’ ups the rock leanings still further, with a brittle guitar chiming through the verses before going full tube crunch on the bold chorus, propelled by some sturdy drumming and another solid bassline. The sentiment is the perfect analogy for the band here, too. You can’t keep talent down, or buried forever.
With both songs of a standard, this is very much an AA-side single, making Scarred but Fearless a triumphant return.
AA
Aural Aggravation 