From the ever elusive Avant Records, comes Night Sins this Philadelphia band who gets the death rock label and comparisons to Sisters of Mercy and I don't hear either. Dark wave...yes, in fact the first song it me as a cross between early Cure and Depeche Mode. The singer comes across very Gahan in the vocal department, though the vocals are set back cooly into a blanket of reverb to give a more retro sound.
In the song "Shoot me up" there is a keyboard melody which if you really wanted to reach for straws you could try to draw comparisons to Sisters of Mercy but it could also be seen as be seen as phrased similar to "Love will tear us apart " or even early New Order. I wouldn't call these guys dancey, yet they don't have the punk edge of death rock, but i find their overall sound to be soothing to the cold inside when the medication is worn off...ok or when you don't have insurance to get any if we are going to be honest here and since the winter moths can b the darkest I find this sort of thing very soothing. Though the snare hits in a away that I wouldn't think of a dance , it does lend it self to White lethargic head bobbing.
The Joy Division comes on stronger on "Spectral Bliss", the singer doesn't have the heft on his lower register to pull off the Andrew Eldritch but he makes the most with what he does have. "The stranger" the vocals strain to go lower, but the guitar makes up for where they fall short and overall the guitar playing on this album is where it shines as the rhythm section gets the job done but doesn't take a lot of chances, the bass player if this was going for a death rock thing could stand to drive this a little more , but as it is he still has its presence known, though more of that could be due to the mix which is excellent in capturing the early eighties feel. With "Goth revivalist " stuff I am going to really put it under the microscope because I heard all of it on the first go round.
I like the movement in the song "The Eternal giver" , the vocal placement compliments it well and this could be one of the moments where they come close to earning the death rock moniker. it also happens to be where the singer injest the most emotion into his delievery. the Sisters of Mercy hook, kind of reappears on "Wild Eyes" though it still resembles closer to say black celebration era Depeche Mode, the vocal hooks float more rather than having the aggression of an Andrew Eldritch.
the snare hit harder on Winged thing , the vocals continue to just flaot in a unaffected manner , leaving the guitar to try and bat clean the whole mix on this one is awash in effect, though doesnt have a swirl but gets lost in the descent to the bat cave until the last minute of the song when it picks up some drive .
Knife in the sky takes a stab at get dancier. the remain undefined and continue to wander in the shadow behind the band, they could stand to play better with others and jump into the pocket with the guitar so they melodies would have some punch. I have heard it said that death rock was a bunch of punk rock kids that were really into Halloween , which an over simiplifaction the punk roots of it need to hammered home, a band like Alaric totally gets this, because when 45 Grave and Christiam Death were out the lines between punk and what would be known as goth were blurry at best.
I rounded this one up to an eight for feeling it captures the albums starts stronger than it finishes but it might just need to grow on me , you can even round this up another half a point of you didn't catch these guys influences back in the day so only have Vh1s recollections of the eighties to go on. Despite the microscope I hold this one under and the highbar that's been set for these guys I would recommend this none the less which says something for this as well as my score which means I enjoyed eighty percent of this the other twenty just need more form and function from the song writing.
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