Bestial Mouths - Bestial Mouths (2013)

Propulsive, synth-heavy post-punk/darkwave with droning, tribal-industrial percussion and a lo-fi, horror-fueled aesthetic that was clearly influenced by the short-lived but sorely missed Witch House scene. The vocals -- trembling, reverb-drenched, Siouxsie-esque incantations -- really tie the room together. 

Track listing:

1. Ceased

2. Reunion

3. Faceless

4. Vatic Vision

5. In Empathy

6. Earth

7. Cloaked

8. Movement

9. Death Rattle

Hell is behind that door

Also listen to:

Death Ride '69 - Death Ride '69 (1989)

The KBV - Subjection/Subordination (2011)

Every New Dead Ghost - An Endless Nightmare of Stations (1992)

Driving, hard-edged goth rock. An Endless Nightmare of Stations was this UK band's swansong, but it definitely doesn't sound like they were running out of steam -- it's energetic, muscular, punk, and even kinda fun, all while maintaining a 100% morbid goth aesthetic.

Anyone who has a better rip than 192, get at me.

Track listing:

1. Decadence

2. Obvious

3. Not in a Lifetime

4. Headless

5. Relics

6. Insanity

7. Sweat

8. Understanding

9. Small Talk

10. Signs for the Sacred

What's happening in the city?

You'd also like:

Pressurehed - Sudden Vertigo (1993)

Autumn - The Hating Tree (1997)

Screaming for Emily - Scriptures (1987)

Synth-y goth-rock for heartbroken ghouls that's almost punk in its theatrical angst and lyrical bluntness. Makes me want to grab my Discman and pack of Camel Lights and go cry in a graveyard.

Track listing:

1. The Love

2. Too Late for Prayer

3. Last Goodbye

4. Another Girl

5. From Your Heart

6. Just a Lie

Get ready for the last goodbye

Get ready for a real long cry

More like this:

The Essence - Ecstasy (1988)

Maskull - Maskull (1997)

Corpses as Bedmates - Venus Handcuffs (1986)

Lo-fi experimental post-punk/art-goth madness. A weird, clattering, wheezing cacophony that defies expectation and description.

Track listing:

1. Venus Handcuffs

2. Haesibah

3. As Though Through

4. Fur Man

5. Birds Fly Out

6. Dear Dear

7. Gus Black Box

8. Phantom

9. For the Rest of the Day

10. Rest Home

Rainbow acid cuts my hands

And my head goes into the stream

Similar listening:

Ballet Mécanique - The Icecold Waters of the Egocentric Calculation (1981)

Malaria! - Emotion (1982)

Diary of Dreams - Bird Without Wings (1997)

Synth-heavy German darkwave/goth rock. A fatalistic baritone over punchy horror synths, chorus-drenched guitars, and a mixture of programmed and live drums. 72+ minutes of a pretty consistent, morose sound might mean that Bird Without Wings overstays its welcome a bit, but the quality doesn't lag so I'm not complaining.

Track listing:

1. Stimulation

2. Bird Without Wings II

3. Dissolution

4. June

5. Aphelion

6. But the Wind Was Stronger

7. A Sinner's Instincts

8. Ex-île

9. Legends

10. Flood of Tears

Others cry for help

Just like it would change anything

For more like this, try:

The Frozen Autumn - Fragments of Memories (1997)

Oneiroid Psychosis - Sentient (2008)

Maskull - Maskull (1997)

A total gem of low-budget, synth-driven, outsider darkwave with a croaking ghoul of a vocalist who sounds like he's constantly on the verge of either tears or death; think a more fully goth Xiu Xiu. There's very little information to be found on this project -- this article for Dangerous Minds is as rich a source as I've found, and it's pretty much just a glowing retrospective review that mentions that Maskull is a one-man LA-based project by some dude named Troy Maskull who may or may not be dead now -- but maybe bizarro projects like this are better without context.

Track listing:

1. Hollywood Gypsy

2. 2000 AD

3. Passenger in Time

4. In a Paradise

5. Sacred

6. Working Hard for Your Love

7. Dream City

8. Fantasy

9. Potion of Love

10. To Be or Not to Be

Where are all the rainbows?

You might also enjoy:

Sixth Comm - A Nothing Life (1987)

Nosferatu - Prince of Darkness (1996)

Psychotica - Psychotica (1996)

[Editor's note: I think a demon possessed my body and mind while I was writing this. Or I blacked out. Why, of all the albums in the world, over 3,000 of which I have posted here, is this the album to which I would devote a legitimate write-up? Upon completing this post a little over a month ago, I immediately decided to shelve it out of sheer embarrassment. But shit, it's Halloween season, and I don't have anything else to post today. Enjoy.]

Psychotica were an NYC band whose brush with success can largely be attributed to scoring a spot in Lollapalooza '96, at which vocalist Pat Briggs presented himself as a glammed-up Marilyn Manson in silver spandex and poached a bunch of their mall-dwelling fans, myself included. (It's worth noting that Marilyn Manson had yet to go glam at this point, and I've always wondered if Psychotica had something to do with that eventuality. It's also worth noting that Marilyn Manson is a piece of shit.)

Musically, it's a fusion of alt, glam, goth, and hard rock that's bolstered by some pretty fucking weird choices. In addition to including a cellist, there's a second vocalist named Reeka who, despite being Swedish, delivers her demonic, hyper-rhythmic verses in a vaguely Jamaican accent. Meanwhile, Briggs spends most of the record delivering an actually pretty powerful, Bowie-aping performance; and a series of brief interludes gesture towards chamber music and 90s electronica.

It's weird, messy, and memorable, but make no mistake: it is not "good." My enjoyment of this record probably represents a lapse in taste on my part, and my posting of it doesn't mean that I think you're gonna like it. There are some very unfortunate moments. Like when he starts off "Stop" by snarling "Sex and drugs and rock and roll are not enough to feed my soul" over a bargain-bin rawk riff -- in fact, "Stop" flat-out sucks an entire ass -- or when Reeka appears to rap on "What Is God". The lyrics aren't great. "The Future" is a baffling vignette built around a generic techno beat and the sound of an old-school dial-up modem. And generally, they seem overly eager to say "fuck" a lot, like a bunch of edgy 13-year-olds.

But none of this has stopped me from coming back again and again over the years. The DEVO cover? Love it. A dejected power ballad based on The Little Prince? Love it more. That deranged reggae breakdown in "Starfucker Love"? Fucking love it even more. And "Ice Planet Hell" fully slaps. It's hard to imagine anyone discovering and enjoying this record in the year of our lord 2021, but I've been listening to a bunch of early adolescent favorites, I have spare time, and I have a music blog, so this is what you get. What's next, Hagfish? Trip 66? I listened to a lot of questionable shit back in the day! 

Postscript: In working on this post, I discovered this ancient, Tripod.com Psychotica fan page, last updated in August 1998, preserved on the web like a mosquito full of dino-DNA in amber. Too bad the guestbook isn't viewable, I bet there was some real gold in there.

Track listing:

1. Ice Planet Hell

2. The Worship

3. Starfucker Love

4. Little Prince

5. Stop

6. The Call

7. Freedom of Choice

8. 180°

9. The Sleep

10. Flesh & Bone

11. Blue Fear

12. What Is God

13. La Chocha

14. Barcelona

15. The Future

16. Cybernation

17. New Man

18. The Awakening

Jesus kissed me on my thigh

And Jesus loves me all the time

More 9th-grade favorites:

GWAR - America Must Be Destroyed (1991)

Machines of Loving Grace - Gilt (1995)

Der Nebel nur in klarer Luft - Gezeiten des Lebens (1993)

German ethereal gothic rock. Ghostly, minor-key guitars that sound like they're lifted directly from an atmospheric black metal record, but instead of shrieks and blastbeats, it's sedate male-and-female singing and simple, sporadic drumming.

Track listing:

1. Erledigung

2. Leid von Ewigkeit

3. Risse im Konstrukt

4. Monument

5. Nichts gewesen

6. Realitätsschock

7. Entstehung

8. Ausgesucht

9. Uniatavismus

Forest abyss

You might also enjoy:

Arcana - Dark Age of Reason (1996)

David Galas - The Cataclysm (2006)

And Also the Trees - From Under the Hill (1982)

English post-punk. This mini-LP's six sparse, haunting songs all were re-recorded for the band's 'proper' debut LP, but I've always loved the more lo-fi incarnations found here.

Track listing:

1. So This Is Silence

2. Tease the Tear

3. Out of the Moving Life of Circles

4. Impulse of Man

5. Midnight Garden

6. Talk Without Words

The frenzy and blind violence of fear

If you like this, you should hear:

Modern Eon - Fiction Tales (1981)

In the Nursery - When Cherished Dreams Come True (1983)

David Galas - The Happiest Days of My Life (2009)

Related:

Lycia - The Burning Circle and Then Dust (1995)

David Galas - The Cataclysm (2006)

By request, here's more from David Galas; specifically, his second and possibly best record, The Happiest Days of My Life. He leans hard into the doom influences that colored his first record, then midway through, acoustic guitar becomes central, and the underlying mid-era Swans influences come to the fore.

Track listing:

1. 1970

2. Glory

3. Last Days of the War / Sect IV

4. Arizona

5. Dead Days / Sect V

6. The Happiest Days of My Life

7. Monsoons Over South Mountain

8. The Significance of Failure

9. Crossroads

10. When the Thread Breaks

11. The Happiest Days of My Life 2 / Sect VI

12. The Happiest Days of My Life 3 / Sect VII

13. Everyone Eventually Dies

I told the men that came to hang me

I am the one that they should kill

Fans would also like:

Skin - Shame, Humility, Revenge (1988)

Diabolique - Wedding the Grotesque (1994)

The Arms of Someone New - Susan Sleepwalking (1985)

Enveloping, lo-fi sounds that land somewhere between a minimal, narcotized take on jangle rock, dream pop, early Cure, and ethereal darkwave. Metronome-like beats, chiming guitars, simple keyboard lines, and reverb-drenched vocals. Quiet appropriately, Susan Sleepwalking was eventually reissued by Projekt. This one's pretty new to me and I seriously can't recommend it highly enough.

Track listing:

1. St. Catherine

2. The Fisherman

3. Song for Krista

4. With Louise

5. The Turning

6. Seven Days from Now

7. Karen Said

8. Rainbows

9. Susan Slept Here

10. A Turner Sky

Faith I have a memory of

You should also hear:

This Kind of Punishment - A Beard of Bees (1984)

Steve Kilbey - Unearthed (1987)

Flesh World - Flesh World (2013)

Deathrock/dream pop hybrid from SF. Echoing drums, reverb-washed guitars, creepy keyboards, and vocal melodies/guitar leads/overall songwriting approach right out of the punk rock playbook. Dream punk, maybe? I really thought this band was gonna take off, but haven't heard anything from them since 2017. And since I always hate on Pitchfork, I'm thinking it's only fair to mention that, regardless of how wrong they are sometimes, I have found a lot of great music through that site, including Flesh World.

Track listing:

1. Sturdy Swiss Hiker

2. A Trip to the Living Ice Age

3. Church of Flesh

4. Reckon and Know

5. Lost My Heart in Transit Thru the Post

6. Are We Saved Or Are We Damned?

To hell with your purity

You should also listen to:

The KVB - Subjection/Subordination (2011)

Wildhoney - Wildhoney (2013) + Seventeen Forever (2014)

Miranda Sex Garden - Carnival of Souls (2000)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Miranda Sex Garden - Iris (1991) + Sunshine (1993)

Fourth and final album by the eternally underrated Miranda Sex Garden. Carnival of Souls was a reunion album, but despite the four and a half years of downtime and a few new band members, it's the sound of a band working at the height of their powers. The towering walls of sound and haunting vocals are all intact, but it's all even bigger and more crushing than ever, and with some welcome expansions of style -- for instance, the cinematic noir-jazz of "Tonight". It's been seven years (!) since that first Miranda Sex Garden post, and in the interim, Carnival of Souls has become my favorite MSG release, hands-down.

Track listing:

1. Are You the One?

2. Sleeping Beauty

3. Tonight

4. All There Is

5. Broken Glass

6. Escape from Kilburn (Instrumental)

7. Token (Incidental)

8. Without Trace

9. Caravan

10. Thrusty Bob's Hardcore Lounge (Incidental)

11. Close to the Sky

12. Ever & Ever

All we ever knew was music and laughter

You should also listen to:

Canaan - Blue Fire (1996)

Fear of Dolls - When the Organ Played at Twilight (1999)

Mighty Sphincter - The New Manson Family (1986)

Cacophonous, drug-addled, overall psychotic deathrock from the great, largely unsung Mighty Sphincter. First heard this via Cosmic Hearse, which at its peak was probably my all-time favorite mp3 blog, and have been wanting to post it for years but always felt like, "What's the point? Cosmic Hearse already did." However, that post (which, unsurprisingly, is a hell of a lot more interesting than this one) is over ten years old now, and I'm certain that a lot of you have never heard this little slice of heaven/hell.

Track listing:

1. The New Manson Family

2. Drop Dead

3. Blood Banquet

4. Good Morning

5. Helter Skelter

6. Bedlam

7. Rich & Dead

8. Centerfold Murders

9. Genuine Argyle

10. Stretching Heads & Tails

11. Final Reward

12. Kings

13. Constrictions in E Major

PIG

You should also hear:

Alien Sex Fiend - "It" The Album (1986)

Death Ride '69 - Death Ride '69 (1989)

Mephisto Walz - Immersion (1998)

American gothic rock with a gauzy, and (yes) immersive atmosphere. Put this on the next time you're eating Xanax at a graveyard dance party.

Track listing:

1. Immersion

2. The Garden of Proserpine

3. Great Expectations

4. Age of Nothing

5. The Tyger

6. Elegy

7. Icarus

8. The Falcon to the Falconer

9. Heaven

10. Kings

11. Ode to the West Wind

This labyrinth of vales to wander

Similarly spooky vibes:

Nosferatu - Prince of Darkness (1996)

Autumn - The Hating Tree (1997)

Autumn - The Hating Tree (1997)

Perfect goth-rock. Lush guitars, muscular rhythm section, soaring lady vox, and an enveloping, nocturnal atmosphere. Happy Halloween month, by the way. Due to my life being a pile of shit, I won't be cranking out the spooky hits as I have in previous years, so make sure to go through the archives for previous Octobers if you want more.

Track listing:
1. How It Came to Be This Way
2. A Waiting Time
3. Even Now
4. ...Of Moondrop Tears
5. Desert Winds of Jezebel
6. Resurrection
7. Oceans
8. The Well
9. Atrophy
10. Seconds
11. The Hating Tree

When candles and incense are not enough
To dispel the death I die every day

Listen to these, too:

This Ascension -
Tears in Rain (1989)

Static Movement -
Visionary Landscapes (1999)

Trance to the Sun - Ghost Forest (1984)

Ethereal, ritualistic darkwave. A mesmerizing, narcotized haze of drifting synths, chiming guitars, simple drum loops, and ghostly, disembodied voices.

Track listing:
1. Mint
2. Cauldron Street II
3. August Rain
4. Eonite Trip
5. Vilette
6. Clocks
7. Lend Me Your Most Vile
8. Voidswallow
9. Exhibition III
10. Ghost Forest

To see you frozen stiff

More along these lines:

black tape for a blue girl -
Mesmerized by the Sirens (1987)

Lycia - The Burning Circle
and Then Dust (1995)

David Galas - The Cataclysm (2006)

Related:
Lycia - The Burning Circle and Then Dust (1995)

Sprawling first solo album from David Galas, who was a member of Lycia for a few years, including during the recording of my favorite record of theirs (see above.) The Cataclysm has a similarly enveloping, droning misery, but it's sonically heavier and adds a twist of gothic Americana, plus some metal growls.

Track listing:
1. Asleep in the Field
2. The Harvest
3. American Melancholy
4. Alone We Will Always Be
5. The End Is Always Closer
6. Sect I
7. Capsized
8. September
9. The Fragment
10. Far Away from Nothing
11. Sect II
12. The Cataclysm Pt. 1
13. The Cataclysm Pt. 2
14. The Burial
15. Shimla
16. Reclamation
17. Sect III
18. The Great Ruins of Man
19. Something Fell from the Sky

Watching time die

You might also enjoy:

Skin -
Shame, Humility, Revenge (1988)

Canaan -
Blue Fire (1996)

Death Ride '69 - Death Ride '69 (1989)

Murky, slow-burning, druggy goth-rock. Hypnotic, tom-heavy drums, distant, acid-drenched guitars, and male-and-female vocalists whose not-really-sung deliveries often bring to mind Sonic Youth. That's a lot of hyphens.

Track listing:
1. Elvis Christ
2. Mescalito
3. State of Decay
4. Sex Drive '68
5. Crash & Burn
6. Green Gel Blue
7. God Tab
8. 1969
9. Chains of Abuse
10. State of Decay (Alternate Mix)

I can't believe what I did last night

If you like this, you should try:

Virgin Prunes -
... If I Die, I Die (1982)

Alien Sex Fiend -
"It" The Album (1986)

This Ascension - Tears in Rain (1989)

Atmospheric goth-rock excellence with a vocalist like Siouxsie Sioux on a handful of downers.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. Isabella
3. Groove
4. Alex Kidd
5. Poor Mortal Lost
6. Just Assassin
7. Megan
8. For a Day
9. Drone

Teach me how to drown

You'd also enjoy:

The Essence -
Ecstacy (1988)

Nosferatu -
Prince of Darkness (1996)