UK/LA industrial rockers DROWND have kept us all wanting more ever since emerging this past spring with their EPs Sick Like You and Stay Away, the latter of which includes remixes by their Armalyte Records peers, The Joy Thieves and Seething Akira. Frontman/bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Joe Crudgington has taken everything we love about industrial rock and packed it to exploding point in this delightfully heavy debut album. It starts out innocently enough with “Lost”…
Read MoreAuthor: Adrian Halo
The Dark Magic Of Black Needle Noise: Conversations With Singers Betty X and Anjela Piccard
The past few months have been relentlessly productive for legendary dark alternative producer John Fryer’s band Black Needle Noise. On the heels of their World Tour Of Hollywood this past fall, came the vinyl release of the long-awaited Lost In Reflections, the launch of the Black Needle Noise website, and now an upcoming album of cover songs called These Mortal Covers. The album contains a collection of songs that have been in development for…
Read MoreShe Past Away/Twin Tribes/Aurat at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, CA July 28, 2019
The dimly lit, densely fogged fervor at the packed-to-the-gills Echoplex in Echo Park, was the perfect environment for the stark and gloomy beats of Turkish goth rockers She Past Away. This particular show was the last date of a tour which marked their US appearance. The energy was running high and the line for the merch table was halfway across the room well into the night; openers Twin Tribes were another highly anticipated act….
Read MoreDrab Majesty/HIDE/Body Of Light (Drab Majesty Record Release Party) @ The Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles, July 26, 2019 – show review
Goths, shoegazer indie kids, and punk turned out in equal numbers for Drab Majesty’s hometown record release party at the Fonda Theatre in LA last week. The dark and dreamy androgyne duo took the stage to pink and blue fog, building momentum with “A Dialogue,” the opening track to their new album Modern Mirror. Deb DeMure strummed out arpeggiated chords with urgency and delicacy reminiscent of our favorite 80s 4AD artists, where they wove…
Read MoreA Device To Entice Us: Curse Mackey Talks Good And Evil
I sat down with Curse Mackey before his performance in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, where he shared a bill with old friends My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. Whether you first heard him as the singer of Texas-based industrial noise act Evil Mothers, with the Grim Faeries, as a contributing vocalist for My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, or on one of his many collaborations with industrial supergroup Pigface, if…
Read MoreGrendel @ Catch One, Los Angeles, July 19, 2019 – show review
Self-described “Pagan-Synth” Oklahoma duo Esoterik kicked off the night with a captivating sound which combines ethereal vocals with synthpop beats. Their hypnotic new single “Spirits Light The Way” featured vocalist Allison Eckfeldt swirling onstage and a hooded Brady Bledsoe providing dark, atmospheric synths. The 80s influence continued with Glass Apple Bonzai, the solo project of Toronto-based Daniel Belasco, who brought us uplifting anthems wrapped in signature analog synthpop warmth, with an appearance by Striplicker…
Read MoreDARK NOUVEAU – compilation review
Dark Nouveau features 24 mesmerizing tracks curated by Athan Maroulis of Metropolis Records. As the founder/frontman of moody darkwave project NOIR and of notorious industrial rock outfit Spahn Ranch, he lends not only his musical talents to a track on the album (NOIR’s “A Pleasure To Burn,” which has echoes of Beat Noir-era Spahn Ranch and showcases his unique voice and arrangement style beautifully), but also his 20-odd years of expertise from his days…
Read MoreA Strange Affair With The Thrill Kill Kult – interview
I had the exquisite pleasure of talking music, hairstyling, art, and tattoos (of all things!) with Wax Trax! alumni and industrial music legend Frankie Nardiello, known to most of us as Groovie Mann, charismatic and creative frontman of everybody’s favorite dark disco darlings, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. Here he shares his fondest memories of Wax Trax! founders Jim Nash and Dannie Flescher, and takes us on a little journey of Thrill…
Read MoreThe Cult / Prayers / Zola Jesus / VOWWS at Greek Theatre Los Angeles, CA June 15, 2019
“There’s nothing like live rock n’ roll,” mused Ian Astbury to a rapt audience under the full moon at Greek Theatre last weekend; wise words indeed from a leading expert. The charismatic frontman of 80s goth rockers The Cult was in top form for a perfect night of smash hit after deep cut, kicking things off with “Sun King” and “New York City” off their 1989 release Sonic Temple. Astbury strutted around the stage…
Read MoreMy Life With The Thrill Kill Kult / Curse Mackey June 13, 2019 at 1720 in Los Angeles, CA – show review
Everybody’s favorite Kult has done it again with their latest release, In The House Of Strange Affairs, an appropriately sleazy and campy chapter in the noir-meets-psychedelic-industrial-disco chronicles of My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. They were joined on this tour with the multi-talented Curse Mackey, who has just released his first solo album, Instant Exorcism. A Pigface veteran who stormed the industrial scene in the 90s with his dark and gritty band Evil…
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