Abandoned Place
“Shadow of memory,” is a nice bit of dark ambient that appears to originate from Germany. Very minimalistic in the build up, very minimalist throughout until I lost interest in hearing when the next note would kick in. I suppose compared to that tune that was going to take 80 odd years to be played this is up-tempo but compared to anything else don’t forget you’re library book.

Abigail’s Mercy
Perfectly listenable west midlands? Goth rock band. The album Salvation sounds remarkably good given the sleeve looks awfully pub rock demo quality. Nice riffing guitars and a mixture of male and female vocals without feeling the need to dive into nu-metal rapping which is often the case when people decide to share vocal duties. By pipping Acid Ice Flows these also make my business cards technically incorrect, ho hum!

Absent Minded
Perfectly funky electro industrial. Appear to be a mid-90s German band that went in for that quaint  game of the time of releasing a limited edition of your release that was in excess of what you expected to sell for added collectability. I’ve lost track are these going to take pole position? Bit growly at times. For fans of growly Germanic industrial.

Absurd Minds

Arpeggiator driven electro Goth like all those bands that seem

Acclimate

Fairly minimal electro Goth ambient . “Hello,” is quite noisy industrial but with more of an 80s feel and drifts into far more atmospheric dark ambient.

Accolade (featuring Henry, Sean)

We like the waily girly- a bit Hildegard von Bingen

Acid Ice Flows

Moody Germanic sounding electro Goth not dissimilar to bands like Wolfsheim

Actified

Quick punky early 80s bass heavy kind of sound reminiscent of Killing Joke and early NMA but with a fairly prominent saxophone and a bit of a tribal kind of vibe. Must have been one of the first bands to put stuff out on Jungle. Would have sat neatly alongside 1919, Blood and Roses et al. Perhaps one for a Cherry Red retrospective!

Advanced Art

AFI (a Fire Inside)

At some point AFI were identified as new American Goth Heroes. I cared enough to buy the pop punk of the “Girls Not Grey,” single although personally I prefer Fallout Boy. But never got quite as far as buying anything else.

B-side a cover of the Cure’s “Hanging Garden,” does nothing to redeem them in its dull clinical replication.

Update:
I may have given this lot less credit than they deserve. I’m not saying they deserve huge amounts of credit but I’ve given them less than that. Not sure they deserved the next big Goth hope tag they acquired in the mid 00s and seemed more like a miserable Green Day than a punk pop Cure but having listened to “Sing the Sorrow,” a few times over recently they are very much in the OK camp and they do a nice line in gloomy album artwork. Some of the song structures tend towards the more epic end of Nuclear Blast fare.

Afterdawn

An American band that seem to favour the wailey end of vocals. Quite metal edge to the sound. Elements of shouty new wave as well though. Bass can go a bit funky

Agonoize

Well produced bouncy industrial of a 90s European style  

Agapesis

High octane euro electro industrial whose “Roter Drache,” gives Apoptygma a run for their money in the building a song around Carmina Burana stakes

Agency, the

A big AOR rock sound with a madchester swagger whilst vocally reminding me of one

Agents of Social Control

the ASC, are a band who appear to be having an identity crisis. Possible a university bedroom project, “Tribes of Agentis,” nevertheless sounds and looks pretty professional. I think ASC want to appeal to Goths although they are not an out and out Goth band instead I would suggest they are non-specific alternative roc/metal who’s sound is probably influenced on a daily basis by the girls they are trying to impress but i am only speculating.

Aiden
There seems to be a general acceptance that there is something Goth about Aiden. I'm still trying to put my finger on what though. William Control's solo stuff is more obvious and I was beginning to think they perhaps started off as horror punks who drifted into more mainstream emo territory. They certainly wear a misfits affinity on their sleeve but it's all rather panic at the disco for me

Ajax XE "Ajax"

Not the Dutch conquerors of Europe on the hallowed turf but a Waxtrax band intent on spreading their blend of electro industrial across the world and to be fair they do it perfectly adequately albeit with some strained samples and pretty rubbish mixmaster bits. XE "Waxtrax"

Alchemy

Atmospheric drones, semi-tribal drums, sounds like a more electronic version of Peter Gabriel’s passion and moody neo classical with mumbling

Alcoholika La Christo

One minute these are all shouty the next French Chanteuse which makes a change from  the usual shouty vocals opera diva. Apparently hail from  Bolivia which might be a first for this site and some seem to consider them Industrial Metal and perhaps there is a bit of Ministry punching  through

Alexis, Adrian

Nice electro type stuff that has a slight prog feel

Alice in Videoland

Bonkers dance rock that keeps drifting towrd Toni Basil before pulling itself back from the edge. I can imagine Katiejane taking Daisy Chainsaw in this direction if she had been born 15 years later.

Alien Faktor
Sci-fi dark ambient. The samples almost feel Ministry in places although the music doesn’t keep up. Tracks where Mr Muschitz brings in additional musicians certainly seem more developed. Occasionally you even get a proper song which can be quite good but it seems to entirely depend on who he is collaborating with.

Imagine the Orb meets X Files and some electronics going on.

Alienoil

Soft electro-industrial

Alien Sex Fiend 

Apparently NME originally called the Fiendies and their ilk positive punk before the Goth tag finally stuck.

The Fiendies were another Batcave band although originally from Wales the Core personnel have remained Nick and Mrs Fiend. For a slightly bitter slant on their wonder years check out http://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-Fiend-Fink-Mckenna/dp/0953656411

Released a string of 12”s and Albums on Anagram Records throughout the 80s such as,

12”s

Dead and Buried        1984

I’m Doing time in a maximum security twilight zone            1985

I walk the line             1986

Hurricane Fighter Plane          1987

Stuff the Turkey         1987

Haunted House           1989

Studio Albums 

Whose Been Sleeping in My Brain (both versions) 1983/4

Acid Bath       1984

Maximum Security      1985

It         1986

Another Planet            1988

Curse 1990

Along with a handful of live albums covering the tours from this period and the compilation Alien Sex Fiend refined their post Suicide electro punk sound. 

Much of the output over this period featured the distinctive artwork of Nick Fiend.
 

To see the Fiends in the flesh from the early 80s check out the Goth compilation DVD “the dark side,” pretty cheap from here last time I looked
 

Fiend mark 2 throughout the 90s was a much more electronic oriented affair. I first noticed them rearing their pasty make up covered face again when watching the children's TV computer game programme “Bad Influence” the show started as always with Dominic Diamond being a smug cock before someone mentioning that there would be a performance by top rock band ASF later in the show. I was just about to turn over to Grange Hill when they started interviewing Mrs Fiend and I realised their full name was obviously a little too risqué for kids telly.

The appearance was to promote the fact they had recorded the music to a computer game “inferno,” which set their shift into a far more electronic dance oriented direction

Material was predominantly released on 13^th Moon and began to find itself reviewed in Mixmag rather than NME although the last album I am aware of 1997’s Nocturnal Emissions is something of a disappointment failing to really hit a dance or a punk vein instead falling into a a weak dub-electronic gap inbetween.

Alight

It is probably fair to say Alight look more Goth than they sound. Although “Spiral of Silence,” features a guest appearance from one of Lacuna Coil and there is also a touch of All About Eve in their sound it is more AOR slick power metal than out and out Goth although that is not to say they are not a decent listen. The odd flirtations with strings give things a bit more depth but there is not enough of it

Alio Die

One of two bands granted two tracks on “Death Odors,” run of the mill dungeon music as far as I can tell though

All About Eve

Enigmatic front woman Julianne Regan had links to a selection of goth bands such as Gene loves Jezebel and the Mission before AAE carved out a name for themselves in their own right.

Although their singles on the whole only troubled the bottom end of the top 40 the first two albums, the eponymous AAE (one of the most consistently strong goth albums ever released alongside anything by the Sisters and Rosetta Stones debut) and the patchier follow up Scarlet and other Stories both made the top 10.

Third album “Touched by Jesus,” showed a band not only out of new ideas but pretty much anything approaching a decent tune too however this forced a change of approach and 92’s Ultraviolet saw a band pushing in new directions most notably towards shoegazers such as Slowdive although commercial disappointment lead to the Eve disbanding albeit with most member reappearing in Julianne’s next band, Mice.

AAE reappeared towards the end of the 90s both as a traditional amplified outfit through support slots with the Mission and through a couple of acoustic tours that maximised the folk sensibilities of their early work and produced the Fairy Light 1 and 2 albums and saw the band in smaller arts centre type venues.

Allerseelen

Echoey and screechy if I had to sum these up in two words. 

All Living Fear

Goth rock duo All Living Fear are probably best known for “Crimson” which crops up on a range of compilations but rather than becoming ne hit wonders they released a series of albums honing their sound around Andy’s distinct vocals, peaking with Minimum Resistance. 2003’s “Home too Soon,” LP saw an expanded line up rather like Carter USM post “Worry Bomb.”

All My Faith Lost

Medievalish female vocalled goth

Allzeit Dobermann

Allzeit Dobermann are Andre Delamort, at their most interesting they are also squelchy synths that stretch toward space rock and very old school digital snare. They are also clearly fetish obsessed although it is unclear quite what it is they are fetishising.

Track one on Dominalia is sung in German so thankfully I don’t know what it’s about but the rest is in English and appears to consist of a string of grim barely rhyming couplets covering a range of slightly depraved sexual interests.

The poor chap does seem a little confused between fetishism and S and M but the more mainstream tracks are not a million miles away from Garden of Delight and the EP finishes with a nice bit of piano rather like Ozymandias.

Almitra

Nice poppy Goth with female vocals with a bit of atmospheric ethereal going on

Alpha – Omega

They use the latin (but I don’t know where the Omega key is on my keyboard.) “Silence,” is not a bad track with a quite Germanic vocal and a fairly Euro-Electro-Industrial sound albeit somewhat darker than some of its more popular proponents and with a slightly swampier sound in part due to overly effected vocals.

Also

Quite early 80s sounding. Nice juxtapositioned female vocals.  

Altered States

All Living Fear with a hint of Garden of Delight. Cathy has the rather poetic “Die you Bastard,” refrain.

“On the Designer Gene Pool,” LP there is something of a Jam feel on”Go the distance,” which doesn’t seem very Goth. The cover of “Eleanor Rigby,” seems entirely unnecessary whilst “A Letter from Grozny,” is more of a Chameleons alternative 80s guitar based kind of sound.

Amber Route

Quite proggy in places with Pink Floyd song structures and Tull and Gentle Giant instrumentation in places. “Don’t drink lemonade formaldehyde,” is pretty ace still with some 70s prog overtones. PF certainly the fairest description

Ambush

“Lach!” was recorded in 1994. 3:42 in to track one I can’t really tell you a lot. Atmospheric yet shouty post punk noise to give it the benefit of the doubt? I’m sure they knew what they were aiming for.

A Million Machines

Very synth poppy. Could be Ultravox or Depeche Mode

Amon

Atmospheric Italians. “The Legacy,” is certainly a slow builder. A bit music for dungeons but only with the groaning, too minimal for clanking this lot. Spooky, listenable and drawn out is probably the fairest description.

Amtag Unter Null

EP/Mini LP “Enstadt,” is released on the rather good “Alice In…” imprint. Sinister sounding 80s style guitar driven darkwave. Not a million miles away from early Danse Society.

Amy’s Arms

One of the poppier offerings from the rather ace Cage Studio. Bit of an Inkubus feel almost remind me of old Derby folk band, No Right Turn. “Glow,” is a nice catchy track.

Anarcoma
Noisy guitar industrial

Anathema
epic acoustic and harmonies. almost a kind of feel of nothing else matters. Epic might be overused but clearly relevant here and can build from atmospheric and broody to big and full on

Ancestral Legacy

Growly bloke, sweet female, fast guitars you know the drill. Almost Bangles feel to the vocals. Norwegian. Gothic metal, just a bit more metal than Gothic for the most part. Metamorphosised from extreme metal outfit Permafrost.

Ancient Drive

The true heirs to the title of the gothic Iron Maiden, albeit with growly doomey vocals (over maiden melodies) and with a bit of Valkyrie maiden harmonies thrown in too.

And Also the Trees

Long suffering hangers on from the 80s. they had assistance on several albums from Cure associates in that decade but by the mid 90’s “Angelfish,” (the only album I actually own) sees them sound more like late 60s Doors/garage rock than anything else I can think of.

And Christ Wept

Fairly traditional growly industrial vocals and up tempo drum beats. I suspect they are German and were certainly active in the mid-90s. Tempo can be accelerated when necessary.

A lot more shouty and teutonic  than the name evokes.  “Destroy Existence,” which I am currently listening to heralds from 1994

Anderson, Andre

Sort of gothic power metal with neo classical overtones

Android Lust

Android Lust have a cool name and “Dragonfly,” which is probably best described as an EP was released through the very respected Projekt label. Two versions of the title track and a couple of others all originating on the same LP from what i can gather. Rightly or wrongly I am mostly thinking of “Up,” era Peter Gabriel, that could be just me, that could be exactly what they were going for, chronologically i don’t think they are that far apart. A slightly harsh ethereal feel if that isn’t a oxymoron with an almost Madchester vibe. Having absorbed (and that is probably the right word) rather more of their material over time AL are quite chilled intelligent electro spanning at least the late 90s and early noughties

Andromeda Complex
“Last Traces of Forsaken Worship,” kick off slightly neo-medieval, have a photo on the inside cover of a curvy lady in stockings and little more hails it appears from Italy and  was recorded in 1997. A bit of ambience a bit of sampling a bit of intense string sections. The curvy lady appears to be called Sabine.
There’s a bit of Pachelbel going on here and a strong neo-classical vibe. Later in the album it just goes a bit Philip Glass.

Fetish AOR according to the Nightbreed Catalogue but not a bum roadie in site. First few minutes of “Last Traces Of Forsaken Worship,” frankly remind me of a child practicing keyboard. Even some wanky bad piano practice bits thrown in.

An experiment on a bird in the air pump/Ipso Facto

Two band I will give a joint review to not because they don’t warrant separate entries but because they both ignited the same spark in me when I got a chance to play their respective debut 7”s. Both seem to be ploughing the same furrow independently which has not happened in goth for a long time.

AEOABITAP create a menacing dark sound with vocals that would not be amiss on surrealist pillow or anything Siouxsie released before 1989 whilst musically they are everything the horrors should be but aren’t.

Their four track debut reminds me why 7”s should hold some kind of protected status via English Heritage. A cover of 100% by Sonic Youth keeps the Kim Deal goth connection alive.

Listening to IPSO FACTO you can picture Noel Fielding crying his black tears into his fountain of youth as he wished he’d picked these rather than Robots in Disguise as his house band.

More organ driven than AEOABITAP although the Airplane/Siouxsie comparisons are still relevant. Signed to the more recognised Mute one can’t help thinking in a Blur vs Oasis type face off IF will emerge victorious.

Angell, Tara
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? This was one of those amazon cd’s I got sort of conned into but as someone has labelled them/her Goth I’ll include it. Very listeanable but sort of Americana/American college rock kind of Breeders meet Mazzy Starr really but perfectly enjoyable. Oh yeah, and “Come Down,” came out on Rykodisc which I think put out some Steve Kilby solo stuff so there’s a very tenuous Goth link for you.

Angels and Agony

Very electronic, very Metropolis they actually sound very Wolfsheim  which  is high praise indeed

Angelspit

Rather like a much bleepier Athamay with the same almost spoken delivery. Touches of Fischerspooner too

Clattering electronic  noise pretty much sums it up I think. Very overdriven. Some of it sounds a bit Sheep on Drugs, some of it sounds like a bad rapper.

Angel Zoom

Dark and atmospheric. Almost neo classical but with singing. Neo operatic anyone? Possibly the least heavy thing I've heard on nuclear blast.  

Angina Pectoris

Another growly Garden of Delight lite without the atmospherics or All Living Fear esque mid-late 90s gothic rock

Animus ex Machina

Lacuna Coil/Evanescence chuggy guitar to quiet bit changes in a rather more electro framework

Ankst

Very much from the Midnight school of Goth. Very Industrial drums and heavy guitars with growly vocals.

Another Species

Another species appear to be a Goth Punk duo complete wit Mohawks, hers big and tufty his pointy spikes who sound very much like a moody dark ambient Siouxsie. In ASF style they have taken on the monikers “Species,” so we have Erika Species and Nic Species and judging by the booklet that comes with “Loading...” they like having their photo’s taken, a lot. By “Vector-bourne,” they are sounding rather more like the Fiendies who they so clearly aspire to emulate. That’s not to say it’s not good just a bit predictable, or nu-80s depending on how you wish to view it.

Another Tale
I like these. Quite an 80s sound, at times I think they could be in my Folk case rather than the Goth racks. “Nightmare Voices,” is circa 1992 and has quite mainstream sensibilities. I suppose of their time when Goth could weave in and out of the mainstream but leaves them without much of a distinctive sound. Cult doing ballads and the Church are probably the best markers. Rather prophetically “the Book,” sounds remarkably like the sound New Model Army settled upon some 10 years later.

Anstalt

I’m not sure if these are EBM or “Wave” but they sound like typical euro industrial a la Front 242

Anstam

Dancey, dubby Industrial.

Anteros Bullet

“Dead On,” is quite atmospheric in an almost shoe-gaze style. Quite American sounding with droany female vocals, like a soporific Lush. Vocals almost flirt with Siouxsie.

Antimatter

Beautiful piano, trip hop beats and almost whispered female vocals. My 3 ½ year old took an instant dislike to these although no justification as to why

Apocalyptica

Big epic Gothic metal that sound quite a lot like Him only with more and better strings

April33

Hard to describe. At times I am almost reminded of an  ambient Sisterhood and then it suddenly lurches to an electro Blockheads. A very mixed bag. Hail from Leicester apparently but with little in  common with forebears the Horatii or the Hunters Club.  

Apsara Maschima

Dark ambient sprinkled with apocalyptic folk

Arapacis

Not particularly good attempt at Evanescence/Lacuna Coil female fronted Gothic metal Canadian apparently so instantly fall behind Rush, Bare Naked Ladies and Avril Lavigne in my favourite Canadians, oh and Neil Young

Arban, and Severin, Steve

“Beauty and the Beast,” is minimal dark ambient of a neo-classical bent. Originally composed for a ballet I believe. 

Arcana

Atmospheric and medieval

Arcana Obscura
One of those bands that if pressed I would have told you were on here already. Relatively laid back electro  industrial with a bit of growly vocals but quite softly spoken ones

Arcane Art

“A Sleepless mind,” begins like the intro to a Disney fairy tale.

There are definite similarities with In The Nursery especially their soundtrack stuff albeit without the percussion focus, whilst vocal tracks suggest a less harsh sounding Backworld. “In memory of elila,” probably pushes this influence to it’s most obvious conclusion.

Dark Vinyl as a label name though is cooler than Mallory Towers.

Arcane Winter
Latest creative outlet for Trev Ghost that seems him reunited with a number of former Ghosties and producing a far more ghosty infused sound than anything Midnight ever did reverting back to a more traditional rock band line up and playing proper goth rock songs with overly phased guitars.
I picked up the Cold Europe EP when they supported Danse Society and it has 8 strong tracks but our live favourite was “Kerosine,” which had a really cool ska vibe. “Bad Day at Gothic Rock,” could be RDF in places.
One to keep an eye out for going forward.

Arcanum
A bit like that Alphawotsit lot who did that song that was done by that rapper recently

Arch (the)
released on belgian label "Antler Subway" the LP the "Messiah Album" released in 1990 certainly seemed ahead of its time. Reminiscent of All Living Fear pretty much every 90s Nightbreed band and at times Depeche Mode. Dedicated to the 90s and Skateborders released 1st January 1990 the LP is literally and spiritualy the birth of 90s goth.

“Body of Beauty,” has a very Nightbreed feel to it albeit of the European bands that they tended to distribute rather than the traditional British guitars and synths variety.

Archon Satani

“Hear my anger,” they say. You can certainly hear their lethargic noodling

Area24

Slick guitar lead well produced pop Goth that could sit neatly alongside All Living Fear. Hint of Bowie in the vocals OK great fucking dollops of Bowie in the vocals.

Argine

I can’t tell you a lot as the sleeve notes to “mundana humana instrumentalis,” appear to be in Italian and I haven’t seen our Italian speaking family friend for quite a few years and when I next do I’ll have better things to speak about so you’ll have to just accept these are just neo-classical apocalyptic folk types. Goes a bit Morris Dance/English country garden toward the end.

Aria
some kind of project of Paul Scwartz that at times comes across as neo-classical in a Goth kind of way and at others a classical musician who has managed to get signed by an indie. nice packaging that reminds you of many a project type comp but music can be a bit too much like that song from the airline add that ended up on all those ambient CDs a few years ago. Aria One features my wife's favourite bit of opera, it all sounds the same to me to be honest.
 

Armageddon Dildos

A heady mix of metal guitars and synths over a big dancey beat. Not a million miles from PWEI at times.

Arthur Loves Plastic

A kind of Cyndi Lauper does electro in a breathy vocals kind of way. Touches of Play it Again Sam electro and 90s chart dance as well

Artica

Early 80s sounding brooding Goth with an In2a Circle kind of feel.

Art Noir

Kind of reminds me of Garden of Delight covering Backworld. It’s a little while since a band inspired me to look up whether any of their other output is still available but I have just dived into Amazon for this lot but it looks like there is only one copy left so hands off.

Artrosis
Neo-classical Goth metal with lots of violins

Arts of Erebus

Chugging guitars set up a very mid 90s guitar Goth kind of sound. Touches of Garden of Delight but on the whole a bit more mainstream rock. Hints of Danse Society as well and not just the “Wake Up” refrain in “Dawn of the Dead.”
ASCETIC:

Bit of an 80s  Industrial feel to begin with on Atheism, the rhythms could be Play it Again Sam, then does go a bit Floodland era Sisters without the pomp and circumstance. Not quite sure how but I am also feeling a little Julian Cope floating around in the mix.

Ash, Daniel

Found fame as whatever fraction of Bauhaus he made up and then much like his brethren engaged in ill informed off shoot projects.

The solo album “Coming Down,” looks pretty ace and sounds pretty awful. Overly reverbed mediocre rock and lazy lounge jazz.

Ashes You Leave

Pseudo dark ambient meets guitar rock. Not unlike Evanescence 5 years before they existed.

Almost Moonchild meets Lacuna Coil with some growly vocals.

Very competent across styles but seem uncertain as to what they are aiming for making “the passage back to life,” as the Leftism of Goth.

Ashtrayhead

The delightfully named Ashtrayhead are best described as a cross between Sheep on Drugs and Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction.

ASP

Very big and Teutonic in a Nuclear Blast kind of way. Also reminiscent of Totenacht. German from what i can tell and this CD, “Fremder-Zyklus, Teil1: fremd,” was self distributed through gigs alone according to the booklet, that has a fairly noble if clumsy manifesto about artists rights. The English version having the distinct impression of having been run through Google translate from the native German. Strange sentence structures aside it is a fair point well made and if buying a few more CDs from the merch stand keeps acts like this on the road then I’ll happily open my wallet. “The mysterious vanishing of the Foremar Family,” is decidedly Voltaire. A quick search on ebay suggests that they have managed to release numerous additional albums since so perhaps their principled stance paid off.

Asrai

“Touch in the dark,” is nicely packaged female fronted melodic Gothic rock somewhere between Inkubus Sukubus and Evanescence.

Assemblage 23

As fine a slice of bleepy euro industrial-pop as i have heard in a long time. Appear to be the one man band of a Tom Shear. A very European sound although I have a suspicion he might be American

Asylum

The main body of asylums output consisted of two LPs “suckling the mutant mother,” and the other one.

Musically they competent Goth rock at the Mindwarp end of the spectrum but their profile was always maintained through their New Model Army connections. Rob Heaton produced Mutant Mother and guitarist Bloomberg toured with NMAs lead singer Justin around Europe captured on the CD Big Guitars in Little Europe before eventually joining NMA proper.

They could swing musically from NMA to the Chameleons and back again whilst clearly proving something of an influence to Garden of Delight.

Ataraxia

Church organs and chanting. Competently executed if uninspiring, it’s no wonder the Babes spotted a gap in the market. One of the higher profile neo-classical acts haling from Italy and so unsurprisingly quite operatic in their approach.

Their cover of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights,” shows what they are capable of its just a shame their own material can’t compete.

Atari Teenage Riot

 I think the name says it all really. In a similar vein to Ultraviolence, I think some of this might be what they call gabba but whatever it is it is very fast and very noisy and has a slight feeling of Madchester having got a lot more scarey.

Athamay

Words fail me- avoid.

Imagine six form poetry over-enunciated against a cheap tinny drum machine and a bit of synth

Atlantis

“Mistress of Ghosts” is atmospheric darkwave/ambient  

Atom Infant Incubator
“Praenatal Segment,” could form part of a sci-fi soundtrack, probably whilst people in space suits tentatively creep along the hull of a long abandoned space ship before they have discovered what has happened to the crew.

Atonall

Another Erasure-esque vocal performance but with a very rich synth backdrop and breakbeat drums

Atra Mors

Sleazy Goth metal with an industrial edge which sounds depressingly like Mr Manson at times which is a shame as they are able to conjure up images of Judith at times. Nice counterbalanced female vox that remind me of something I can’t quite put my finger on.

Atrax Morgue
Possibly Italian industrial. Some of it pretty indeterminate noise. Not one to chase. Just because you can make a noise doesn’t mean you have to.

Atreyu

If you like your Goth metal vampiric and little scamps looking the wrong side of EMO then “the curse,” is for you. Also one for fans of fangs, lilies and red underwear.

Atrocity

From what I can gather, Atrocity started out as a proper black metal type band, had a bit of an identity crisis, released an album of electro pop covers, “Werk 80,” and sort of morphed into a more traditional Goth band albeit of the heavy guitar variety. One f their crew I believe are the Mr Liv Kristine who appears on aforementioned Werk 80, still as a member of Theatre of Tragedy at the time and the band seem to have also become Leaves Eyes as a vehicle for Liv’s vocals. Werk has covers of electro flag bearers as Tears for Fears, Duran Duran and Yazoo.

Atrocity Exhibition

More metal than the majority of Damage Records output with an almost Metallica feel nestled against Play it Again Sam and their heaviest assault.

Attrition

Early pioneers of darkwave style atmospherics along with the Danse Society before they went pop but 20 years is a long time not to touch the synths and on later releases remixes particularly) they seem to struggle not to make everything go bleep in an Orb kind of way.
Most of my contact with Attrition has been through fairly early vinyl releases that I happened to find second hand in a prog-record shop in Leicester that considered them new-wave around the couple of weeks my son was born which would make it pretty much eight years within the week. They have obviously done a lot since then but I never made the effort to catch up particularly but did get a copy (eventually) of the Eternity LP which seems to be a compilation of a couple of late 90s releases. It’s very nice and quite neo-classical with the obligatory wailing diva albeit with some slightly dub drums
Neo-classical themes abound on this release with a bit of eastern promise as well in the emotive strings.
I tried to go and see them a couple of years back only for the gig to be cancelled due to bird flu.
The early Attrition records I really like some of their contributions to later comps are just random noisy crap
Appear to still be going strong.
“One horse rider,” which is one of their most recent recordings maintains the Attrition vibe whilst bringing the groove right up to date. A nice pulsating base groove too. “invocation 5” is one of those scary dollhouse tunes like the Nosferatu one
Martin who is the main man also runs the Cage studio in Coventry I believe and the product of much of his work can be found on Bandcamp with plenty of free samples to be had if you like to try before you buy

Audio Scienc

Kick drum lead electro which seems to lean more towards ambient in the realms of Banco De Gaia than Front 242. Label is Outlloud which is a bit deceptive given that the music is quite soft.

Aurora Lights

A bit Inkubus and a bit Die Laughing

Aurora Sutra
Wailing female vocals a la Moonchild with a whispery bloke that sound a bit Wolfsheim.

Ausgang

“Licked,” has recently come into my possession and I have to confess I thought that I must have had some of their earlier work on one of my numerous compilations, this being the result of a post millennial reformation rather than their original 80s work, but I must have them muddled with one of the other acts to have received the Cherry Red reissue treatment. Without then being certain what they sounded like first time around, this CDR begins with what feels like a completely unnecessary cover of “I wanna be your dog.” I am going for the benefit of the doubt and this might be a live favourite the fans were crying out for but to me this adds nothing to an overrated original. Things do improve though as we move onto their own tracks which unsurprisingly have a real jagged post punk kind of sound that sits alongside many of their contemporaries. I am guessing little effort has been made to update their sound instead playing to their old strengths. Touches of Bauhaus, the Chameleons et al all punch through. Sort of title track “Lick,” is a bit of a standout but that might be because it reminds me of an obscure French tune I rather like, title escapes me, and in my head I can imagine them overhearing it in some dive in mainland Europe and thinking they would get away with nicking it rather like Father Ted in the Eurovision episode.

Autumn

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the band photo’s but what we seem to have for the most part is a rockier All About Eve with an occasional touch of Lacuna Coil at one end of the spectrum and Inkubus Sukubus at the other. Their CDs have a nicely designed aesthetic too. “My new time,” drifts into what I think one would refer to as progressive metal territory far more than “Cold Comfort.”

Murkey moody female fronted Goth. Kind of 90s Siouxsieish

Autumnblaze

Like the slow bits of Evanescence or Lacuna Coil

Autumn, Emilie

Elsewhere I have been known to distract myself speculating what Steampunk sounds like and it is fair to say it probably sounds quite a lot like this. Sepia tinges, corsets and circus’s this is dark, dark cabaret of a vein previously tapped by Dresden Dolls and Rasputina. Think clowns, think asylums, think crinolines. I believe Emilie is something of the polymath albeit a slightly twisted one.

Vocally at times Kate Bush at times Tori Amos

Autumn Cannibals

Has something of an 80s guitar feel about it. Sort of imaging the Chameleons went AOR with some Crime and the City Solution vocals at times. A touch of gothabilly  

Autumn’s Grey Solace

As the name would suggest quite ethereal. Bring to mind Juilee Cruize

Autunna Et Sa Rose

Pretty Italian neo-classical. Piano lead but a bit more diverse than Ozymandias who seems to be responsible for this sort of thing being classed as Goth. Has a bit of an Enya feel without the new age thing going on

Avalist

Track one form mini-album “Entire Silence” which also appears on the rather ace “Sound of New Hope” compilation is reminiscent of whatever that bit of classical music Fatboy Slim uses at the beginning of “Right Here Right Now”.

The whole album is neo-classical/baroque tinged (or at least what I presume to be baroque) would make a good soundtrack for a film where people run around a lot of cathedrals. I’ve not seen or read the Da Vinci Code but….

A.X.E. Project, the

Bulgarian Gothic Metal with a light folk dusting anyone?

Axxonn

Dark electronic lead ambience with a touch of the Arcade Fire

Ayria

Really upbeat and catchy electro pop

 

Azam Ali

Ethereal and eastern

back to front page

anything to add e-mail librarian@gothapedia.org.uk