Tag Archives: Goth metal

ALBUM REVIEW: Cold In Berlin – Wound

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Despite being from London, Cold in Berlin once again lives up to their name, as it conjures, stark, wintry urban landscape at night. Wounds (New Heavy Sounds) finds the band going further down the path they wandered down on their previous album, which found them more fully committing to their crossover into doom. The opening track of their new album blurs the lines even further, carrying a darker, more pulsating beat. Vocalist Maya belts things out with the expected intensity of her aching alto. The hypnotic pulse of “12 Crosses” shares some common ground with grunge from the nineties, as more exotic flourishes of atmosphere are also employed. Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Lacuna Coil – Sleepless Empire

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Back with their tenth full-length studio release (eleven if you include Comalies XX, the reworked version of their 2002 breakthrough album) Italian alt/goth metal act Lacuna Coil return with Sleepless Empire (Century Media Records), one of their strongest records in years.Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Dominum – The Dead Don’t Die

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Almost a year to the day, theatrical German zombies Dominum return to build on the success of their full-length studio debut Hey Living People. Keeping the corpse costumes, make-up and props close to hand, the undead quartet still look like they’ve escaped from the nearest graveyard but now come armed with a sharpened sense of melody and even more confidence in their delivery.Continue reading →


CONCERT REVIEW: Cradle of Filth – Frayle Live at The Machine Shop 

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Flint, Michigan, might be known for the crime, cars, and crisis. Yet this down-and-out town has more to offer than that. Music fans know it best for being home to The Machine Shop. This nationally acclaimed music venue has been hosting, supporting, and celebrating bands for twenty years. This special concert lounge has gained its reputation because of their genuine love of live music and doting on its patrons. They bring to mid-Michigan audiences an enthusiasm and care most venues don’t bother with anymore. It was a bright, spring evening last weekend when a group of goth kids formed a line outside this beloved hall’s doors. They were exposed to more sunlight than what they were probably used to, but it was worth it because the Symphonic Black Metal Titans, Cradle of filth, were in town.  Continue reading →


REVIEWS ROUNDUP: Indigo Raven, Witnesses, A Pale Horse Named Death, and Chrome Waves

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Indigo Raven – Looking For Transcendence

Indigo Raven plays a style of Doom/Post Metal rooted in Chelsea Wolfe’s heaviest excursions, contrasting atmospherically monolithic guitar chugs and slow burn rhythms with ethereal vocals and occasional electronics. Those vocals in particular help the French trio stand out, putting on a passionately bluesy performance that differs from the more vulnerable approach of peers like Frayle and Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard.

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EP REVIEW: Poltergeist – Hallucinations In The Catacombs 

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Of all the bands on the Gothic Rock/Heavy Metal fusion bandwagon, Poltergeist may be the most committed to those Post-Punk aesthetics. The style on their third EP remains closer to Joy Division than Judas Priest with a heavy emphasis on chilling synths, stiff bass-heavy rhythms, and disinterested vampiric baritones. This is especially true on the first two tracks as the opening ‘Electricity’ goes full Synthwave and ‘Through Clouded Eyes’ follows it up in ominously subdued fashion.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Moonspell – Hermitage

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Every album that Moonspell releases explores a different facet of their Gothic Metal style, sometimes responding to the one before it in a constant tug-o-war between darkness and light. Their thirteenth album, Hermitage (Napalm Records), is no exception. In contrast to the grandiose symphonics of 2018’s 1755, the band opts for a scaled-back, atmospheric approach with more Prog influence thrown in than usual. It seems to invoke the band’s early vibe without going full throwback and also reminds me of Tiamat or Opeth in spots.

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Motionless In White – Disguise

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Ask any Metal music lover that has attended any of the big music festivals in the past nine or so years, and they will most likely tell you they have seen a set or two of Motionless in White. It is safe to say that even most fans of modern Metal at least know the name Motionless in White. Since the band’s initial inception in 2005, the music world has witnessed the metamorphosis of MIW from a raw, unbridled, raging embryo to the cataclysmic musical force evident on the band’s latest album, Disguise (Roadrunner Records). Continue reading →


Midnattsol – The Aftermath

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Having fronted symphonic Viking metal act Leaves’ Eyes and goth metal legends Theatre of Tragedy, as well as appearing as a guest vocalist on countless different projects over the years, Liv Kristine Espenæs has finally united officially with her sister – who has herself appeared as a guest vocalist on several Leaves’ Eyes releases – and joined Nordic folk metal act Midnattsol.Continue reading →