It’s already shaping up to be another banner year in the world of goth music. The way this decade is going thus far there’s definitely going to be a growing demand for dark, dreary music.
As for me, my 90s grunge kick that started last summer is still ongoing, but I’m still listening to new goth music too. As I get older, I don’t want to end up as one of those elderly people who only listen to the same twenty songs on repeat from when they were young. But the allure of nostalgia is tempting. Even then though, I’m digging stuff up that I didn’t hear on the radio as a kid. I like to keep things new on these countdowns for the most part, with only an occasional spotlight on decades-old songs. On this list we have some brand new songs from this month,a few that are a couple months old, and one that I thought was new at first but is actually from 1990. Here’s a selection from my recent YouTube likes and subsequent Bandcamp hauls.
В.Р.ЕД. ~ Русский Хоррор (Russian Horror)
Not sure if this one is related to current events or not. It was released March 2nd. I don’t think most bands had enough time to write and record a song about the Russia-Ukraine war yet, especially less than a week after it started. I mean it took System of a Down about a month to release related songs when the 2020 Armenia-Azerbaijan war was going on, and they had plenty of resources as a mainstream band. But the English lyrics are up on YouTube if you want to have a look. It is indeed a song that brings to mind images of invasion and war. If it wasn’t written about current events then it just had amazingly good timing. В.Р.ЕД (V.R.ED in English letters) is a one-man Russian band from the city of Yekaterinburg, interestingly. Part of Russia’s bustling post-punk scene. Even if it isn’t specifically about current events, the song perhaps serves as a reminder that the Russian public is not 100% behind war. I’m not going to let the war deter me from listening to Russian music. I’m against imperialism and authoritarianism, whether Russian or American/NATO, not the people.
https://vred.bandcamp.com/track/russian-horror
Scary Black ~ Tragedy
Male Tears - Model Citizen
Male Tears is a band that thrives on the aesthetics of a low-budget obscure 80s darkwave band that dresses like Robert Smith from The Cure and puts out underground music videos recorded on a VHS camcorder. There’s a comical aura about them, but even so, their music is genuinely good. Exhibit A is this song, with its dark, danceable groove, off their second album Trauma Club from December 2021. It’s a song that I had stuck in my head for days when the music video came out recently. Definitely a band to watch.
This Cold Night ~ 90°
This Cold Night, the band that does not exist on social media “and neither should you” according to their Bandcamp bio, released this single in late December 2021, a little too late to make those “best of 2021” lists, but it still shouldn’t be overlooked. The music video above was released on January 1st. I finally got around to hearing it last month. As I mentioned before when they made my lists, This Cold Night first caught my attention via their contribution to the song “Run Away, Simon” with Tearful Moon. I found that I liked pretty much all of their music once I got around to listening to it. This song is a catchy post-punk track, released as a single along with the track “Denver in November”, which is also worth checking out.
Vestron Vulture ~ Astronema
I was excited to hear new Vestron Vulture after they won me over last summer, when they released three albums all at once. Normally if a band releases that much music at once they disappear for years (such as when And One released four albums at once in 2014 and hasn’t released anything since). Not so for Vestron Vulture, which already has a very prolific discography. The Monterrey, Mexico-based artist is known for switching genres often, but I was happy to hear Vestron Vulture is still in its post-punk phase, which I hope lasts. Their newest album, Ghoultears, consists of three songs, and was originally going to be completely instrumental, but musician Dante Diaz decided they needed vocals. The original instrumental versions of the songs are included, bring it up to six tracks.
Asylum Party ~ Mother
“I’ve never been special.”
This might have been the biggest earworm on the list. At first I had no idea this song came out in 1990, I thought it was something new, because there’s plenty of music coming out today that sounds like this. I heard it thanks to an unofficial music video by the Youtuber Soldier of the Past (shown above). I guess you’ll have to click on it to see it, the user disabled embedding the video. Asylum Party was part of the French coldwave scene of the 1980s, contemporaries of the band Little Nemo and others. I always love me some French coldwave. That’s the best kind. Anyway, this is a song that stands the test of time for sure. It is indeed special.
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