Death of Lovers: "Buried Under a World of Roses" EP

This band features members of the shoe gaze act Whirr. This is a side project the started while on tour with Nothing, and it is pretty accurate stab at post-punk/ goth. They tackle their songs with more wild abandon than any type of romantic pageantry that would would be more fitting of the goth side of things. So the Cure influences tend to reflect back more on when the band was closer to their punk roots and the dark tension recalls Joy Division more than it does Sisters of Mercy.

The opener "Cold Heaven" is aptly titled ,  the music captures and cold cavernous landscape. Going into the chorus the synth sounds create that darker "Pornography" era sound and at times Bauhaus could be heard haunting the belfry here and there in the creepier moments . The chanted refrain of " who played this joke on us" is very effective and the song pays off with a very sonically heavy climax.

What the synths in "Shaken" lack the vocals make up for. This is preformed more like Depeche Mode but feels like shoegaze, which makes for a rather unique collision.  Dynamically.... this song drifts. In its defense its more of an ambient mood builder like the Cocteau Twins.

They strike a perfect balance of their shoe gaze influences with the more cold wave / goth sounds they are going for here. The bass carries the bulk of the song, but the vocals melody is put to good use and fits over the floating shimmer of the dusk the song conjures. The vocals are lighter and not the typical baritone moan you expect from this kind of bat cave worship.

"The Blue of Noon" sounds like one of Fields of the Nephilims' mellower moments or even Love and Rockets. The guitar sounds great on this song as well as the entire album, the bass is fluid and holds things down leaving the synths as the only weak spot through out, but the songs marry such interesting sounds that this largely goes unnoticed. The final moments of the album finds it slipping away into a drone in the night. I'll give this EP a 9.5, and look forward to hearing what they can pull off on a full length.