Category: Editorial

My Brother Got me a $100 Bandcamp Gift Card For My Bday! What did I get so far?

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It is like the whole goth community got a birthday infusion. I am on a reckless spending spree of new music. Here is some of what I am listening to right now. As always if you have a band you want to see reviewed, comment below.

Lyres Of Ur – Escape From Modern Man – New single from our talented young contributor Lou Blacksail with cover art by Joshua McCallister. I continue to be impressed by the passion and vision of this young songwriter. A raw and bass driven wind tunnel of echo’s and sinister carnival keyboards. I can feel the snarl curled lip in every delivery. Sometimes when I hear a mix that has a raw feel, I am taken out of the moment. In this single that way different aspects charge to the front adds a boldness and bravado. I feel like this is an artist the shines with potential and leaves space to grow. The emotion and natural intuition for form and hook are unmistakable. I am more impressed by everything I hear.

https://lyres-of-ur.bandcamp.com/track/escape-from-modern-man

Suzi Sabotage – Nazi Goths, Fuck Off – With everything facing our scene I am amazed no one has released a track like Finnish siren Suzi Sabotage that takes the blunt power of a barb wire baseball bat that attacks the worst aspects of goth with unbridled fury. A slinky dark synth build with a razor edge message that pulls no punches. The new generation of goths demand an anthem of political passion and Suzi has delivered. A perfect punch the masses can rise behind. Nazi Goths Fuck Off.

https://suzisabotage.bandcamp.com/track/nazi-goths-fuck-off

Precious Bones – MAGNA FRACTURA – I love the name, the concept, and sound of New Jersey barb wire rockers Precious Bones. Antoine Poncelet & Guy Tetro unleash an Iggy Pop/New York Dolls late 70’s chaos venom. A tight coil of front edge intensity and pulsing electricity. I love the call and answer style of the vocals which put me in mind of the Vaselines. It flows through the pipe of uplifting joy and angry edge. This whole album is such a runaway stage coach sparking cobblestones in a tight alley chase. The organic slicing fury mixed with dangerous violent stories that has a real murder ballads feel. I love how this tale keeps changing speed and turning. I never want to look away. Horror punk with a retro feel. August 2021 release. This album is dedicated to the memory of founder Guy Tetro, a tragic story and impressive release.

Favorite track: Mysterio – Thick pulsing baseline. Start and stop reckless abandon. The vocals are the perfect volley of story telling dialog. It’s engaging and edgy without trying to sound that way. It’s one of those tracks that hits perfectly on it’s intent while the listener is left feeling it was a perfect storm with no destination in mind.

https://preciousbones.bandcamp.com/album/magna-fractura

Stoneburner – Spectrum – Another face blistering hurricane wind blast from Steven Archer. This time taking a revealing and visceral offering about mental health to offer connection through the turbulence. I love the wide prism of colors in tone for the single and remixes. When I think of Steven’s sound I use words like focus, contrast, and intensity. This track is a softer and varied concept which shows range and subtilty. The bsides Bahr Bela Ma and Open Letter redirect back to the percussion assault and rhythmic chant vocals I associate with Stoneburner. This unity with COP International continues to let the wolfcore off the chain and give a fertile field for raw creative energy to foster. John Fryer has once again found a laser prism to channel the emotion of Steven’s art.

https://stoneburnerofficial.bandcamp.com/album/spectrum

Carrion – Shatter the Seals – New two track EP on Brutal Resonance from the charred angels of Carrion. I love the new direction. The monster is no longer lurking in the darkness, it’s sinister intention a slow whisper behind your back. Now the monster is charging towards you full speed with teeth barred and howling your doom. The vocals are a striking snake hiss. The drum beats are frantic and marching. Biggest of all this guitar distortion is clean, mean, and red eye glaring at you. The seals have truly been shattered and the demons unleashed on this plane. I’ve never heard Hide lash out with such unbridled intention. Buy this album, bath in blood, smash your meaningless possessions with a baseball bat.

https://brutalresonance.bandcamp.com/album/shatter-the-seals

Ratio Strain – Century Of The Self – San Diego band I am just finding from the drummer of W.A.S.T.E. This release came out in January 2020 but i am glad to discover it now. 8 songs of mind shattering hard industrial which is going to hurl a challenge in your face like a gallon of moonshine to the eyes. The vocals are sample laden and I will admit made me blush several times. This is music intended to cause discomfort. It’s also slick tight dance beats that had my head bopping while I stood in fear and awe. The panning of the drums was an expertly done effect and really makes the room spin to the napalm explosions. You think, you dance, you shake, you break.

Favorite track: Objectify – This song made me wildly uncomfortable and unnerved. A real blinding light held up to the misogamy prevalent in he world. It is not a soft message and hurled with such strength and aggression it left me speechless. (Warning) Not safe for Work 🙂

https://ratiostrain.bandcamp.com/album/century-of-the-self

Vlimmer – Meter b​/​w Kartenwarten – Alexander is back again, with a new two track EP and again stretching the range of one of the great sonic sculptors of our time. This is shake your ass club thump. The open expansive feel of the synths, the thunderous driving bass, I couldn’t help throw my hands in the air. Beautiful syncopation and vocal cadence. Track one Meter has a Blondie Atomic energy while pulsing in hues of violet and crimson.

Favorite Track: Kartenwarten – The glorious sway and slide of this track. I’m on a cliff staring at the sea, feeling the slow shifting power of dark water. So many textures and concepts bleeding together in harmony. A true work of beauty.

https://blackjackilluministrecords.bandcamp.com/album/meter-b-w-kartenwarten

Lorelei Dreaming – Future Fables – Long have I awaited this 6 track EP complete with wonderful remixes by Chicago dystopian pop princess Laura. It’s so clear and textured from their previous release. Laura’s voice breaks through the wall and takes it’s rightful place on center stage. The album opens with an absolute banger in Of Stars. I’m loving the rippling synth sounds to add a fantasy feel. Each song is a striding step forward for an armor clad paladin facing down the demons surrounding her. This album was so worth the wait and every song is an adventure. The remixes are a brilliant contribution with the likes of Kanga, Sawtooth, Eva X, Angel Metro, and more. I love seeing so many top tier ladies involved.

Favorite Track: To Leave This Heaven – Sparkle explosion of dance delight and spinning cyclones. A real Violator Depeche Mode swagger with silk swirling gentle touch.

https://loreleidreaming.bandcamp.com/album/future-fables

Jim Marcus (GoFight/Die Warsaw) Advice For Writing Songs

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I’ve been writing songs for 40 years and have written or co-written over 500 songs that have been released in some way. I don’t consider myself, really, a great musician, a great drummer, a great singer, but I do cling to the idea that songwriting is the core of who I am. even if it doesn’t love me, I love it.

I wanted to maybe list 5 super simple tips for songwriters. I know there are a lot of musicians here and I hope there is value here for some of you:

1. Write at least one song every day. Even if you think it is terrible. The only way to get good at this is to get crazy at this and do it a lot. You can start thinking of songs as throwaways, as ideas that sometimes stick and sometimes get thrown away. Once we stop getting so protective of them, we can let them die, change, grow, or be replaced by something better. I like to write new theme songs for tv shows, local colleges, superheroes, anything. Most of the songs I write are just for cannibalizing for pieces. “Cause I’m the Spiderman, I like to swing, impossibly high cause that’s my thing, Got spider bulge and 6 pack abs, realistic webs come out of my ass” had 14 verses and I have actually used some of them.

2. Conversely, Record everything you do. Writing down notes is helpful. Having a voice recording app on your phone you use constantly is better. Every idea, every riff, every bassline, every small chunk of vocal. Keeping a google doc open ton your phone, too, where you write words you like is great. I refer back to mine all the time. It’s now hundreds of pages and full of lines, rhymes, chorus ideas, etc. Entire verses that I liked have come from it. I wrote a song in the 90s called “Pussy Maybelline” for a friend of mine who admitted she put lipstick on her genitals for a date once. I wrote literally hundreds of verses about what other insane things she could do. That song has really delivered, even though it never came out. If you like a meter, write as much as you can in it. Many songs I’ve put out have had 12 verses written for them. I used the best ones.

3. Find different parts of you I have a habit of splitting myself into different people when I write. I have a person inside who writes dirty songs, one who does mean, angry ones, one who is super political, etc. They have names. It helps when you imagine how someone else would say something. Talk in funny voices, mispronounce words. Try to do something at the top and bottom of your range. Sing at different times of day, find every weirdness. I sometimes walk around talking like a different person, looking for a voice. I wrote a song called “Light it up” trying to channel this guy who comments on my feed who made an allusion to blowing up the middle east. I couldn’t sing that as me. (Maybe you can see | how hard it is for me | to be one voice in a system when it used to be all me | I want the same thing everyone | wants and will not say | to be in the majority, but that just slipped away, so I say Light it up.)

4. But Don’t wait for words and melodies are different. I hum simple melodies all the time and then sometimes match them with words. I sing to things. It would be embarrassing to explain which song I released started as “I love you, spaghetti” Remember that some of the greatest songs ever don’t have words that make sense. Phl Collins was going to replace Susudio, but couldn’t find a word he liked, Maurice White left “Bah-de-dah-de-dah” in “September” by Earth, Wind, and Fire, because that’s just how he liked it.

5. Write over other people’s songs and rhythms. I worked with a really good songwriter once who used to just sample other grooves from songs she liked, loop it, tape the key down, and sing her own songs over it. When you listen to music you like, sing your own song ideas over the songs. I mean, not at the show or anything. But when you are alone. Once you have a good song, you can replace the music under it with anything. The world is full of rhythm, chord progression, etc. And all of it is there to inspire you.

Jim’s newest single in case you had any doubts of his stellar credentials 🙂

Album Art Feature: Part 1

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An album is a multi-faceted piece of art. There’s the lyrics, the music (instruments, vocals, effects, mixing), and then there’s the visual side of things. Today, we’re exploring some great pieces of cover art shared in the Sound & Shadows group.

To start off, this is the cover to Automata by Confusion Inc. “The artwork to my Automata album is special to me, because the original image used was a photograph of my mother’s artwork,” Colin Cameron says. “She’s an abstract expressionist – life long painter. I love the stone-looking background here, as well as the several dimensions of glitchy-ness added over it. This is an elegant cover with a heart-warming backstory.

Next up is the cover to The Fire Within by Vaselyne. This piece is a self portrait by Yvette Winkler. The photography here is excellent. It is still, yet in a day dramatic and dynamic. I love how the picture fades so seamlessly into the black void background. It altogether creates some emotion I can’t quite name.

Here’s the art for Plague Garden’s upcoming album. The piece was done by Albie Mason. I’ve got several aesthetics on the tip of my tongue while looking at it. It’s visually striking. There are many elements at play here, but they all form a wonderful cohesion under the vintage-feeling grain. It reminds me of browsing the sci-fi section at an old bookstore tucked away somewhere.

Inertia by We Are Parasols is coming in hot with this rainbow orb! The art was created by Daniel Kopton . This feels like something I could see in a museum. It would make a great desktop background, too. A poster, even. Basically what I’m trying to say is that I love looking at this. The choice of using a bar code instead of text is bold, but I think it works well.

Changing gears a bit, let’s take a look at Sea Lungs. This art was done by one of the band’s own members. It has a slight comic book cover vibe to it, I think, in how perspective and action are both played with. I’ll admit when I first glanced at it, I thought of astronauts due to the suits, the crater-like ground, and the star-like bubbles. I think this ambiguity adds to it, though. After all, space exploration and deep sea exploration are both equally terrifying intrusions into the harsh unknown.

Here’s a shocker. The album cover to Batavia and Their Friends by Batavia. No, you didn’t suddenly get transported back to the 1970s. “Nobody we showed this to thought we would actually use this and risk losing 200% of our goth credibility,” says band member Ed Cripps. “Risk is the spice of life.” That it is, Ed, that it is. I applaud this bold stylistic choice and devotion to an artistic direction here! I love it.

Another strong artistic direction is shown here in the album Leyendas de las Almas Perdidas by Valentina Maurino. “Endăley (fairy of the souls) is the one I portrayed here, the one who tells the stories of the lost souls behind each song, and these lost souls are represented through objects on the little table (it’s a telephone seat), some of these appear in my music videos too, I love symbolism,” Maurino tells me. I absolutely adore the whimsical handwritten wording. The broom-like hands, the table ornaments, the lighting…it all comes together and, I agree, tells a story.

Speaking of stories, let’s go into Another Year Of Rain by Arden and the Wolves. Arden Leigh had a lot to say about this piece.

“I wanted to convey the question that was arising for so many women at the time, myself included – is our sexual objectification and submission hot, or is it violent? Does it depend on who’s doing the choking? How can we be sure of the person’s intentions? Are we getting off, or are we endangering ourselves? As it turns out, in the following four songs on the EP that I would write between 2016-2017, I ended up unearthing and purging all my relationship trauma, and recalling a memory I’d suppressed – one where I was choked in anger by a dominant male partner I’d been financially supporting as his submissive. Through the course of the album writing and recording process, I answered the question “who can you trust” and I learned discernment. When the EP was released in early 2018, we were four months in to the crest of the #MeToo movement, and it was right on time.”

More information about Arden and the #MeToo movement can be read here.

Lastly for today, here’s the cover of Nervous Prayers by Sweat Boys featuring the logo work of Jim Marcus. This piece is serene yet dangerous. The imagery is drowning and, yet, reaching for help all at once. I am reminded of the hand of Adam reaching towards God as the Sistine Chapel.

Steven Archer Rants

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Shit Man….You Old

Shit man… you old…I started this whole music thing way back in 90, when I started DJIng at clubs before I could legally be in them at 19. I stated my first band in my early 20s and didn’t start Ego Likeness until I was 28? or so. At the time I thought I was too old to really have much of a career doing this. In August I will turn 50. And the record I will be dropping this year is the most fully realized thing I’ve ever done. I remember reading that Michael Gira didn’t start The Swans until he was 30. And there are plenty of new and old scene artists, some in this group that are 40+.“Ok, so, what’s your point? This music is for old people?” No, don’t be an asshole. The point is that it’s never to late to do the thing you love. And if anything, starting later in life gives you a bit of an advantage in that you have a much more mature (hopefully) outlook on life. Which goes a long way when it comes to writing lyrics and how you deal with the professional aspects of the whole thing. There’s an old saying ,”youth is wasted on the young.” I’ve never been fond of it, because I feel like I did a lot of great shit when I was younger and used the time to develop skills I still use. But there really is a lot to be said for the sense of self and… “I don’t give a fuckness,” that comes with time and perspective. I am in no way saying one is better than the other. Each side of the coin has a lot going for it. But for those of us rapidly aging it’s easy to dismiss the desire to do X thing as childish. And it’s easy for young people to look at older musicians and assume that they aren’t able to bring new elements to music, or that it won’t speak to them. Which is a shame on all accounts. Personally when I was a kid, I never listened to music aimed at young people. And as an artist I couldn’t write for kids if you put a gun to my head. Make what you make, keep it honest, put it out into the world, repeat, and eventually it will find an audience it resonates with.

https://stoneburnerofficial.bandcamp.com/

Trade Secrets Are Bullshit

This is less of a rant and more of an observation. A while back I was on a thread with a musician and they were complaining about people asking what gear they use. And someone piped up “don’t tell them, it’s trade secrets.Which to me, and hopefully to you, is just silly. Because as we all know, it’s not the gear, it’s what you do with it. Garbage in/garbage out and all that. Each of us probably has a couple of tricks, or pieces of kit that they use that others might not, and it may solve a specific problem for them. Which is fantastic. But in the end it all comes down to the ideas. I started thinking about this because I just saw a thread here asking how music reviewers do their thing, if they have a system for it. And I’ve seen a few others asking how to do X or Y thing and the people who know about that are more than happy to jump in and get into an otaku level of detail about how it works.I’ve been also thinking about the small but aggressive backlash I’ve gotten on some of these posts, and I think I figured out something that those people might not get. I do it for the same reason so many people here are willing to help and be transparent with their shit. *Sure you don’t like the way I word things, too bad, be the change you want to see and write your own column.*It comes down to love. The people who want to share their information with you, myself included, LOVE what they do. They have poured themselves into learning how to do it. And they want others to get just as much out of it as they do. In the end, that’s the entire motivation. Also, there a couple of simple facts that everyone should keep in mind.1. Ain’t none of us big enough to worry about trade secrets. We are in a tiny corner of a genre that the mainstream world doesn’t even market to anymore.2. When you raise the water level for one person it raises it for everyone. Let’s say someone you help becomes the next Nine inch nails. And suddenly the spotlight is back on this style of music. Well, that’s fucking great for all of us. Because that means the available audience is much bigger. TL;DR: help others when you can. Trade secrets are bullshit.

Superpowers

Steven Rants: you’re a superhero get your shit together….Superpowers. All of you are superhero’s you just don’t know it yet. (Some of you may, but then you won’t need this.) My hope is by the end of this you will see and understand what I mean. And this is a big ass hall of justice. Here’s what I mean. We are all different superhero’s with different powers. Some are Superman, some are the green lantern, some the wonder twins, and there are a few, but not many Batman’s… batmen? Battsmen? Batmens? Now, your superpowers… they ain’t all that compared to being able to fly. (If you can fly drop me a line, we should talk.)So the first thing you have to figure out is what your super power is. Here, let me give you some examples.*im picking people that I feel comfortable making statements about. I’m not picking favorites.

1. Ken, Super-Kens power is that he’s really good at social dynamics. He can get along with most people, and he can get people from all over the place to support his ideas, join a group like this, and out of respect for him and each other, not act like dicks.

2. My buddy Ian who just joined this group, one of his super powers is he knows synths inside and out, literally, he tears em apart, puts em together and brings them back to life.

3. My wife Donna, if you need to know anything logistically about touring in a van, she can tell you how to deal with any situation that comes up. She can do a 12 hour drive, set up, play a show, be nice to people, sell Merch, crash for four hours and do it again day after day, all while not letting her fibromyalgia keep her down. When we take big bad industrial bands out as our opening acts I sit then down and say ,”look I get that you’re tough as shit and all that, but you need to understand that D has bigger balls than all of you put together, and if you forget that, or don’t jump when she says jump, you’re going to be in for a bad time. Because if she tells you to jump, there’s a real good reason that you probably just don’t see.

4. Myself (I get to be in this list because it’s my damn list and I came up with the idea. Bite me.) I’m ridiculously tenacious, and I have total faith that the things I make are good and matter. Once I have an idea I will do anything I can think of to bring it to life, learning new skills, putting the time in to make it happen, because I have always been poor and have never been able to afford to pay people to do them for me. Also, possibly my best superpower, and one anyone can learn to do… I have no shame. None at all. I will pull every available string, and use every available connection to push my agenda. Because I believe that strongly in the quality of my ideas and work. “You think you’re that great huh?” No, but I’ve busted my ass, I’m good at what I do and I think it’s interesting. There are tons of people better than me, which is one of the reasons I’m willing to be so shameless trying to get my shit out there. Because doing this is *all I know how to do* I have no fall back plan. I get that attitude puts some people off. But fortunately not having any shame, I don’t really care much. “Ok, cool Steven, so what?” Chill. I’m getting there, relax, put your feet up, and most importantly, stop interrupting me. So, let’s step back and look at the big picture. You make this shit that you love, art, music, whatever and you want to disperse it to the widest possible audience, because otherwise what’s the fuckin point, right?This is where knowing what your powers are comes in. Purely from a marketing standpoint point, look what Ken has done in, what, two years? He’s put together a great blog, he’s made this group come together from all over the world. And consequently, because he’s a good guy and is putting all this work in, his market share, his “Ken” brand is skyrocketing. And because of all of that, when he wants to put his band on the road or get some remixes, or even just ask for help he’s already got his foot in a shit ton of doors. Just by doing what comes naturally to him. Because NETWORKING, BRAND RECOGNITION and your brands REPUTATION matter as much if not more than actually being good at what you do. (Kens good, natch)I mean shit, how many people do we know that are really good, but no one knows them, and how many horrific acts are out there playing garbage music for people? Once you figure out your superpowers you can use them to jumpstart your career, or at least keep it moving. For instance put out just a stupid amount of material over the last year and a half, along with 19? 20? Videos, a book, and however many paintings. And each of those helps get my projects in front of more people. It also helps showing people further up the ladder that I’m active and keeps people aware of my shit. I was speaking to someone recently who said ,”when I got back into doing X thing, you were one of the first people I ran across because you can’t *not* run across you.” So, for good or ill, my whole brand or trip is here for all to see. And if people don’t like it, so be it, it’s me, and I accept that result. The point is this. There’s a good chance that you have one or two things that you are really good at. In some cases you might just have a great personality, some of you might be batman and have just a shit ton of money, use that shit to buy promotion, or whatever. Know how to fix synths? Make sure everyone knows, maybe you can help an artist you like in exchange for an opening slot on a tour or a remix or some shit. Because one thing about super powers. No matter what you can do, there’s always someone who can do some shit you can’t. Figure out how to leverage that to your advantage, make yourself available. Because to the person who *can’t* do what you can… you really are a fuckin superhero. And that shit fuckin matters.

Steven Archer Rants ” Getting the Word Out”

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https://stoneburnerofficial.bandcamp.com/

This was my advice to a friend who is frustrated that his new band hasn’t been getting the attention he feels it should.

And he’s right, it’s good shit, he’s an established musician. It should be getting out there more.

“The best results I have had are by doing advertising.

It’s not particularly expensive and it does work.

You know, for fans of “x,y,z”!

It’s gonna be hard during all of this, to start a new band. Since there’s just no way to get a foot hold.

Were i you, I would do a few things.
1. Pay for advertising. Do a slow burn type thing. Spend $200 for a month of Facebook advertising directly fans of similar acts.

People who see something over and over are more likely to click it. Because it seems familiar.

2. Focus on making videos. Get creative, I shot that video I did for Inertia creeps in about two hours. Same with the light.

3. Don’t let your frustrations out in public. It’s just a bad look. The last thing you want is people checking out your band because they feel pressured to.

Regardless you gotta post about that shit all the time.

When I have something new out, I try to talk about it every day.

But people are gonna miss it anyway.

I did a bunch of videos for Belligerence and posted them everywhere for months.

A few weeks back I posted one, and a good friend and fan reposted it saying “new material from Stoneburner!”

It’s easy to get locked into the idea that everyone sees everything. But most people don’t. There’s just too much information out there to keep track of.

Particularly now with all of the bullshit going on. Every day there’s a new thing to talk about that isn’t your band.

So you gotta werk, gurl! “