Der Himmel über Berlin – Shadowdancers

 

Shadowdancers is Der Himmel über Berlin second studio album, released 2014. The band is from north east of Italy, and in their biography it is said they take inspiration from bands like The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Joy Division.
It is very much guitar- based post-punk with a sound from the 80´s. The album Shadowdancers is very well produced, perfect sound- quality and their songs very well made. I like the drum-sounds, it has kind of a metal/punk feeling.
I think it is hard to pick out some favorite songs, everything is good. Highly recommend this album.

Published at Dark Reviews

The Horror Vacui – Return of the Empire

Horror Vacui released their second full album, “Return of the Empire” in october 2014. It is a very good continuing of their debute “In Darkness You Will Feel Alright”, that came out 2012.

This album feels a bit more punk-rock / hardcore attitude, but still got a gothic rock style. The most of the songs goes very fast forward, “till the Last Drop” is kind of slower. They have succeded in to bring up the production and sound quality, but still kept their punkrock attitude.

As I said, this is a great second album and I think everyone who liked their first album should check this out. If you found Horror Vacui by this release, then check out their first album.
This is an album that also getting better and better each time I listen on it.

I like the most of the songs, can´t really tell what is my favorite but I think “Light of Darkness” is kind of outstanding and different from the other tracks on this album. Great album, recommend!



Orginal posted at Dark Reviews

El Clan – Caronte

This album is awesome, I guess this can be one of my favorite albums this year.
El Clan is from Mexico and they are not newbie within the gothic scene. Their first album release were back in 1994 and in 2009 another album were reviewed by the Rolling Stone Magazine Mexico as one of the top 10 best in Latin America.

I have heard them before, actually played a song on our show Gothtune. What I felt speciall with the band is that they have some kind of unpredicted crazy genes inside their music.
The new album Caronte released in november 2014 has a great produced sound and very well preformed. They still got their style, unpredicted. It is kind of a blend between gothic rock and something progressive. You find a bit of everything, from Lacrimossa to Devil Doll and Fields of the Nephilim and Heroes del Silencio. And that describsion, include madness.

Some songs are written in spanish / latin and sometimes they sing in english. I do not pick any favorite songs from this album, I think everything sounds great. Enjoy!

Liquid Grey - Arsenic Dreams

A new review is up at Dark Reviews, this time it is Liquid Grey´s new album Arsenic Dreams. Read more about this here!

Stairways - Twist The Past

New review is up at Dark Reviews, Stairways (a cd compilation)

The Stompcarsh - Love From Hell

A new review is up at Dark Reviews with the band The Stompcrash.

Dark Reviews

Dark Reviews got a new page. We will still publish most of the reviews here too, but this page will be a clean page with only reviews.

REVIEW: Johnathan Christian - Beautiful Hideous

Johnathan Mooney (music / US) and Christian Granquist (voice / Sweden) started a band / project and came across this little different idea to name this "Johnathan Christian". Johnathan has a background playing keyboard in the band "The New Creatures" and Christian "Day Behavior" and "The Atom". Now they found each others and worked together over the ocean to finish the album "Beautiful Hideous", released 8 of november 2013.

The album is good and interesting, the music groves och and think there are some pieces of art I would like to highlight as "I Walk This Earth Alone" and "The Sweetest Betrayal". I like the symphonic parts most in "Beautiful Hideous" which make me feel Johnathan Christian a bit different. They found their own style and stick out from the mainstream. I hear that they are inspirations from the Dark Wave scene, sometimes the music reminds of Tilo Wolff´s Lacrimosa. In the backgrounds you hear strings and choirs that gets you back to older Italian film music. With knowledge of Johnathan´s background I can understand that many of the songs are written out from piano melodies.

The last parts of the record got two remixes of already played songs, and a cover of Duran Duran´s classical song The Chauffeur. Sounds like they made it their own version maybe with inspiration of the Slovenian band Laibach, even the speak singing.

"Beautiful Hideous" is a good debut album and an interesting project I like to follow up more in the future. I hope they keep their style, especially with those symphonic part.



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