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H

A sleazy industrial vibe that even has hints of that talentless Marilyn bloke. “Dissection,” is minimalist musically making Sheep on Drugs sound like Genesis although other tracks are more straight comparisons with SoD.

Hagen, Nina

Nunsexmonkrock indeed! Is she a Goth, I’m not sure, is she mad, probably, did she persuade a major label to release her records- amazingly yes! Slight Siouxsieness lots of craziness, Kate Bush on helium

Haggard

A big Gothic Orchestra that could be on Nuclear Blast

Hall, GP

My daughter loved the “Gothic Flamenco” album. Obviously I bought it because of the G word but they do a good job of trying to justify themselves as a new sub-genre. It is perfectly listenable and sleeve notes try to justify their Gothic credentials. I’ll leave that to the listener.

HALO

Quite an early 80s British noisy guitar Goth kind of feel.  I suspect they’re fairly muso as they insist on telling us all the instruments they use (that or they have no one to thank as they have no friends.) Would not be out of place on those Batcave, Gothic Rock type compilations you’d buy because you’d heard of three of the bands and liked the look of another four.
At times have the ligher poppier later Mary Chain about them
TJAG/eye.VELOCITY seems to hail from the early 90s and they pledged 5% of the profits to environmental causes which makes them more altruistic than pretty much every other Goth I ever met put together. Bizarrely the less I listen and the more I let it melt into the background the more I am enjoying this. Well worth a punt if you stumble across a copy

Halo_Gen

Dark electronics on this eponymous album that appears to be a front for Don Gordon  

hAND

Suitably sinister. Fairly metally guitars. Female vocals. Not sure if the odd capitalisation is deliberate or a caps lock error.

Handley, Guthrey with Hussey, Wayne

 As far as I know, “where was,” is the only fruits of this particular partnership although the 7” is pretty prevalent the slightly scarcer 12” contains 4 tracks of fairly competent guitar Goth with a slightly Gene Loves Jezebel feel albeit aimed at a John Hughes soundtrack with a slice of Lloyd Cole.

Hanging Doll

You would expect “Femme Metal,” to introduce female fronted bands but i have to say this lot are pretty good and would have held themselves against most. Refreshingly not hiding behind big metal guitars accepting more underlying subtlety. Almost an AAE feel to the chorus without Queen Eve’s haunting melodics.

Nice Gothic metal not a million miles from  Lacuna Coil etc all be it with slightly less of the “nu.”

Hanging Garden

Melodic doom laden gothic metal  

Hard Corps

1987, Mute tie up, decent late 80s hard electro.

Harlots of Beyond

I don’t know you wait ages for a copy of “Lake of Faeries,” by Harlots of Beyond and then two turn up at once, or within a week or two at least and they actually have different packaging, a white and black sleeve version with different internal artwork. Recorded mid noughties and released on Zombie Power records in 2007 possibly Finnish and fluctuates between fairly straightforward post punk in a slightly Crime and the City Solution vein and something a little darker and more brooding with romantic flourishes. Medieval American Southern Gothic from Finland in a sentence. Based on the packaging I would have expected something a little more Byronesque, although to be fair I’m not entirely sure what Byron would have sounded like with an array of effects pedals and mat black Les Paul, early Nosferatu I imagine.

A bit of a rocky Rose of Avalance/Zodiac Mindwarp feel to it

Hatesex

“Unwant,” is released on/distributed through the usually safe pair of hands that is Alice in... HTSX as they appear to sometimes truncate are the familiar Male/Female duo, music a little to Athamay at times for my liking but pretty good mid 90s feeling atmospherics. And a touch of Moonchild going on in places.

Haujobb

bleepy electro industrial

H-Bomb White Noise

Imagine what you think a band with this name would sound like in the late 80s and you are pretty much spot on. They do work their soundscape around a particularly nice chord progression on ‘modern destroyed,’  although their eponymous  track is rather disappointing

Headcrash

Industrial rap, like the House of Pain on steroids.

Hearse, the

With a track entitled “Empire Down,” your money would be on Sisters wannabe’s but if that is the MO they are just not very good. If not it is bland 90s Goth with little selling it as far as I can hear. Perhaps a touch of more mainstream late 80s attempts too.

Heavy-Current

A full on battle between metal guitars and in your face synths and Goth won. Lyrics of “One Way World,” feel as though they suffer from not being the authors mother tongue but the melody is top notch.

Heavier Than Broken Hearts

Quite Nick Cave/Country Gothic. I tracked down their debut album recently limited to just 300 copies but disappointedly still available as they should have sold more. Released on the brilliantly named SwissDarkNights label.

Hellfire Club
Mediocre guitar lead Goth Metal. Could be Claytown Troupe or Ballam and the Angel. Might as well be fucking WASP.

Hellset Orchestra
Have a bit of a Voltaire cabaret feel about them. Recorded in Notts so I should champion them I guess. I suppose you can say they fill a gap.

Heroes Del Silencio

Worryingly sound like one of those Eurovision tracks from eastern Europe that having started slowly suddenly step up a notch to “rock on,” as fireworks and lights kick in for the heavy middle 8 (although anyone who has seen Lordi live will be aware that such escapades cannot be replicated live) in the absence of a gear change though these end up sounding rather like the Dresden Dolls.

He Said
very 80s, funky drums and multi-layered choruses. Very boring plank of wood album cover though.
quite Depeche Mode which is probably to be expected given they are on mute.

Heyaeb

I am immediately reminded of Apoptygma but in a less aggressive way. Nothing on Apere Ventes makes me want to revise that

Hex

The Church are one of the most prolific Goth bands to come out of Australia and one of the most consistent within the scene but despite their day jobs the members have time for a whole range of side projects (Marty Wilson-Piper going as far as joining AAE pretty much full time).

Hex is Steve Kilbey hooking up with Donette Thayer who apparently used to be in Game Theory to produce beautiful ethereal AAE meets Enya pop.

An eponymous album was released in 1989 and one suspects Shadow Project were listening keenly before entering the studio themselves.

Hexedene

Another one of those European outfits that seem as inspired by Robert Miles as the Sisters. My one example of their work is remixed by the Tantrum Twins so they may sound rather different when performing in their own right. Very nice and competent but you get the feeling they may run away scared if they saw a guitar case. This track (Breathe) has nice female vocals holding together well

Hieronymous Bosch

A band I’d been waiting to check out for a while whose apocalyptic folk meets dark ambient approach is sadly not as inspiring as their name. For fans of Raison Detre

Hijokaidan

Inspired some hope amongst the sea of noise in which they are sandwiched on the “Dedication,” compilation. They appear to have an almost traditional line up but the electronics don’t seem to be actual instruments and I can’t hear a single drum or vocal! Barely structured white noise

Him

One of those bands who for a time if everyone wearing their t-shirts had bought their records would have been permanently in the top 10. However for many I suspect the Heartogram logo was more enduring than their music which is a shame because what they do they do well most effectively when reworking other people’s classic pop songs such as Chris Isaac’s “Wicked game” or Neil Diamond’s “Solitary Man.” But that’s not to say they can’t knock out a perfectly good tune on their own and tracks such as “And Love Said No,” or “Buried alive by love,” stand up well.

Although each subsequent album seems to see them slip further into a pastiche of their former glory they still knock out well produced synth/guitar alt-pop with the best of them.

Presuming it is now in every other bargain bin in the land compilation “And Love Said No,” is well worth checking out.

Hiram Key, the

“Amerikafka,” is a bit trip Goth with proper rocky guitars and tri-state killing spree vocals. I actually really like this. The first band in a long time to make me want to check out more.

As far as I can tell “Amerikafka,” is the only album they have done thus far and the title track is by far the standout although “Forever,” gives it a run for its money. Overall there is a very strong Bowie feel to many of the tracks and a fair bit of the Cure which is perhaps less surprising when you realise Lol Tollhurst has a co-writing credit on one of the tracks. My favourite new album for quite a while even if it does date back to 2011.

His Name Is Alive 

I’ve never been sure whether HNIA’s Goth tag came simply from being signed to 4AD. Certainly across their multitude of releases they seem to be sufficiently sonically varied to think the hole might be pigeon sized but equally they are capable of falling into a Cocteaus/Dead Can Dance sized hole. Not your run of the mill Goth band.

History of the Destruction, the

This recently formed apocalyptic folk/avant garde outfit draw their influences from bands as diverse as Backworld, Raison Detre, 4th Sign of the Apocalypse, Dead Can Dance and the Television Personalities with a bit of Springsteen solo work thrown into the melting pot for good measure. They have expertly deconstructed the traditional ingredients of World Serpent type dark folk bands and rebuilt it Frankenstein like into something horrendous and beautiful at the same time creating their own distinct identity.

Little output to date but that is expected to change in the near future and early signs suggest an almost progressive approach to concept pieces, notably around the books of the apocrypha.

Hocico

Pretty full on growly industrial but with a bit of Latino flair thrown in occasionally

perfectly acceptable high octane electro with a hard edge

By a process of elimination these are probably my favourite late 90s Mexican Industrial Band. I am currently uncommitted as to who comes second. Very competent hard dancey industrial.


Hogan Ani

“marat,” is one of those moody instrumental piano tunes that the likes of Ozymandias make a career out of. Not bad as such but a little bit too jazzy for me.

Holocaust Humanity

the Slightly industrial and a bit ASF  

Holylore

I’ve got nothing bad to say about ”Egophobia,” other than it perhaps doesn’t need 8+ minutes I’m just struggling to think of anything positive either. Adequate indifferent generic Goth of the non-guitar driven variety. Trev thought they were the strongest of the Italian bands nut one of the less interesting on the wholly Italian “Intimations of Immortality,” comp.

Holy Toy

The anti-Abba or Sweden’s answer to Cabaret Voltaire?

Mid 80s industrial on Sonet Records.

They manage bleak iconography that conjures images of Laibach or even later German bands. Vocals sound very ENDG

Homicide Division

Homicide Division are big overdriven beats released on  Metropolis. They wear gas masks and seem a bit obsessed with war. Proper old school industrial

Honeymoon Cowboys

As the name might imply these are almost dark country, not unlike the latest Nick Cave release, or indeed his former partners in Crime (& the City Solution.) I could imagine these on the soundtrack to true blood. American Gothic in it’s purest sense. Melody of “Closed Souls,” is frustratingly familiar though.

Hoover Bogatzky

Remind me of some of the Steampunk Gypsy folk bands

Horatii, The

Leicester based mid-90s Goths. Released an album “Riposte” and appeared on a number of compilations including the rather ace “Island of the Zombie Women” that appeared in the What Sweet Music They Make series.

Often found knocking around the seedier venues of the midlands supporting/co-headlining with Manuskript

Hordowicz, Martyna

Definitely the twee indie end of Goth with strumming acoustic guitars. A bit Derrier le Mireur

Hot 27s, the
The Hot 27s make me think of  Sleazy Rock n Roll in the mold of the Damned. I always said I would finish Gothapedia when I reached 1000 bands and in case I am true to my word I thought I ought to finish with this lot. Bill, bass player and singer from the Long March the band that effectively inspired this site is now playing with this lot and it seems like closing the circle- I doubt I’ll stop but I might be true to my word and publish a hard copy gothapedia millennium edition, who knows. They have a face book page and you can listen to a couple of covers. You can also download “That’s what I like,” which may be an original of theirs and I certainly don’t recognise it but even Jive Bunny and the Master Mixters have a song with the same title (apparently)We

Howard, Rowland S and Lunch, Lydia

Shotgun Wedding the 1990 collaboration which re-united Lunch with former BP Howard is certainly more listenable than her solo output creating a kind of BP lite meet Blue Aeroplanes sound one could imagine influenced Hole and their ilk stretching as far as the Throwing Muses.

House Grinder

House Grinder is packaged like every low budget Goth band of the mid-late 80s and the general sound is the familiar synths, industrial drums and samples however on lead track of their eponymous EP someone has made the unfortunate decision to rap in a manner not unlike that of Rockman Rock on the Jamms 1987.

Thankfully side two of the double a-side abandon the hippety hop rappung and concentrate instead on the music and considerately placed samples in a manor not dissimilar to a number of Play it Again Sam bands. Hard Evidence sounds worryingly like the George Bush tune Bill Bailey does. 

Househunters

Monochrome-ish cover: check

Saxophone: check

Almost Blythe Power meets the Mekons slightly awkward almost punk folk vibe?

Shambolic TVPness???

Should they be here? I don’t know

House of Usher

not to be confused with Usherhouse (unless the two are linked unbeknown to me) apparently this lot are one of the last real Goth bands to come out of Germany which I suspect will be less than well received by the other Goth bands that have come since. Nightbreed put out a compilation called something like the black country chronicles which I seem to recall was pretty good and featured sleevenotes by Lenny Henry (not really)

Hula

Hula are a classic northern industrial band undoubtedly inspired by dark satanic mills and Cabaret Voltaire.

Releases such as Poison have a very indie feel whereas offering via Wax Trax such as their Voodoo Chile interpretation are altogether better produced veering into Hollywood soundtrack territory.

Human Drama

Mark Almond/Soft Cell lite

Hunters Club
spread their output across a range of labels including "trashcan" and "nine mile" the Hunters Club sit somewhere between the Sisters and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. Hailed from Leicester I belatedly discovered.

Hurtsfall

Quality electro Goth

Hype
A little bit Robert Miles musically but the song is very run of the mill for the European electro that seems much more popular on the continent.

Hypernoid

Jesus Jones remix the Mission


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