It’s not often that a relatively new US project takes the financial hit of a self-organised European tour, but Detroit-based grunge-goth duo VAZUM are not your typical darkscene act. Not only innovating musically with their unique take on the gothic aesthetic they have named “deathgaze”, the band had also thoughtfully released a ‘greatest hits’ album V- which collated their best songs in a re-recorded stripped-down style which more faithfully represents their live sound. Their UK shows had been due to commence the night before in Glasgow, but major electrical supply issues had resulted i ..read more

 It’s hard to believe that with the unveiling of Trickery on Metropolis Records this week, Sweden’s gothic darkwave maestros Then Comes Silence have now released seven albums, gradually rising to the forefront of the current scene as their reputation and their following increase with each successive LP. Many of the bands on the original positive punk scene – Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim to name but four – never made it anywhere near as far as seven albums in terms of studio releases, and those who did – Siouxsie and The Banshees (Tinderbox, 1986 ..read more

Just ten days into the New Year and already Scotland was hosting what looks likely to be one of the stand-out gigs of 2024, the very welcome return of the self-styled “Swedish captains of post-punk”, bringing their infectious gothic darkwave groove to the capital for the first time since a pre-pandemic double bill with 1919 in July 2019 in the atmospheric arched vault of Bannerman’s bar in the spooky Old Town. This year’s gig took place just around the corner at the equally cool subterranean venue Cabaret Voltaire, with gig-goers having to find a drizzly path through the patrons of Auld Reekie ..read more

  2023 was finally the year of the Goth Revival, but not in the way that many of us had hoped for. Rather than being the year the mainstream rediscovered the genial panoply of new sounds emanating from one of the most criminally-ignored and under-rated sub-genres, it was instead the year of Goth Nostalgia, forty years on from the original movement’s annus mirabilis of 1983 (not that it had yet adopted that sobriquet). Not one, not two, but three critically-acclaimed histories of the genre were published in the UK (and garnered many mainstream column inches), one (which actually had the ..read more

There’s always something really authentic and deeply satisfying about going to a goth gig at Nice n Sleazy in Glasgow – perhaps it’s the steep staircase, reminiscent of that of the legendary Phono in Leeds, leading down to the dingy gig room, it could be the timeless, simple layout of the venue itself, a rectangular low-roofed space with a very low stage at one end and a small bar at the other, or maybe it’s the wall of sound that emerges when you open the sound-proofed door. Descending that staircase on Tuesday evening, I could still easily make out (through the opaque glass in the entran ..read more

  As ever in the heat of summer, goths tend to head for the shadows and the recording studios, so the number of actual new releases tends to decline a little in June and July. However, on the back of renewed media interest in the genre, thanks to the Siouxsie comeback and the recently published histories of gothic music, there is still plenty of excellent new music to keep us entertained. This month’s new selection is a real curate’s egg, with old school deathrock rubbing shoulders with everything from trad folk goth to industrial goth rock. Enjoy!   1.      ..read more

It’s a curious fact that whilst those most associated with the goth genre (Andrew Eldritch, Siouxsie Sioux et al) are always at pains to distance themselves from the epithet, those to whom it was erroneously or extremely tangentially applied seem more than happy to don the mantle. Take The Rose of Avalanche for example. The recently reformed (2019) band were immediately labelled as goth for the simple reason that they played guitar-based music with an occasionally melancholy twinge and came from the city of Leeds on their emergence in the mid-1980’s despite their music embracing a whole range ..read more

 Two great live bands from different generations of the goth scene? At one of the UK’s most iconic venues (where Alan McGee discovered Oasis)? For just twenty quid? No surprise then that the inspired pairing of current scene darlings Vision Video and returning old stagers The March Violets for a UK tour drew a capacity crowd to the dingy upstairs room at Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, momentarily uniting the enthusiastic “baby bats” and grizzled “elder goths” of the city’s still vibrant alternative scene. Founder and sole all-time member of The March Violets during their forty-two ye ..read more

  Siouxsie’s first gigs for over a decade, including a lightning delayed show at Cruel World, The Sisters of Mercy’s first US jaunt for even longer, the definitive end (apparently) of Bauhaus, modern legends like Then Comes Silence and Diâvol Strain on tour in Europe and two new books on the History of Goth have hit the shelves. Just another average two months in the world of goth, a genre which continues to remain in an overtly "undead" state despite the constant media pronouncements about its apparent demise. Intriguingly, the last eight weeks has also seen the release of new and well-r ..read more

  The cold, dark Northern Hemisphere nights of February and March were appropriately filled with the sounds of goths young and old, with old stagers like Siouxsie Sioux, The Sisters of Mercy and The Cure announcing new live dates and the current keepers of the flame keeping the internet crackling with impressive new releases. Some of the best albums from the last couple of years were deservedly re-released after widespread critical acclaim to reach new aficionados, such as the current releases by death punk act Adrenochrome, Batcave deathrock band Shrouds, deathgaze innovators Vazum (whos ..read more