The long-awaited new album from Prague gothic cowboys, CATHEDRAL IN FLAMES titled Count To Nine, has finally been unveiled on the Musicraft label! The themes of the songs cover contemporary psychological problems and addictions, Lovecraftian mysticism and magical sexual practices.
The title, ‘Count To Nine’ refers to both the number of songs and the mystical number 9. Nine is the number of fulfilment, closure and completion. It also symbolizes the coming of age and the connection between dimensions and worlds on all levels.
The nine tracks were mixed by the legendary John Fryer (Fields of the Nephilim, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Paradise Lost, Cradle Of Filth and more). The band has significantly tightened up their dark gothic rock on their third album, from the hypnotic and gothic rock purist track, ‘Dreaming In The Witch House’ to the cowboy shuffle of ‘Pale Rider’ to the dark pop of ‘Summertime.’
Vocalist Phil Lee Fall says of the album, “On Count To Nine we tried to cross boundaries. We ventured further and deeper than ever before. Musically, lyrically and sonically. It took us almost three years, but we are extremely happy with the result. Dark, mystical and monumental gothic rock for the 21st century.”
Gatsby adds: “Each track is heavily influenced by the mood and situations in which it was created. That’s why I make music, to get the emotion out. So the fact that it’s dark is probably natural. In a way, it’s a catharsis of the disgust and confusion we live in.”
‘Ride Or Die’ is the first single release in nearly two years by Swedish post-punk/goth icons Then Comes Silence. It is also an opening statement of intent from their stunning new album, Trickery, which is out on 5th April, with vocalist Alex Svenson stating: “Friendship is love. It is important and worth fighting for. It’s ride or die."
Indeed, much of Trickery celebrates friendship, unity and the feeling of belonging to a tribe, with TCS explaining that “being a part of the post-punk and goth scene is a great privilege. After being on the road for so many years, we have experienced caring and welcoming audiences, both old and young, some with a similar background and some just for the love of the music and the culture that comes with the lifestyle. Uniting and harmonising with other people, we feel an incredible community together and it is a feeling that is both priceless and a blessing."
Trickery is also the audio definition of triumph over adversity. Backtracking to 2022, on the eve of their first-ever US tour and eager to promote their just released ‘Hunger’ album and its 2020 predecessor ’Machine’, TCS were suddenly and unexpectedly reduced to a three-piece. Would their famed darkwave wall-of-sound still work in a trio format? Fortunately, the answer was resoundingly positive, so much so that they resolved to continue with this slimmed-down line-up on a permanent basis, a period that has already included further US and European tours, followed by their return to the studio to make Trickery.
The inadvertent metamorphosis of the band has also led to a different way of creating new music. In order to capture the heart and essence of the trio’s live prowess, Trickery was recorded in just three days in Kapsylen Studio in Stockholm. With Jonas Fransson (a band member since 2015) laying down an energetic punk backbeat and sleaze punk fan Hugo Zombie (a 2018 recruit) providing inventive and rhythmic guitar lines, the main focus remains on singer and bassist Svenson, the sole surviving founder member from the band’s 2012 debut album. His velvety croon and solid bass lines are enhanced on ‘Trickery’ by retro synth sounds reminiscent of his recent solo futurist wave project, Neonpocalypse. "The electronic elements are essential to ‘Trickery’," he adds, "but are also a salute to punk music, the cradle of Then Comes Silence and the cradle of post-punk.”
Founded by Svenson in 2012 and touring frequently to promote three albums released in quick succession, TCS soon found a large audience in Germany. Signing to Nuclear Blast in 2016 for the release of Blood, their fanbase widened as they shared stages with artists such as A Place To Bury Strangers, Chameleons and Fields Of The Nephilim and performed at festivals all over mainland Europe. Firmly in the vanguard of the new generation of post-punk, darkwave and goth artists releasing high quality new material, they work hard to promote it and are recognised as a leading live act in their genre. They have also built a significant UK following and 2024 has already seen them play a sold out London show at the 229 venue.
TCS recently signed to Metropolis Records for the worldwide release of Trickery.
Ahead of the re-release of the epic TRINITY E.P. this October NFD are proud to present stunning new video for a special edit of Surrender To My Will (No Mercy), The Enchanted version. Featuring American alternative DJ & Model, Ashely Bad in the role of the Witch and the NFD frontman in the role of the Demon the video is more of a movie short than a music video with strong atmospheric Gothic visuals tell the tale of a venture to Hell and back.
These bloody goths, still thinking it’s 1985 and all wanting to be The Sisters of Mercy, in their black garb, wide-brimmed hats, shades, mooning around in churches and graveyards, still churning out tunes with spindly guitar with loads of chorus and flange, with deep, growly vocals crawling over thumping drum machines and four-quare basslines that rip off Craig Adams. They’re all so bloody po-faced, and even when they’re being humorous or ironic they deliver it in such a straight way it’s impossible to tell if they are actually being humorous or ironic or just naff.
And that’s part of the enduring appeal of bands like Cathedral In Flames. You know what you’re going to get, within a fairly narrow margin. It wasn’t really until the 90s wave of goth emerged that this was really a thing, so many of the contemporary goth bands with an ‘old-school’ sound more as if they’re channelling the likes of Suspiria and Children on Stun than The Sister or Siouxsie, and since most can’t register the same low-end as Andrew Eldritch, end up sounding more Cark McCoy for the most part.
Genre history and pedantry aside, ‘Not Another Vampire Song’ (somewhat ironic and humorous) follows the release of their cover of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ ‘The Weeping Song’ (not ironic or humorous), and ‘The lyrics poke fun at typical gothic rock themes as well as stories of closed rock clubs and churches’:
“The song is based on a memory of the nineties, when we used to travel (not only to play) around Bohemia, and after a night of drinking we would go the next morning to the only place that was open (on Saturday or Sunday) at that time, so to church.”
They’ve got John Fryer (Fields of The Nephilim, Peter Murphy, Nine Inch Nails) on board to produce this new material, and credit where it’s due, it suits it well. It’s a solid tune, too, and with its grainy, vintage-looking promo video, it does look and sound for all the world like one of those tracks from obscure 80s also- rans that crop up on compilations of The Sisters and The Mission like that started doing the rounds in about 87 or 88. It’s about as far as you can get from revolutionary, but in terms of delivering what they set out to achieve, it’s Mission accomplished.
Dawn After Dark first emerged in the second wave of goth in the late 80s, at the point where goth intersected with indie and straight-ahead rock to create something altogether more digestible for the masses than the dark, shadowy stylings of the like of The Sisters of Mercy and The March Violets (and this isn’t the time for the goth / not goth debate here, and no-one needs to hear my position on it: I’m going for the short cuts to provide context, nothing more).
The Birmingham-based act were pretty active during this time, playing in the region of 150 UK shows as headliners and support to acts including Balaam And The Angel, Wolfsbane, Fields Of The Nephilim, and Living Colour, and releasing 3 12” singles on Chapter 22 (the label that also launched The Mission in ’86 and released their first two singles, ‘Serpent’s Kiss’ and ‘Garden of Delight’) before calling it a day in 1991. 30 years on, they’ve finally delivered their debut album, and as the title suggests, its emergence is something like a phoenix from the ashes, since they’ve lain dormant all this time save for a one-off show in their hometown in September 2019.
Those three singles – ‘Maximum Overdrive’, ‘Crystal High’, and ‘The Groove’ are all featured here, albeit rerecorded using post-millennium technology and mastering, slotting in nicely alongside seven previously unreleased songs. It’s ‘Maximum Overdrive; that kick-starts the 11-track collection and is pure Cult, which is no shock given the original as performed by a band who sported long hair, leather jackets and bandanas back in the day. This version is much more polished and much more dense than the original, and you get a sense that this was how they always wanted it to sound. It’s less manic, smoother, but it still basks in rock ‘n’ roll excess and wild solos flame all over.
I’ve always filed DAD alongside the likes of Rose of Avalanche, although it’s fair to say they’ve always had a rather harder edge, and this is pressed to the fore on their long-delayed debut album, to the point that on reflection they’re more ones to file alongside The Cult and Zodiac Mindwarp now (only without the preposterous excess of the Bradford hard rockers).
‘The Day the World and I Parted Company’ brings more gritty riffery, and sounds like Sonic Temple era Cult with a hint of The Mission thanks to the twisting guitar lines and all the hammer-on descending runs. It’s enhanced by some overloading chug in the rhythm department, although there’s an expansive psychedelic workout in the mid-section.
Apart from slower, more anthemic stabs like ‘When Will You Come Home to Me’, they focus on the bold rock riffing, and you can’t exactly criticise a late 80s rock band for sounding like a late 80s rock band – and yes, that is the sound of New Dawn Rising, a title that perfectly captures their history and belatedness of their debut. It’s like they’ve never been away, apart from the fact that they’re back sounding crisp, and dense and more 2021, in terms of production if not songs.
It’s a solid, ballsy, gut kicking debut that packs in back-to-back slabs of the kind of rock they supposedly don’t make any more… only, of course, they very much do.
Abrasive Trees may be the solo project of Scottish-born guitarist and singer Matthew Rochford, and this may be a debut release, but already the project has acquired a roll-call of contributors on a par with Pigface or The Damned. Amongst these are Peter Yates (Fields of The Nephilim), Mark Beazley (Rothko/Band of Holy Joy), Steven Hill (Evi Vine), and Jo-Beth Young (Talitha Rise/RISE/Yates & Young).
The sum of this three-tracker bears little obvious relation to its parts, in the best possible way: there’s no sense of baggage or of any of the contributors striving to define the sound with their various stylistic signatures, and what’s more, none of the compositions sound remotely alike, showcasing a creative openness and willingness to experiment and embrace different forms.
Emerging from a thick atmospheric mist, ‘Bound for an Infinite Sea’ has gothic overtones, with picked guitars echoing out over a deep, rumbling bass. With hints of early Cure, Skeletal Family and Salvation, it broods through shadowy shapes in a fashion that’s perfectly evocative of the early 80s post-punk sound, but it’s also spun with an ethereality that owes as much to the 4AD roster and 90s shoegaze. Rochford’s voice sounds dislocated, disembodied, as it floats into the air, lost, alone. The production is hazy, a vagueness hangs over the notes, with the instruments blurring together as the percussion lingers hesitantly in the background.
Beginning with hints of expansive post-rock, there’s almost a folky feel to the delicate instrumental ‘Brother Saint’, which washes into the more abstract, experimental semi-ambience of ‘Replenishing Water (Stripped)’.
Uncertainty, trepidation, and a certain sense of otherness permeate this set, and if Abrasive Trees’ identity and direction seems unclear at its conclusion, then it’s all to the good, leaving open all avenues and possibilities for exploration.
Evi Vine previews ‘My Only Son’ single ahead of the Black Light White Dark album. The new LP features The Cure’s Simon Gallup, Fields of The Nephilim’s Peter Yates and Martyn Barker (Shriekback, Goldfrapp).
Evi formed this band while living in LA, quickly getting a support show opening for Slash at the Whiskey-agogo. She has collaborated with Graham Revell (SPK, The Crow Soundtrack), The Eden House, Tony Pettit (Fields of the Nephilim), and Peter Yates (Fields of the Nephilim). In 2016, Evi sang on Phillip Clemo’s DreamMaps album, together with Talk Talk’s Simon Edwards and Martin Ditcham, subsequently making appearances on BBC6, BBC3 Late Junction and Jazz FM.
In recent years, Evi Vine has toured with The Mission, Chameleons Vox, Wayne Hussey, And Also The Trees, Phillip Boa and The Voodoo Club, and Her Name is Calla. After hearing Evi Vine’s debut album and including it among his top five albums, Wayne Hussey invited them to tour with him in 2016 and subsequently with The Mission in 2017. Invited on stage to sing three songs by The Mission, the seed was sown and Vine joined The Mission as featured vocalist for their 30th Anniversary Tour.
Over a decade into this music writing thing and I still get a massive buzz receiving albums I’m excited about hearing ahead of release. Mostly because like many other music fans, I get impatient and overhyped with anticipation. And then… well, what then? When a work is so rich and resonant, and communicates on a level which transcends words. Describing not sound, but sensation is more than a challenge, especially when that sensation is overwhelming.
Single release ‘Sabbath’ gave me something of an Evi Vine rush and raiding the back catalogue only amplified my anticipation for BLACK//LIGHT//WHITE//DARK, and never mind the suspense, it’s a belter. No doubt much will be made of the roll-call of contributors, including The Cure’s Simon Gallup on bass and Peter Yates of Fields of the Nephilim on guitar, but the songs ultimately speaks for themselves here.
A mere six songs, yes, but when the first is a slow-burning behemoth that treads the delicate line walked by Chelsea Wolfe, it’s immediately apparent that these are songs of a rare intensity. ‘I Am the Waves’ explores brooding, hushed and downright downbeat passages which glide into deep, immersive washes with serpentine guitar lines snaking around trepidacious drums and haunting, fragile vocals. ‘Afterlight’ ups the tempo and the tension, rolling drums and extraneous electronics creating a dense swell of sound. Evi sounds twitchy, anxious, her voice adrift in multidirectional reverb. The atmosphere is fractured and strained: you don’t just listen to this, you feel it. BLACK//LIGHT//WHITE//DARK leads the listener to some dark places, but then a function of the most powerful art is often to challenge, to affect, rather than to simply exist and entertain.
The sprawling yet elegantly-poised nine-minute ‘Sabbath’ is still a standout, its contrasting passages of fragility and crushing weight the perfect counterpoint to one another. It drives and surges, on and on, a dense, textured wall of sound that’s completely immersive. Its only shortcoming is that it is, well, just too short.
‘My Only Son’ presents a more minimal aspect, a delicate piano providing the primary accompaniment to wistful, reflective lyrics. It’s well-placed, bringing things down a notch – but the incidental strings and voices bring contrast and discord, meaning it’s never an option to really settle into a sense of relaxation and comfort, and the low-rumbling electronics which open ‘We Are Made of Stars’ deepen the unsettling atmosphere. Stretching out to forge a suffocating dark ambience, voices whisper hauntingly in the distance, before the eleven-and-a-half-minute finale, ‘Sad Song No. 9’ dredges every last ounce of aching beauty from the deepest melancholy. And when the bass booms in and the guitars kick in, it soars majestically. It’s a perfect conclusion to an album worthy of the word masterpiece.
We’re inching into winter and again my inbox seems to be getting darker and gothier in its content – or perhaps it’s just my SAD-attuned headspace. Either way, this is one extremely welcome arrival.
As a prelude to the album ‘Black Light, White Dark’, Evi Vine have given us ‘Sabbath’ as a single release, featuring The Cure’s Simon Gallup on bass, along with guitar by Peter Yates of Fields of the Nephilim. It’s a slow burner, and it’s epic and then some: fully nine brooding minutes of slow, smouldering atmosphere and hauntingly evocative melodies which burst into dazzlingly kaleidoscopic curtains of sound.
It’s one of those songs that lures you in with its grace and delicacy: Evi’s nuanced, emotionally rich and moving vocal, reminiscent by turns of Jarboe, Chelsea Wolfe and – perhaps at a short stretch – Julianne Reagan (she can swoop and soar, and I suspect her choice as backing singer by The Mission is no coincidence) is alluring, ethereal, simultaneously creating a sense of vulnerability and otherness. And as the sonic storm swells into a dense and richly-layered mass, the effect is intensified, until finally, the surging sound is all there is… nine minutes simply isn’t enough. Allowing the hypnotic bass and deliberate groove to take over and transport me downstream as the guitars build and build, deeper, louder, more and more, until I’m drifting, I find this is a song to loop, and loop…
The six-minute single edit is even more not long enough, and probably isn’t short enough to get much radio play either – even though it absolutely deserves all the audience it can reach. The fact mainstream audiences aren’t likely equipped to handle the intensity is their loss, but also a sad reflection on things. Because this is music to embrace, and be blown way by.
Aural Aggravation 