goth metal

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxJz–U25BI] Miika Tenkula, lead guitarist and main songwriter of Sentenced, passed away last week at the age of 34. Evidently, he had had problems with drinking. His bandmates put together a poignant memorial photo gallery – see above. Many didn’t like the band’s evolution from death metal to gothic metal, but I didn’t mind. Tenkula […]

Original album artworkCeramic sculpture by Cecilia JanssonPhoto by Jukka Tilli Septic Flesh have made much good music – almost too much. These Greeks mix death, doom, black, goth, thrash, and industrial metal, with clean and dirty vocals, both male and female. Their records are sprawling, and their epic feel can get tiring. So can their […]

I love the sound of female singing. But I generally hate it in metal, usually through no fault of the singers. Its usual context is what I’ll call “corset metal,” over-produced schlock with billowing hair and faceless male minions. It’s all drama and no nuance. Lacuna Coil were actually a good band before they became […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhyTr9xKx04] Today is Live Earth Day, which, like the Internet, is evidently another Al Gore invention. The idea is like Live Aid – simultaneous concert festivals in eight cities around the world (New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, and Hamburg) “to trigger a global movement to solve the climate crisis.” I’m […]

Fetish Metal Mind2001 Female-fronted goth metal is one of Poland’s prime metallic exports, with Artrosis one of the leading lights. Since 1995, the band has released six studio full-lengths. Metal Mind recently reissued In Nomine Noctis (the English version of 1998’s W Imie Nocy) and 2001’s Fetish, which present interesting contrasts. Fetish wields loops and […]

For Better Days (excerpt) Metal Mind2006 Moonlight has been around since 1991, but Integrated in the System of Guilt is my first introduction to the band. The album frankly blows me away. Just when I’m ready to write off anything vaguely goth, along comes this gorgeous blend of metal, rock, and electronics. Admittedly, the last […]

Cisza W Jej Domu Polygram1996 Another first encounter for me, Cyan is the phenomenal 1996 album by Closterkeller, perhaps the oldest Polish goth metal group, having formed in 1988. The band has much notoriety in Poland, but for whatever reason this has seems not to have translated outside the country. Perhaps this is due to […]

In WTF news, Kylesa will be playing select US west coast dates with Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation. This makes no sense other than for the fact that Kylesa happens to have a woman in its lineup also (and that maybe it qualifies as Southern gothic rock). It’s great that the band will reach new […]

Black SwanMystical Elysian Love Self-Released2006 Not the Anthrax singer nor the adult film star, Belladonna is an Italian band that falls somewhere between hard and goth rock. But these terms are really too crude to describe this band. The former implies a certain simplicity, and the latter a certain aesthetic, neither of which apply here. […]