Unquiet Grave Vol 4

L: Unquiet Grave Vol. 4 (Cleopatra) This is one of the better series of compilations this label has put out. As opposed to their never-ending series of sketchy quality-at-best tribute albums. “Hot For Remix: An Electronic Tribute To Van Halen”. Was THAT even necessary? Anyway, this focuses on gothic rock/electronic EBM/some doom metal/dark folk & a bit of synth pop. It’s mostly good stuff - so here’s the low down.
Disc I
((((1)))) The Dagons: Brooding organ sound followed by pounding drums and some possessed women singing in what sounds like backwards Spanish or French. Rad!
((2)) Lacuna Coil: In a word: overrated! Yeah, OK, I’ll confess Christina Scabbia’s really good looking but what about the music? Well, standard form, so-so etheral pop/gothic stuff. It’s been done before and much better. Touring with P.O.D. & Evanesence is artistic fucking suicide.
(((3))) Mortiis - No more straight-up bleak dark ambience from this Norwegian elf. Nope he’s gone & done groovy EBM with some Peter Murphy styled vox. It ain’t a sellout, it’s just another turn in the strange life of Mr. Elfssen.
((((4)))) Switchblade Symphony - One of the best gothic bands in the current age. Slow, nicely paced with trippy percussion & acoustic guitars. Not too different some stuff by The Creatures. Most of the vocals seem to be in some weirdly phrased Cocteau Twins way.
(((((5))))) The Gathering - One of The Netherland’s finest bands. Strummy guitars and some groovy electronics waves & trippy beats. Lest I forget the highly addictive voice of Anneke Van Gisberg.
((((6)))) Tiamat - Another Northern European band like The Gathering who started very much death metal and now is pretty much etheral/gothic rock. We’re not at a loss for the change. Great mix of The Church/Sisters of Mercy style with hynotic Loop-styled guitar riffing.
(((7))) Audra - Noisey dancey/electro-industrial. This easily would’ve been home on Wax Trax! Circa 1989-90. Some twist of The Neon Judgement and Tones On Tail.
(8) Birthday Massacre - Great band name but severly cheesy synth pop. Missing Persons lite?
(9) Lunarclick - Slightly more groovy version of the formula that Birthday Massacre does but still nothing too enticing & still hella corny.
(10) Morticians - Pretty decent, slowly moving synths and then morose Brit-guy vocals. Jeez what is this the Pet Shop Boys? Next!
((11)) Cellardweller - A little better but serious NIN worship. At least it has some bombast. NIN mixed with Gary Numan. Not bad, but too obvious.
(12) Razed In Black - EBM/techno which falls under the generally annoying side. Fuckin’ Aye please KILL that bloody “rave” sound!
(((13))) The Third Man - Bouncy, electroic laser something like recent Skinny Puppy and some pretty good sombre & distant vocals. Very late 80’s sounding but in a good way.
((((14)))) Bio: tek - Now that’s more like it! Sample of some twisted documentary and some total Wax Trax! 1989 style. Big-ass beats and repetitive electronic “blek-blek-blek” stuff. Sounds like something that could’ve been from 1988-89 era Belgium or Yugoslavia.
(((15))) Fr/Action - Sped up videogame sounding (think “Pole Position” on speed) cycling through this pretty bareable Giogio Moroder laden wave of driving electro-disco. Normally, i’d hate this but this ‘un has that “jenny say kwa” that just works.
((16)) Frequency Construct - Slow, bouncy & kind of pissed off vocals yet very melodic layers of syn ths & computer sounds. Pretty dance-y I’d suspect.
(((((17))))) Maelstrom - Killer noise & pounding done the OLD WAY! Think SPK, Throbbing Gristle.Einstrüzende Neubauten, Cabaret Voltaire.
(((18))) How Like A Winter - One of the weirdest named bands ever. Anyway, these Italians make some pretty nice gothic/doom metal ‘ala mid-period My Dying Bride. The main problem is that is just too derrivative of M.D.B. The violin & guitar parts are still quite good, though.
(((19))) Wehrwolfe - Slow moving percussion & bass.

Disc II
Note: I can’t listen to tracks 1-3 ‘cause someone put a sharpie across the CD and those tracks don’t play at all!
(((4))) Honey To Ash - Folksy, strummy etheral chill-out. Kinda warm, kinda fuzzy. Something like Azalia Snail meets the Cocteau Twins.
((5)) The Autumns - Great acoustic guitar playing but the vocals are a little too “fey” for me.
((((6)))) Steve Von Till - OK, I’m biased - EVERYTHING that Von Till touches is just about gold! Slow, smoky vocal, dark folk starkness. Not too different from the equally excellent solo work by Mark Lanegan.
(((7))) AntiMatter - Etheral folk with an ex-member of the metal/melancholly rock band, Anathema. Some pretty good female vox. Listen to this one late at night.
((8)) Dragonspoon - Sounds like one of the lesser bands from the old Cest L’mort label. AKA: So-so border-line Tori Amos-ish semi-dark folksy etheral pop.
(((9))) Gary Numan - What can you say this robotic mofo has still got it. Some airy, sort of spacey sci-fi electro pop. Not his best but something about the disembodied voice that really makes this work.
((((10)))) Corpus Delicti - Awesome medieval-era music gone dark psych with creepy spoken vocals.
(((11))) ZZZ Bot - Some voices of kids and minimal electronics & spares beats. Teerting on downtempo trip-hop. This weirdness grows on you.
((((12)))) X Vortex - Super generic electro/EBM/industrial name but hauntingly good EBM/industrial with creepy whispery female vocals. Lydia Lunch goes EBM?
(((((13))))) November’s Doom - Jazzy, shimmering guitar chords beautiful female vocals (and some occasional spoken male vocal lines) instead of doomy & loud metal. Gorgeous stuff no matter what style.
((14)) October Hill - Nice acoustic guitars & OK female vocals but mostly bland.
(((15))) Inner - Bouncy, ping-pong-like beats, with slow sort of poetic gothic etheral vocals. Great vocal performance if anything.
(((16))) Plink - Yep, that’s what they sound like. Some electroic water faucet dripping, a computer blipping & plinking under the very blissed out etheral vocals. Almost too slowed down & blissed out but nice notheless.
17) Molotov Elysian - Sounds very sombre. Something like a bland version of The Moon Seven Times or Azure Ray. Nothing goin’ here.
((18)) Trippy & creepy suicide story samples mixed with folk sturmmy and wallpaper beats. This reeks of bad college coffee house music. Though the samples are rad.
((((19)))) The Lvrs - Spoken word - about some harsh experience at an attempt at murder & rape underscored by brooding, slow waves of electronics. Pretty similar to Lydia Lunch’s spoken word stuff. Pretty fucking confrontational, too. Don’t listen to this alone! (2:15 FCC “fucked”)