Gothtober- Attic Frost : 'A heart is the deepest dungeon"

This month I am not only covering goth music, but what hoping for music that is bringing something new to the graveyard. However there are expectations from goths, who try to stick to a certain era that has a certain sound and this album will help us explore what they pitfalls or benefits of that may or may not be,  I stumbled across this German darkwave project on Bandcamp. Right from the jump I will tell you this album is hard to review in the manner we normally do here, because all the songs sound the same. There was a discussion on a friend of mine's Facebook regarding this current trend of dark wave revival bands out where she remarked that they all sound the same due to the fact they are all baritone male voices mixed in the background to hide the fact that they are not good singers.

 She is a singers of a band that flirts with dark wave, so I get the place that this comes from, there might even be the angle that her band is not getting the same exposure since they do not fall into this formula, or it could also be argued that all female darkwave singers sound like Siouxsie.  This project could be lumped in with the type of thing she was complaining about. The vocals sound like they check off the required box for dark wave, but I am not sure he can actually sing. 

Six songs in and I might as well be on the second song again. This is a problem I find when reviewing extreme metal as well but from a different angle. In both cases it goes with the point often made here about sound vs songs. With metal bands that put the emphasis on creating a heavy sound, for the first song , you are impressed by the fact it is heavy, so you never stop to ask is it a good song, until the intensity wears off. With dark wave or really any flavor of what we might call goth , you are hit with a nostalgia, impressed the project has recreated a familiar sound you love so you do not ask if it is a good song. In the case of this album it was until the third song that things changed in a way that allowed me to hear what they were capable of . The third song had more guitar where the second song danced to the same beat every faceless band on a goth night's dj might weave into the staples like the Cure or Sisters of Mercy. 

"Template" takes the synth wave analog sound and sets them again guitars in an awkward manner thanks to an uneven mix. If the vocals were doing something interesting, then this might have been pulled together into a song that works , but it is just dead pan almost spoken word. "Nothing" is a little better as it offers more to hook you in, but the overall emphasis still seems to be on the sound. The vocals are even more useless here when you focus on on their stale croak . 'Avoiding Life' creates a more ethereal Cure like sound with the use of it's synths. The vocals are hidden behind the veil of reverb and synths sailing past your ears. There is a bit of a break down where things shift, but the rule of thumb here seems to be milk the original idea that provides the songs back bone. There is not a good reason for this song to be five and a half minutes. 

More of a Halloween groove comes to life on "Gallows". The programmed beat could have used more beef from the mix. Guitar surfaces, but it seems to confuse the vocals, making things more disjointed. The title track closes the album. It opens with more of a retro synth sound. Is the joke here that it is using sounds that could be in the dungeon synth sub-genre? The vocals once again, fall short. I will give this album a 7, as it ended up almost  boring me before it was over , but scored that high since it works off a sound I like.