I already have mentioned this one-woman industrial project on my blog some time ago, and now I thought her latest full-length release under the moniker Nož Nad Lesam deserves a separate entry. Nož Nad Lesam was started by Natasha Ilminsky in 2014, and changed the name to E-Nitra not long ago (not sure what the former name was supposed to mean - something like "knife over the forest" in Belarusian?) I haven't listened to the full-length album by E-Nitra, which came out around a week ago, yet, but this release surely deserves attention if you like minimal synth and anything that can broadly described as "Russian doomer music" with female vocals. Moreover, I'm tempted to describe some parts of this album as "industrial hip-hop", although that may be far-fetched. And the cover art by @ann_armata is a little masterpiece of industrial/urbex photography.
Pretty sure that many of my readers already know about Kælan Mikla, since this all-female trio from Iceland is (deservedly) one of the biggest internationally known names among the wave of 2010s post-punk bands, so I'll be brief. While I'm not that much into their earlier stuff (mostly because of the vocals), "Undir Köldum Norðurljósum" is one of the best albums I've heard in the last few years, and it's exactly what I'd expect of a goth/darkwave/coldwave album from Iceland, especially fit for listening during winter time (and especially around the time of winter solstice). My personal favourites are "Sólstöður", "Sírenur", "Stormurinn", and "Óskasteinar".
Excellent but very obscure synthpop from Petrozavodsk (Karelia), with very poetic lyrics and dark sound, bordering on darkwave and comparable to some later equally obscure bands like Universal System. Unfortunately the band never got much publicity outside their home region, and never released a proper album. All we have is this cassette demo from 1989 (not even sure about its official name), some tracks from 1992-93, and a couple of new tracks released in 2006-07 (after the death of the band's founding member).
During the Soviet times, Karelia had a relatively thriving rock scene since the late 60s, due to its proximity to St. Petersburg and Finland, but that scene remained mostly unknown countrywide - mostly because, as a general rule, Karelian bands were far from typical "Russian rock", preferring to stay as close as possible to the classic sound of western rock bands instead, often singing only in English. A notable example is Dmitry "Dima" Yaroslavskiy (RIP 1999) with his ballad "Karelian Girl" which became a local hit in the late 80s:
He was a friend of Igor "Gariman" Shushunov, who was the mastermind of the band I'm presenting to you today. During the school years in late 70s, Igor already played drums in an art rock band The 13th Team, and in mid-1980, he was a member of one of the first metal bands in Karelia and USSR in general - O.V.N. (whose name translates as "Very High Voltage"; to the best of my knowledge, they left no recordings). Later he became interested in electronic music, and recorded the first 4-song demo in 1988 with the help of Sergey Pozhidaev, a professional programmer, and Dmitry Osipov, a keyboardist and singer with an unusual high-pitch voice.
Synthpop bands became to appear in the Soviet Union as early as in 1983, but the heyday of Soviet Depeche Mode clones was around 1990. That said, Прикладное Искусство were much more than just another Depeche Mode ripoff band, which is for good (as I've said before, I never was a big fan of Depeche Mode anyway, although I do like the remix of "Enjoy the Silence" by Mike Shinoda). Nearly every song on this cassette is a hit, but I especially like "Hong Kong I & II". There's only one surviving recording of their live performance from that time (around 1991), featuring a new song that was released circa 1992:
There's also a low-budget music video from an unknown date, but it definitely was made before the death of Igor Shushunov in 2002 (unfortunately, his daughter Yulia has also died not so long ago, in 2018):
Overall, they were one of the best bands on the early Russian/Soviet synthpop scene, despite the very limited access to musical equipment and nearly no recognition outside of their home region, and I'd recommend them to everyone who's looking for good but undeservedly forgotten synthpop and darkwave. Enjoy:
While Lacrimosa was the most influental gothic band during the 90s and the 1st half of 2000s at least, I started listening to this kind of music a bit later (in the late 2000s), and it were L'Âme Immortelle who have introduced me to that scene. Actually, we had a lot of very pleasant people in the LAI fan community back then (something that can't be said about the fans of many other metal and gothic rock bands, unfortunately) - but I've lost contact with almost all of them by now ;_;
"Gezeiten" is LAI's first album released on a relatively major label (Supersonic/BMG Germany), and its sound is much heavier compared to their early darkwave releases, being strongly influenced by NDH/industrial metal. Arguably it's their best release along with their first two darkwave/electro-industrial full-lengths.On the other hand, I found their later albums quite boring (same for the solo projects of both Thomas Rainer and Sonja Kraushofer).
Genre: Darkwave, Ethnic Electronica, New Age, Trip-Hop
Country: Russia
Release date: 2015
Track List:
Umbraya Erze
Vetvi
Salameika
Kukushka
Aion
Niti
Veter (feat. Namgar)
Yaard
Beliy Gorod
Kolodec
The best known Russian ethnic electronica band which most likely was a major source of inspiration for projects like Lovozero. Theodor Bastard started in the second half of 90s inititally as an experimental industrial/noise project in the vein of Coil and Nurse With Wound, and the later album "BossaNova_Trip" (2001) at times sounds surprisingly similar to much later works by Access To Arasaka. By 2004, Theodor Bastard became a full band and radically changed their sound in favour of darkwave and neofolk, which brought them worldwide recognition. During the second half of 2000s, they actively toured Europe and have shared the scene with such high profile bands as Nine Inch Nails, Spiritual Front and Von Thronstahl.
"Vetvi" is their latest up to date LP, strongly inspired by the atmosphere of Russian North, especially Karelia. The album name is a reference to the branches of the mythological World Tree (Arbor mundi). Another prominent lyrical topic on "Vetvi" is the theme of death (especially of the loved ones). Musically, it's ethereal/darkwave kind of world music, strongly inspired by Dead Can Dance and early Massive Attack, but rooted in the folk tradition of Russian North. The members of Theodor Bastard travel extensively, and draw the inspiration from various folk traditions from Russian North (which is my favourite travel destination as well) to Middle East.
The best song on "Vetvi", in my opinion, is the opening one "Umbraya Erze". It sounds very beautiful, although I have no idea about the language of the lyrics (someone has said they're in Old Norse, but I'm not sure about it at all):
I didn't know anything about this project until yesterday, but after taking a brief look at the track list, I guessed that this album is inspired by Native American folklore. Turned out I was right:
"An intense album inspired by the themes of southwestern Native American
stories, deities, subjugation, genocide, and the apocalypse.
This work pays homage to the Apache ancestry and childhood Hopi upbringing of band member Daniel Larson."
While I must admit I don't know an awful lot about the Apache or Hopi cultures, this release is fairly good. It's entirely instrumental (apart from some spoken introduction), and features a mix of synthwave and industrial metal (however, it's still much more "synth" than "metal"):
Dvar are a good example of a meme band that eventually became much more successful than many completely serious bands in their genre. The story of Dvar started very much like the stories of many other outsider music projects: their homemade demo cassettes were distributed anonymously under the premise of "esoteric" qualities of the music. This demo, for example, was said to cause a negative influence on the lives of its listeners - which is BS of course, but who knows?.. Anyway, happy April Fools' Day, and don't be afraid to check "Raii" out:
At the time when "Raii" was recorded, the band was apparently a duo. Here's the one and only known photo which is allegedly of them:
According to their interviews, "Dvar" is the name of a supernatural entity that actually writes all of the band's music and lyrics, which are in a made-up language based on Hebrew. Leaving aside all these bizarre stories, the music of Dvar is indeed quite unusual. While it'd be fair enough to label it as darkwave, the presence of weird screeching vocals gives a strange "black metal"-ish feel to it. While it's hard to take Dvar seriously, they have been a surprisingly popular and long-running project that has released quite a few albums during 1995-2012. Some of them can be found here, btw (my personal favourite is "Taai Liira").
Don't know why this album,which safely can be called a classic by now, wasn't posted on my blog before. Das Ich are one of the longest-running bands on the German "Schwarze Szene", but this particular album contributed probably the most to their popularity here (even me, who rarely attend concerts, have been to their live show at one of the ForGotTen festivals a few years ago). Compared to their early works, it's much more "danceable" and generally accessible to an average listener, with very catchy tracks like "Schwarzer Stern", "Vulkan", or "Seele Tanzt". Absolutely recommended to all fans of dark music with lyrics in German, and especially if you're learning that language.
Arkhangelsk is a relatively small town on the shore of the Arctic Ocean which is quite far from most major urban centers of northern Europe. Yet it has a large port which was a part of a major trade/smuggling route for Western-made recordings and musical instruments during Soviet times, so it isn't a surprise that it long had an independent music scene of noticeable size. Out of notable bands formed in Arkhangelsk, I should mention Облачный Край, Six Dead Bulgarians (one of the most prominent early Russian industrial projects) - and, of course, Moon Far Away, formed in 1994.
Their debut album "Lado World" (1997) was critically acclaimed at the time it was released, but as for me, it has the same problem as some works by Irfan - it sounds too close to Dead Can Dance and not in a good way. Their subsequent releases took the direction towards more traditional folk music, and their latest full-length album up to date, "Minnesang", is more neofolk than anything else (although the ethereal, darkwave and traditional folk elements are prominent on "Minnesang" as well). A good review of "Minnesang" can be found here (although there are some minor inconsistencies - i.e., MFA aren't a pagan band in any way). Overall, "Minnesang" is one of the best albums in the history of Russian neofolk and definitely shouldn't be missed. The rest of MFA discography didn't impress me as much as this one, but it certainly worths to be checked out too.
As I've said several times before, the "dark" music scene in Russia was rapidly developing in late 2000s, until it was cast down by hipsters in early 2010s in the same manner as the 1980s metal scene was destroyed by grunge in early 1990s. Today, most of what's described as "underground music from post-USSR" is just shitty indie rock/pop, but there are some really interesting new projects as well (although not many). Here's one of these.
Сруб was formed in Novosibirsk by Igor Shapransky, and quickly became a sensation among both hipster crowd and 2000s' gothic rock fans. The music is more or less standard post-punk, but with lyrics more typical for neofolk or pagan/black metal (fortunately it's rather well written and nowhere near as ridiculous as the lyrics of Arkona or many other "Slavonic metal" bands). All in all, it can be described as a mix of neofolk, darkwae and post-punk (or "witch punk", as the band members themselves call it), with a great "forest" atmosphere comparable to that of the best atmospheric black metal acts. Would agree with this comment on bandcamp:
"Surely one of Russia's very best acts. Tremendous energy, powerful rhythm section, superb vocals and
unbelievably catchy. Do yourself a favour and pick up their entire
discog, these guys are seriously addictive!"
So far I've heard their whole discography, except for their latest album which was released only a few days ago. Have high hopes for it too, even though Сруб is becoming a bit self-repeating as of late... Still, all their albums and EPs I've heard so far are awesome, and this one is certainly one of the best.
Neutrale Erde (of course not to be confused with Neutral!) weren't active since 2011, so I thought Yarina (the only member of NE by now) has decided to leave the music scene. Turned out I was wrong - NE is back with a new album which is officially available for free (source).
After listening to it, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it has several really powerful tracks in the beginning, one of which was previously released on NE's 2011 EP "Не умею улыбаться". On another hand, the album is a bit too lengthy and becomes boring close to the end. Another problem is the overuse of movie samples (which, unfortunately, is typical for a lot of Russian punk and metal as well). Overall, if you liked NE's previous LP "Infiziert" (or if you're interested in darkwave with female vocals in general), you might like this one too.
I personally can name another reason why I found this album interesting - despite its name ("Evolution"), it sounds much like the early (2006-2008) works of NE and similar bands. Very few people listen to such music nowadays, mostly due to the hipster epidemic which had a serious impact on the whole non-mainstream music scene here. The more I think about it, the more it reminds me of how the whole 80s metal and hard rock scene was cast down by grunge in early 90s. It's amazing how much damage was caused by that relatively short-lived fad - so many lesser known metal bands had to split up back then simply because they suddenly lost most of their audience. Something like this recently happened here with the so-called "Schwarze Szene" (as much as I dislike this term, "gothic scene" is even worse alternative) - especially in the nowadays' hipster capital, St.Petersburg, where NE are originally from...
The second demo from Neutral, recorded by a duo of Ash and Ilya Lytkin, who became a "core" of a new Neutral line-up. Along with "When Angels Are Neutral", this demo belong to Ash's personal favourites from his early works, but it's nowhere near as heavy as the aforementioned one. It consists of 4 long tracks which can be described as darkwave with lots of samples (mostly taken from the TV reports about crime ant terrorism during the 90s). Like the first demo, it has little to do with what Neutral is playing now, but I personally enjoyed it a lot.
This is a rather well-known album, yet I think my blog would be incomplete without a review of it (won't post a download link, though; you'll easily find it elsewhere if you want). Håvard Ellefsen a/k/a Mortiis is mostly known for playing bass in Emperor, and for his dark ambient works from the 90's (including released under other monikers, such as Vond, Cintecele Diavolui, and Fata Morgana). Personally I find his ambient stuff to be rather average, except maybe for "The Stargate" (not saying it's bad, but there's a lot of better dark ambient around).
"The Smell Of Rain", on the other hand, is nothing short of a masterpiece. Surely it's much more accessible to an average listener than any other stuff from Mortiis (its sound even borders on synthpop at times)... but who cares? After listening a lot of "gothic" music of all kinds, I can name only very few releases with such esoteric/"otherworldy" feel to it, and "The Smell Of Rain" is certainly one of them. Too bad there isn't a lot of music that sounds like this exact album. Mortiis has released two more albums since then, but that period (early 2000's) was very bad for his personal life, which had strong negative impact on his music. Well, "The Grudge" isn't as awful as you might think after reading some reviews - but it's nothing comparable to "The Smell Of Rain", just average industrial rock. As for the music from other bands that came close to this kind of sound, I can think only of some tracks by The Electric Hellfire Club.
The 2nd half of this album is definitely better than the 1st one (even though "Scar Trek / Parasite God" and "You Put A Hex On Me" are very good tracks too). I love how it progresses from depressive synthpop of "Everyone Leaves" (an ideal funeral hymn, if you ask me, even though it sounds noths like actual funeral hymns) to the danceable gothic electro of "Smell The Witch". The lyrics are a bit abstract at times, but always very touching:
"I'm stuck and cold.
I'm stuck and cold in marshland.
I'm stuck and cold where life is
Plentiful but nothing lives...
Nothing that I say or do, Matters to the big machine Nothing that I think or feel Matters to the big machine If I am dead when tomorrow's gone,
The big machine will just move on..." ("Marshland")
This Chilean band is probably the best in the whole "Darkwave from the South: Music From The Other America" compilation series, and I was happy to find out that they give out all their music for free @ Jamendo. While "Ángel sin Cielo" is definitely their best track, the other 3 songs on their only EP are quite nice too. Their lead vocalist has a very beautiful voice, as well as the male vocalist on "At Sea". And needless to say, this EP is another proof that Spanish language can sound very good in darkwave/gothic rock.
Russian/Lithuanian electro-gothic trio with female vocals, formed in winter 2011. In my opinion, tracks #2 & #3 (especially the latter) are the best on the whole album. It actually strongly reminds me of some early 90's Russian pop music - mostly because of heavily reverberated vocals and danceable rhythms combined with depressive lyrics. (Contrary to popular belief, not all Russian pop music is equally disgusting - this one, for example, borders stylistically on industrial rock). Complex Numbers have used this kind of sound in some of their songs too.
Darkwave/trip-hop project with female vocals formed in Gomel (Belarus) in 2006, that has earned a lot of critical acclaim since the release of their first EP on Industrial Madness records. As far as I know, their early stuff was mostly energetic, danceable music, but this EP is much more melancholic, reminding me of Chiasm. The quality of production is (unsurprisingly) not perfect, but the material itself isn't bad at all. Yes, there are some rough moments, but it's expected from a debut low-budget release. My personal favourite is "Everything".
Fatal Aim are a relatively well-known female-fronted trio formed in June 2003 in Tula. Their debut album "Winter Saga" was released in 2007, and left a significant impression on me at that time. Now I see all the flaws of this release (cheap samples, weak vocals, heavy accent), but it doesn't stops me from enjoying some tracks off this album (i.e. "Red Snow"). As far as I know, after releasing "Winter Saga" they realized a need for a better vocalist, but they still haven't released anything new after changing the vocalist yet. Their official site wasn't updated since May 2011, but I still hope it isn't the end.
Title: Darkwave from the South: Music From The Other America V
Genre: Darkwave, Gothic Rock
Country: (various)
Release date: 2011
Track List:
Réquiem Para Nadie - Fuego [Uruguay]
Electroespectro - Soneto de Una Maquina [Argentina]
Denébola - Ángel sin Cielo [Chile]
MekRokieV - Respiro (Demo) [Mexico]
Das Projekt - Morbid Love [Brazil]
Ewiges Delirium - En Busqueda de un Eterno Resplandor [Colombia]
TaxidermiA - Mentes Oscuras [Venezuela]
Antonio Amador - Fantasma [Mexico]
Miguel ERRE - Cáscaras Vacías [Argentina]
RRRRRRR - Transmission (Trance-Mission) [Uruguay]
Hemophilia - Quito Siniestro [Ecuador]
Persephone Eyes - Take the Chalice [Brazil]
Dulce Muerte - Maldoror (Maldoror cover) [Peru]
Draconian Incubus - City Of Lovers [Costa Rica]
Megadriel - Rape of Innocence [Puerto Rico]
Fixion - (No) Quiero Ser Dios [Uruguay]
Xianotic - This Abyss In Your Arms (2010) [Chile]
Epic Church - Flow My Tears (Short Edit) [Brazil]
Amöniacö - Caer (Single Version) [Chile]
Sunset Down - A Far Place (Horses) [Brazil]
The 5th (and probably the latest up to date) "Darkwave from the South" compilation. Of course, like the previous parts, it has a lot of weak tracks (many of the included bands are either copying European gothic scene, or just have too "amateur"-ish sound), but it's still a good source of underground darkwave and gothic rock with lyrics in Spanish. My personal favourite is "Ángel sin Cielo" by Denébola.
Title: Darkwave from the South: Music From The Other America III
Genre: Darkwave, Gothic Rock
Country: (various)
Release date: 2010
Track List:
Projeto Renfield - Night [Brasil]
Anfisbena - Vidas Y Muertes [Bolivia]
Maresantos - Alma [Peru]
Aldearoja - Manto Negro [Chile]
RRRRRRR - Ella Es Tan Pálida [Uruguay]
Taxidermia - Karma Demoniaco [Venezuela]
Septima Sima - El Imperio De Los Desposeidos [Argentina]
Under My Nails - Dagas [Colombia]
Igreja Do Sexo - Igreja Do Sexo [Brasil]
Flood Of Tears - Love Don't Work [Argentina]
Ewiges Delirium - Corazon Roto? [Colombia]
StrangersAngels - Noises Of The Broken Souls [Paraguay]
Hemophilia - Gothica [Ecuador]
Nene Altro & O Mal De Caim - Cor De Prata [Brasil]
Starselect - Angels On The Amazonas Storm [Argentina]
La Devoción - Isabel [Peru]
Convulsiones - Dulce [Chile]
El Viejo Matadero - Alguien Sangra [Colombia]
Dulce Muerte - Lamento [Peru]
Álgida - A Fé Está Morta [Brasil]
MekRokieV - Una Vez Más [Mexico] (Bonus Track)
Draconian Incubus - King Of Misery [Costa Rica] (Bonus Track)
Another compilation in the "Darkwave from the South". Frankly speaking, I found it to be the weakest one out of all the "DftS / MftOA" series, but maybe some of you will find it (or at least some tracks off it) interesting.
Title: Darkwave from the South: Music From The Other America III
Genre: Darkwave, Gothic Rock
Country: (various)
Release date: 2010
Track List:
Crucifix Nocturnal Christians - The Cross On The Wall
Elegia - Medieval
Aldearoja - Aldearoja
Céfiro Nocte - El Lado Oscuro De La Luna
Septima Sima - Natacha
Hemophilia - Sol Negro
Das Projekt - Betrayal
Ewiges Delirium - Abandonado
Taxidermia - Pesadilla
RRRRRRR - Frío
Virgine Dramatica - In The Presence Of The Frost
Sunset Down - Genocide Of Angels 2.0 [Live Demo]
Porcelain Doll - After This...
Plastique Noir - Silent Shout
Flood Of Tears - The World
Bloodparade - Nevermore
Luna In Caelo - Llorar
StrangersAngels - End Of Tears
Dulce Muerte - Brujas
Convulsiones - El Último Minuto
A compilation of various underground projects from the gothic/darkwave scene of South America. Of course don't expect top quality musicianship and production, but there definitely are some projects that's worth attention (i.e. Virgine Dramatica). Besides, it isn't like there are many well-known darkwave bands with lyrics in Spanish, so this compilation sounds quite exotic to me, even though there's a lot of so-so projects.
