I’m finally back with some new music, been pretty busy with my webcomic and some other projects but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been listening to new music, I just haven’t written about it yet. I’ve been very strapped for time, so I might not write a whole lot about every song but I’ll at least provide the links where you can check them out when possible. So, here are my favorite songs of the past 30 days. Most of it is new, but I’ve been listening to some older stuff too that’s new to me. I also did the This Month in History section, tracking my June musical tastes over the past twenty years.
Revenge of Nephthys ~ No Way Out
I’ve been on an Egyptian mythology kick lately, and as I was reading about the Desert and Chaos God Set and his wife the Dark Goddess Nephthys, I remembered this band name “Revenge of Nephthys” in the back of my mind somewhere. Previously I had heard their song “Senseless”, but now I wanted to do a deep dive into their discography. Perhaps it was Nephthys Herself that put this idea in my mind. During my listens, the song “No Way Out” became my favorite. None of their music seems to be directly about ancient Egypt, but this song does have a vaguely Egyptian sound, at least in my opinion.
Revenge of Nephthys was a German deathrock band from the town of Braunschweig, active from the early-to-mid 90s, only releasing two albums and some demo tapes before disappearing like so many other obscure goth bands before them. As far as I can tell, by the 90s there weren’t very many bands continuing the post-punk/deathrock sound throughout most parts of the world (except Mexico apparently), so it’s always cool to find one.
Devoted Sinners ~ Of Dreaming
My friends Devoted Sinners have done it again. Their new album Nothing Lasts Forever came out last month, and what struck me most was this song. There have been times in my life where I’d rather have been asleep than awake, which is what this song is about. Being in a blissful place and not wanting to rejoin the living. The song has an ethereal sound that puts you in that zone, for a few minutes at least. Then it ends and you have to wake up.
Joao ~ Girls in my Room
This song is just one of those songs that take you on an adventure. I have never focused on the lyrics while listening to this because the music is so captivating. Especially when the singer does this weird echo effect with his voice like “Hooo-ooo-oo-oo Haaa-aaa-aa-aa”. I don’t know why I like it so much but it sounds so epic for some reason.
Joao, although stationed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is led by Peruvian artist Luis Mauricio MΓ‘laga Fuenzalida, so it definitely has that same kind of sound that’s prevalent in post-punk coming out of Central and South America right now, a subgenre that really deserves more attention. I expected the singer’s first name to be Joao, but I was wrong.
This Cold Night ~ Circuits (R.23 Version)
It’s this song again, neat! “I’m not just an old pile of circuits”. A song about a robot yearning to be human, metaphorically or literally depending on your interpretation. I love the original song, this remix does it justice. This is going to be on an upcoming album, Retrospective XXIII, which is apparently also coming out on DVD with camcorder footage of a concert. I wonder why more albums didn’t come out on DVD. Or VHS before that, for that matter. Blank DVDs are even longer than blank cassettes, opening up the possibility for longer mixes. I have a DVD player rigged up to my stereo receiver to act as a CD player, so it would be really cool to listen to this new album on it. The singer explains more on the Bandcamp page below for this two song release.
Slow Danse with the Dead ~ Dream Stalker
I’m still really loving Slow Danse with the Dead’s new sound. One of my favorite still-active bands, I try to follow them pretty closely (not to the point of it being weird of course). This is another remake from their newest album Dark Ritual, which I talked about last month too. The original version of this track kind of slipped by me as I focused on other songs, but the new version really caught my attention and caused me to appreciate the song a lot more.
Aux Animaux ~ Lost Souls
I first heard this song on Obscura Undead’s All Goth Considered show, where artists are interviewed about their song before it’s played, and I liked it. The song is about the evils of animal experimentation, as the lyrics pertain to being trapped in a cage for weeks, months and years. Another song it reminds me of is Pretty Addicted’s “Blue Cage” about whale captivity. Uh oh, I’m getting ideas for an animal activist mixtape. Anyway, this is a really good song, I’m going to be keeping an eye on this band.
Guerra FrΓa ~ El Miedo en tus Ojos
My favorite band from Guatemala. This song translates to “The Fear in your Eyes”. I ran the lyrics through Google Translate (because I took German instead of Spanish in High School), it’s a song about admiring someone but not having the courage to say anything to them, and yet the object of the person’s affection has fear in their eyes.
This song released on May 9th, and Guerra FrΓa has had another release since then, just yesterday in fact. I still need to listen to the new album.
https://guerrafriamusic.bandcamp.com/track/el-miedo-en-tus-ojos
TOP SONGS OF June THROUGH THE YEARS
20 Years Ago ~ June 2003
“Tanz in der Schatten” always makes me think of my grandmother because it was the last song I showed her before she died in late May 2003. She was Austrian and I thought she would appreciate a song in German. Not sure what she thought about the metal aspects. I discovered Dimmu Borgir on a compilation CD from Nuclear Blast Records, which had this song about exterminating humanity. And The Kovenant’s final album SETI was still fresh in my mind at this time.
15 Years Ago ~ June 2008
Still melancholic and dreary at this time, still healing after a breakup. College was out for summer and I was back home, although I mainly spent the summer holed up in my bedroom. I was still listening to 1930s music too, hence Cab Calloway.
10 Years Ago ~ June 2013
These two bands were my hyper focus throughout 2013. It’s hard to believe this was ten years ago already. My biggest memory from this month was going to an Ayria concert with my then-girlfriend now-wife. There will probably be some Ayria on here next month.
5 Years Ago ~ June 2018
These were songs that helped me cope with the crappy call center job I had at the time. Boy Harsher was making waves at the time and being played at all the goth clubs. I lived closer to Tampa, Florida back then and could therefore frequent The Castle night club. “Pain” quickly became the “DJ’s bathroom break” song at the club and at similar goth nights. “Killing Time” is a really catchy track that I still like despite kind of going off synthwave.
