Theatrical Goth Rock band Raven Black continues their 2023 North American crusade by announcing The Black Hallows Tour! Launching October 5th at Rockhouse Dive Bar Kitchen Venue in El Paso, TX, the tour winds throughout the South and into the Midwest, wrapping up on Halloween at 89th Street in Oklahoma City, OK. Raven Black will be joined by Cultus Black along with special guests Casket Robbery, Change My Brain With Cakes and Dying Oath on select dates.
Currently touring the US are Front Line Assembly, Gary Neuman, and Ministry. This past Thursday saw them descend on Franklin Music Hall in Philadelphia and what an experience it was.
Grave Pleasures were one of those bands that had been stuck on my ‘must check out at some stage’ list, until now. In case you weren’t aware of the history, they originally formed as Beastmilk back in 2010 and put out debut Climax after which came the name change as well as a string of subsequent releases. Plagueboys is the band’s fourth full-length album overall and the follow-up to 2017’s Motherblood. Continue reading
Descending consecutive steps of the shadowy nooks and crannies of the psyche, like Werner Herzog revealing more abject layers of vampiric horror, Sweden’s Tribulation have never been a one-trick (bat) pony. They are the rare band with sophisticated songwriting smarts, an ominous and seductive allure, and the self-awareness to not tip their hand too far into unintentional macabre cheese camp while still straddling the gulf between Hammer homage, the deep subconscious mind, rock n’ roll, and death.
Until his untimely death in February of 2022 there were few singers who could match the gruff, forlorn weariness of Mark Lanegan. But while the world won’t be able to look forward to a new release from the former Screaming Trees frontman in 2023, on The Last Black Flower (Lay Bare Recordings) the second album by Soothsayer Orchestra, the spirit of Lanegan is ever-present.
Finnish Gothic Metal pioneer, Ville Valo (VV) of HIM, will release his debut solo album, Neon Noir, on January 13th via Heartagram Records, distributed by UMG/ Spinefarm. Pre-orders are, at last, live at the link below. The previously announced world tour is quickly selling out. Now he has released a new single, “Ville Valo (VV) of HIM Releases a New Single “The Foreverlost” – which you can stream now!
Portugal’s finest mercurial sons Moonspell‘s knack for reinvention while still holding true to their core elements is scarcely paralleled in all of dark music; a master class in constant growth. They have always deserved to be considered one of the most important world metal bands. “Metal” however is also too limiting a boundary for them, even though it is in the blood which beats through their lycanthropic hearts.
This night featured an eclectic group of Metal bands. Sure, they’re similar in an overall way. But each band’s brand of metal keeps your ears from getting tired. These are the best kind of tours, where sonic diversity conquers all.
Billy Howerdel is best known as the songwriter and guitarist for A Perfect Circle, the band he created with his good friend James Maynard Keenan (Tool / Puscifer) after they met when Tool were supporting Fishbone for whom Howerdel was a guitar tech in the early nineties, before sharing a house together in the Hollywood Hills. Howerdel would work on his early material while also engineering for the likes of David Bowie, Guns n’ Roses, and Nine Inch Nails.
De Arma’s new three-track EP Nightcall marks something of a turning point for the Swedish gothic rock band. Following their 2021 album Strayed in Shadows, the band have now signed a multi-album deal with Silent Future Recordings, for whom Nightcall is the first offering.