Distortion Productions – 20th June 2025
Christopher Nosnibor
Ahead of their new full-length album release, Haunted Hearts, slated for an autumn release, Metamorph have served up the Harlot EP, which offers their usual blend of glistening electropop with a dark gothy, witchy flavour, and promises to be ‘your summer soundtrack—sweat, stilettos, and seduction.’
Living in the north of England, the last thing I would have expected to be doing was writing this at what is, with any luck, the tail-end of a heatwave – but is does mean that while I’m short on the stilettos and seduction, I have more than enough sweat to make up for it. But it does remind me of the difference in where UK goth – particularly the early stuff – and US goth comes from in terms of its geography and broader environs. As the phrase goes, ‘it’s grim up north’. It rains a lot. It’s often cloudy, windy, and cold. Until recent years, if it went over 20ºC, even in the summer, it was hot, and you’d be forced to remove the leather jacket. These conditions, coupled with generally poor conditions of low wages, high unemployment, and social deprivation, meant that dark music articulated the experience of the world as is.
America has always had its own problems, of course, but summer has always been a bit different from on this side of the pond – inasmuch as the US tended to have summers. Anyway. ‘Harlot’ is classic Metamorph: uptempo. HI-NRG, somewhat sultry, gothy electropop, and concise, clocking in at a fraction over two and a half minutes. With pounding beats and a throbbing bass, it’s got that late 80s eurodisco / technogoth vibe, with a hint of KMFDM but popped up. In terms of singles, it delivers everything you’d want.
The five remixes are solid, in particular – and I’ve amazed myself in writing this – the dance mix, which really places the bass and the beats to the fore, and the expansive Allie Frost Remix is really quite special, adding a well-suited 80s spin to the sound, led by a dominant snare which is just perfect.
But my awkwardness with remix-led releases remains, and this EP gives us the same song, six times. It’s a good song, and some of the remixes are great, but… Bring on the album.
AA
Aural Aggravation 