The great TikTok goth craze of 2022 is a distant memory to the lemming-minded masses and it is just another depressing day for actual goths to celebrate darkness. Since goth is about music with a side order of fashion, it's time to look at the mid-year report card for goth, post-punk, and industrial music this year. I have already received promos for albums dropping as far out as August in my inbox, so they are really going to need to bring it to compete with the top five albums on this list. Given my tastes things lean in the more death-rock direction. I like my goth to be aggressive, to the point, even one metal band made the list. Though most sub-genres are represented here, though not much of interest in terms of dark wave which really impressed me this year. There are very few projects here that rely too much on electronics as I am a firm believer in actual instruments making music. I have included links to full reviews if you want to check these out and with all that said here are the top 10 goth/ post-punk albums of 2023 so far.
10-Blushing-"Sugarcoat"
Dream pop is the first handy label to throw on this Texas-based band, but they do seem more serious about rocking out than most dream pop bands. They at times remind me of a shoegazing version of Veruca Salt, with how the vocals harmonize and entwined. Things swirl around you so it can be hard to tell who is doing what
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/05/blushing-sugarcoat.html
9-Louvado Abismo- "s/t"
This band from Portugal gets it. Too many new post-punk bands don't pack enough of a punch sending me back to my old Killing Joke and Christian Death albums. This album stomps with dark aggression to make something that is sonically intense, The plead of the vocals feels real rather than someone trying to recreate what has already been done, but true to the legacy of the genre.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/louvado-abismo-st.html
8 -Bleakheart - "Silver Pulse"
This band wanders off into a melancholic brand of dreamy shoe-gaze that moves at the speed of doom. Their heavy throb often keeps them from being mere dream pop. They have crafted a pretty sweet blend of sonic intensity and atmosphere. The vocals draw you in and earn repeat listens. The guitar often shifts its tone to a more pastoral feel, to keep an organic feel, almost neo-folk mood.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/03/bleakheart-silver-pulse.html
7-Cold in Berlin - "The Body is the Wound"
This band encompasses what I love in music, darkness and sonic heaviness. They flirt with metal without abandoning their post-punk core. Expectations are either met on their new ep or exceeded. They have managed to reach a stellar balance with dark wave synths, combined with the heftier drive
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/01/cold-in-berlin-body-is-wound.html
6-Crippling Alcoholism -"With Love From a Padded Room"
This album came out under the radar earlier this year, so glad some digging around on the inner web allowed me to discover it.. They encompass a darkly honest misery I have not heard done this well since Planesmistakenforstars was a band. Raspy baritone vocals frequently entertain a marginally more upbeat melody. While their Bandcamp keywords label this as goth, they are more like if Tom Waits fronted Interpol, so closer to post-punk.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/crippling-alcoholism-with-love-from.html
5-the Jesus and Mary Chain -"Glasgow Eyes"
The Reid Brothers are back for the 8th album of their 40-year career. For me, the album they are always measured against is "Darklands" as it was my introduction to the band and the most sullen of their work. This album does touch on their more depressive side at times but finds them employing a wide range of moods. It opens with a rather upbeat pulse. It is more experimental in a different way. It sounds like they are toying around with synths and effects. Jim's voice sounds ageless, with his hushed dusky muttering. Lyrically things are brilliant.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/03/jesus-and-mary-chain-glasgow-eyes.html
4-Chelsea Wolfe- " She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She"
Wolfe's 8th album, yes we are counting "Mistake in Parting" finds her diving into more of a trip-hop feel. That is a trip-hop that is thicker on the trip than the hop. Tv on the Radio guitarist Dave Sitek is the wild card in the creation of this album. This album flows with her body of work. Nothing feels out of her wheelhouse. It is going to take a few listens for the more experimental moments to really click with me, but the moods she invokes are once again welcome.
3-Swan Wash -"Shadow, Shadow"
They used to be members of a Siouxsie and the Banshees tribute, so this explains a great deal when it comes to the guitar tone. Their sounds carry more hints of punk, though an angular creepiness haunts it. There is an element to it that reminds me of Placebo, which is an influence that is a little left of center when it comes to what most death-rock revivalists are about. Most of the songs are around the three-minute mark so they do not give themselves too much time to indulge in a brooding atmosphere.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/swan-wash-shadow-shadow.html
2-METZ-"Up on Gravity Hill"
The band once again shifts the sonics of their attack on this album, though even amid its weirdness, is more accessible to a wider audience. Woozy guitar counterpoints punk-inflected vocals that are smoothed out by overdubbed harmonies on the chorus. The normally rough edges of noise-rock smoothed out by the more refined nuances of their songwriting to create a more 90s style atl-rock not unlike the bar-room brooding of the Afghan Whigs. The vocals serve a greater purpose than they did even on the last album.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/metz-up-on-gravity-hill.html
1-Astari Nite -"Resolution of Happiness"
These guys were bound to evolve. I am glad they are. They have expanded their sonic palette, now drawing from dark emotive genres aside from death rock. At times taking on an almost Gary Numan-like take on New Wave. The post-punk jangle of the angular grooves proves to be a more compelling listen. t Lyrically great imagery is thrown at you in a collage of sentiments. There is little of the Christian Death worship that marked their earlier work.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/05/astari-nite-resolution-of-happiness.html
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