by Kevin J. Bonham
The object of this article, ho hum, is to list twenty albums which represent the best moments of the 22-year history of gothic rock. Like any ‘canon’ (should I call my next article "Why Harold Bloom Should Die"?) this will be pretentious, but if one person finds something new they like, it’s worth it.
Groundrules: I’ve limited myself to one album per band, to encourage you lazy buggers to move outside your safe Sisters/Bauhaus conservatism. [You won’t find much in Hobart, so use the net, or better still get Heartland Records (PO Box 126 Balaclava Vic 3183) to send a catalogue, and explore to your heart’s (or lack thereof’s) content.] I’ve excluded anything I don’t consider primarily goth, hence no Joy Division, Siouxsie, NIN, Birthday Party etc. I’ve excluded anything I’ve never heard a full album of (some great early-80s bands are now very obscure). I’ve excluded hybrid genres like dark-ambient and coldwave, because I don’t know enough about them and consider them increasingly distinct. Finally, I have excluded the Cure because they are neither good nor goth enough. On with the show, somewhat sneeringly, in chronological order:
Bauhaus: In The Flat Field (1978): Not quite where it began, but the first goth album to sell more than three copies. A discordant, messy, blasphemous, scathing and smutty electro-rock experiment that’s far more fun than the subdued Bowies-In-Black pop that filled the rest of their career.
The March Violets: The Botanic Verses (comp of 1981-3 material): With their unusual song structures (from dancefloor thumpers to art-rock to jokes) and innovative twin male/female lead vocals, the March Violets were a quirky, rough-sounding, intelligent goth-rock band which explored the seedy side in a way that was always cheery, and an influence on every goth band which has attacked the "goth is gloom" stereotype.
Virgin Prunes: If I Die I Die (1982): The feral cover-art is awful, but this was a very diverse, creative and atmospheric album, a fine example of the true strangeness of 1980-3 pre-Sisters goth. Includes the well-known degenerate anthem "Baby Turns Blue" and lots of other truly odd things.
The Sisters of Mercy: Floodland (1986): Andrew Eldritch proves that nobody needs guitarists, let alone Wayne Hussey, by creating his masterpiece largely on synths and bass. An album which is both lively and ponderous, with heartbreakingly good lyrics which work on every level at once, and could seemingly be about anything, from politics to relationships to bar-room banter. The finest album in the history of goth, even if Eldritch would rather we left him out of it.
The Fields Of The Nephilim: The Nephilim (1988): A bizarre band with a gruff, grandiose epic-rock sound (lead gargler Carl McCoy’s vocals especially), a debt to Pink Floyd and obsessions with Westerns and obscure Sumerian myths. On paper, this makes no sense, but they were briefly the biggest thing in the scene. Their songs are big, dramatic efforts, notable both for their intensity and also the rich humanity with which they make the most defunct mystical twaddle sound vitally personal.
Christian Death: Jesus Points The Bone At You? (comp 1986-90): This compilation isn’t remotely definitive but features several fine moments from an American band which exists to push the boundaries of musical blasphemy. Their style owes more to slow metal than traditional goth-rock. Especially notable for the timeless line "Your church makes me vomit into the vertiginous abyss".
Girls Under Glass: Exitus (comp 1986-92): Veteran German band with a great knack for melody and simplicity, sounding rather like a heavier Depeche Mode. Awesomely tight and disciplined, but also capable of great feeling, they’ve released enough albums to bankrupt you.
Terminal Power Company: Run Silent, Run Deep (1992): The only album this band released, a way-ahead-of-its-time fusion of goth, rap and techno into a violent, vicious, stark theme-album, dominated by technofear and namedropping the likes of Burroughs, Gibson, Giger, Barker and Ellis. Most techno music since is drivel in comparison.
Rosetta Stone: An Eye For The Main Chance (1992): Classic Sisters/Mission style goth-rock, precisely crafted and endearingly cynical. Later recordings are also worth finding; after the NIN-like Tyranny of Inaction (1995) they made some mini-albums which credibly resolved the need of goth to evolve without turning completely industrial.
Nosferatu: Legend (comp 1991-3): Extremely dark and dramatic, an intense distilling of the Sisters sound with deeply emotional vocals from someone called Louis de Wray, who appeared on this album and Rise (1994), then vanished from the scene. Post-Rise Nosferatu albums are derivative trash with cringe-inducing lyrics and should, nay must, be avoided.
Corpus Delicti: Twilight (1994): A bouncy, resonant, lively, theatrical and sometimes haunting French band with a noticeable Bauhaus influence. Some songs are really attention-grabbing. Anything by them is worth a listen.
Big Electric Cat: Dreams of a Mad King (1994): Bright, bouncy, breezy Australian dancefloor-friendly goth-pop, much better than many Australian goth acts which simply rip off British bands. Their other album Eyelash was so boring and subdued it reminded me of the Cure.
Still Patient?: Cataclysm (1994): Fast, hard-hitting German band with a following in both goth and industrial circles. Intriguing, apocalyptic and strongly-worded songs – one song on this album accuses God and Satan of running the world in a conspiracy against mankind.
Dreadful Shadows: Estrangement (1994): Goth isn’t noted for production values; meet the exception – a superbly polished, lavish, hard guitar-rock effort, all class from the very first note onwards. In contrast, the lyrics are bleak beyond belief and completely desolate. They’ve never gone close to matching this, their debut.
Switchblade Symphony: Serpentine Gallery (1995): Peculiar. An album which manages to sound "industrial" and organically fragile at the same time, with songs with a strange fairytale quality and a vocalist who tries to outwierd Kate Bush (and succeeds). Refreshing and memorable, but subsequent albums are best avoided.
Sunshine Blind: Love the Sky to Death (1995): One of the few mainline female-vocals goth bands which doesn’t either sound "operatic" or rip off Siouxsie’s shrillness. Straightforward, solid and relatively cheery goth-rock with some quite explosive vocal and lyrical turns.
The Merry Thoughts: Psychocult – The Interim Versions (1996): This wonderful German band deliberately sound exactly like Vision Thing era Sisters of Mercy, even ripping off phrases used by the Sisters, while at the same time producing quality hard-goth songs. It’s hard to know whether to admire them for their cheek or for the independent quality of their work. Extremely danceable, and their first album Millenium Done: Empire Songs (1994) is just as good.
Manuskript: The Diversity of Life (1996): One of the best Second Gen British bands. Brilliantly eccentric but very funky and capable of writing confidently and originally in almost any goth style, expressing a sense of wonderment at the strangeness of life far more credibly than other goth bands. Second album Devil’s Advocate (1999) is more personal but also excellent.
Children on Stun: Mondo Weird (1997): The product of a determined attempt to infuse ideas from British indie music into an overly serious goth scene, this wonderfully wacky album is a deft exploration of the seediness and perversion of youth subculture. Simply a total blast, with wonderful wordplay throughout. Their earlier material is more conventionally goth (though never entirely on the rails) and well worth getting.
Suspiria: Drama (1997): While containing several cutting-edge techno-goth dance tunes, this album is also notable for lyricist Matthew Carl Lucian’s engaging, almost structureless rants about people and their motivations – a metaphorical storybook of the modern goth scene with a large cast of oddly dysfunctional characters. The result is an emotive, intricate album of extremely high quality – if you can stand the quite incredible Northern English accent!
Kevin J. Bonham (k_bonham@tassie.net.au)