Demon Head - Through Holes Shine The Stars (Svart Records) [Rich Piva]
Copenhagen, Denmark’s Demon Head sound like if the Sisters Of Mercy were a proto metal band. Or like if The Damned sounded a bit bigger. Or like if a goth, a punk, and a metalhead got into a fight by the smoking doors in high school and morphed into one, way more awesome, being. However you describe them, the band sounds excellent on their latest record, Through Holes Shine The Stars, which gives us eight tracks of occult tinged goth proto punk metal goodness.
The songs on Through Holes Shine The Stars are both dark and huge, with some influences across multiple decades, from the 70s through the 90s. The opener, The Chalice, reminds me of Siouxsie And The Banshees but with the guy from Sister Of Mercy singing, and that’s a combo that works for me. The bass drives this one, and I love the higher background vocals that goes with the deep, upfront voice of the lead singer.
Copenhagen, Denmark’s Demon Head sound like if the Sisters Of Mercy were a proto metal band. Or like if The Damned sounded a bit bigger. Or like if a goth, a punk, and a metalhead got into a fight by the smoking doors in high school and morphed into one, way more awesome, being. However you describe them, the band sounds excellent on their latest record, Through Holes Shine The Stars, which gives us eight tracks of occult tinged goth proto punk metal goodness.
The songs on Through Holes Shine The Stars are both dark and huge, with some influences across multiple decades, from the 70s through the 90s. The opener, The Chalice, reminds me of Siouxsie And The Banshees but with the guy from Sister Of Mercy singing, and that’s a combo that works for me. The bass drives this one, and I love the higher background vocals that goes with the deep, upfront voice of the lead singer.
Draw Down The Sky is another big sounding track and is where I see the proto version of The Damned appear, especially with the chugging guitar and that solo. I love the layered vocals on this one too. So good. There’s definitely a post punk thing going on here, especially with track three, Our Winged Mother, and it is glorious. The epic, eight-minute Every Flatworm is dark and sinister, with a seriously evil opening riff with vibes of a ritual sacrifice. I love the tempo change when things get all frantic. Church organ blares at the opening of Wildfire, which reminds me of more contemporary bands like Unto Others and Rope Sect. The musicianship of the band shines on this one, especially the guitar.
Deeper Blades slows the pace and really highlights the male/female vocal dynamic and is the most goth rock track on Through Holes Shine The Stars. Once again, the guitar work shines, especially on the solo. The closing one two punch keeps up the quality and stays closer to the goth side of things, with both Frost and This Vessel Is Willing keeping it dark and their version of heavy, with the former an up-tempo goth rocker and the latter closing with urgent vocals, sparse music, and serious Bauhaus but heavier vibes.
I have a soft spot for 80s goth, I love 70s proto, post punk is great, and bands keeping this stuff alive like Unto Others are in my regular rotation, so there is no surprise that I love the new Demon Head record. Put on your black and be ready to rock out as only goths can with Through Holes Shine The Stars. 8/10
Pink Panther Project - Intoxicating Embrace (Marian Whores / The Circle Music) [James Jackson]
Incorporating Dark Pop with EBM and Industrial is the main focus of London based Electronic outfit Pink Panther Project or PPP as they call themselves. Intoxicating Embrace is their debut album, the band, formed in 2023, consists of female vocalist, songwriter and founder Uela, joined by Alex K and Ether Mu.
One thing you expect from anything EBM and Industrial inspired is hard hitting electronic dance beats and synth laden hooks, PPP have done that but adding the softer Pop influences has broadened the horizon for the album and PPP lean nicely into the possibilities.
There’s a conscious effort from the band in the song writing, to create a diverse and engaging mix of their chosen genres within the album and the tracks themselves, producing a vibrant collection of songs that have captured my interest from the first synthesised drum beat.
Definitely progressive in most senses, the tracks vary wildly, the use of death vocals, needed to bind the clashing soundscapes. Mishkin Fitzgerald’s vocals impress, be it her fragile classical cleans, sultry middles or death growls, whatever is needed she handles with ease, like a combination of both Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit by way of Courtney Love and Shirley Manson. Also a classical pianist Mishkin plays both this and accordion on the record joined by guitarist/bassist Garry Mitchell, violin/cello/harp player Hana Piranha and drummer Anna Mylee, they have a very distinct visual image which saw them go down well supporting Lordi recently, but musically the two bands couldn’t be more different.
Hex bombards you with a clash of styles similar to their previous name but with additional metal crunch. 8/10
Envy – Eunoia (Pelagic Records) [Liam Williams]
Here is an interesting album by Japanese Post-hardcore group envy. After listening to all 8 tracks a couple of times, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about this album. It’s definitely something different. There is a lot going on and it jumps from chill and ambient to absolute chaos throughout, to the point that it can become quite difficult to try and keep up.
Piecemeal is a really nice ambient intro track only lasting a minute and a half. The clean guitars and string section work really well together and you can hear a distorted guitar slowly creeping in. The spoken word vocals actually work well with this track. Imagination And Creation has a great intro but it’s when the first verse kicks in where the mix starts to get a little bit too busy.
There are a lot of interesting ideas on this album which work well sometimes but then not so much at other times. The flow and pacing is a little bit all over the place. At times the direction can be a little bit confusing and may throw you off. And the mix could have had a little more work in certain parts. But with all that being said, it’s definitely not boring to listen to. It’s well worth listening to at least once or twice so that you can make up your own mind about it. 7/10
One thing you expect from anything EBM and Industrial inspired is hard hitting electronic dance beats and synth laden hooks, PPP have done that but adding the softer Pop influences has broadened the horizon for the album and PPP lean nicely into the possibilities.
There’s a conscious effort from the band in the song writing, to create a diverse and engaging mix of their chosen genres within the album and the tracks themselves, producing a vibrant collection of songs that have captured my interest from the first synthesised drum beat.
This version of the album has 13 tracks on it but on streaming platforms there’s actually a double “disc” edition containing a further ten tracks which I’m currently downloading, plus another record by the same lineup under the name of Virgin Vampires which I fully intend to check out. 9/10
Crimson Veil – Hex (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Matt Bladen]
I will level with you dear reader that when I first saw the words “UK dark occult band” I did fear that it may be another Dani Filth project but no, Crimson Veil is the more sinister, evil evolution of the acclaimed, TV featured dark cabaret band Birdeatsbaby, categorized as a band who fused heavy metal with klezmer, with songs about; religion, alienation, sexual orientation, obsession and animal rights, I’m not sure if Crimson Veil is a new band or just a name change of the old one, either way that avant garde, sound still permeates on Ribbons and Finch, the former a haunting, unnerving soundscape while the latter weaves a tainted web of violin’s and dreamy psych between crunchy industrial metal.
Crimson Veil – Hex (Reigning Phoenix Music) [Matt Bladen]
I will level with you dear reader that when I first saw the words “UK dark occult band” I did fear that it may be another Dani Filth project but no, Crimson Veil is the more sinister, evil evolution of the acclaimed, TV featured dark cabaret band Birdeatsbaby, categorized as a band who fused heavy metal with klezmer, with songs about; religion, alienation, sexual orientation, obsession and animal rights, I’m not sure if Crimson Veil is a new band or just a name change of the old one, either way that avant garde, sound still permeates on Ribbons and Finch, the former a haunting, unnerving soundscape while the latter weaves a tainted web of violin’s and dreamy psych between crunchy industrial metal.
Definitely progressive in most senses, the tracks vary wildly, the use of death vocals, needed to bind the clashing soundscapes. Mishkin Fitzgerald’s vocals impress, be it her fragile classical cleans, sultry middles or death growls, whatever is needed she handles with ease, like a combination of both Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit by way of Courtney Love and Shirley Manson. Also a classical pianist Mishkin plays both this and accordion on the record joined by guitarist/bassist Garry Mitchell, violin/cello/harp player Hana Piranha and drummer Anna Mylee, they have a very distinct visual image which saw them go down well supporting Lordi recently, but musically the two bands couldn’t be more different.
Hex bombards you with a clash of styles similar to their previous name but with additional metal crunch. 8/10
Envy – Eunoia (Pelagic Records) [Liam Williams]
Here is an interesting album by Japanese Post-hardcore group envy. After listening to all 8 tracks a couple of times, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about this album. It’s definitely something different. There is a lot going on and it jumps from chill and ambient to absolute chaos throughout, to the point that it can become quite difficult to try and keep up.
At times, the mix is pretty good and you can hear each instrument being played quite clearly. But then other times there is so much happening that it’s difficult to make out anything distinctive. There are very few singing parts since the vocals mostly consist of spoken word and screaming. The few times where there are singing parts are some of the best moments on the album and I feel that the album could have done with more of this, or maybe could have worked better being more of an instrumental piece.
Piecemeal is a really nice ambient intro track only lasting a minute and a half. The clean guitars and string section work really well together and you can hear a distorted guitar slowly creeping in. The spoken word vocals actually work well with this track. Imagination And Creation has a great intro but it’s when the first verse kicks in where the mix starts to get a little bit too busy.
The chorus is fantastic and the blast beats in the bridge section work really well before the chill clean guitar part that plays before the final chorus and outro. The Night And The Void starts with another nice ambient sound with the slower drums and more clean guitars. Halfway through it starts to build up heavier and keeps the energy up until the acoustic/clean calmer outro. Beyond The Raindrops switches between calm and heavy throughout.
This song has some great singing parts and perhaps my favourite guitar parts on the whole album. Whiteout is loud and energetic. There’s a nice clean section before the second verse kicks back into full pace chaos. This song has some really good drumming and the guitars also sound great when you can tell what’s going on. Lingering Light is more of an interlude track. Featuring some very haunting sounding guitars and more spoken word vocals.
This track is a good build up to the following track. Lingering Echoes is easily my favourite track on the album. It’s very progressive and cinematic sounding. This track displays the best playing of the guitars, bass and drums. Although again, I do think this track might have worked better as an instrumental. January’s Dusk has a sort of triumphant sound to it. I’m not really sure what else to say about it other than that but it is a good song to close the album on.
There are a lot of interesting ideas on this album which work well sometimes but then not so much at other times. The flow and pacing is a little bit all over the place. At times the direction can be a little bit confusing and may throw you off. And the mix could have had a little more work in certain parts. But with all that being said, it’s definitely not boring to listen to. It’s well worth listening to at least once or twice so that you can make up your own mind about it. 7/10
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