Nine While Nine
Oh yes friends it’s that old chestnut, why? I hear you cry. It’s because when I press play, I get the velvety, richly dark tones of Sisters Of Mercy through the speakers. A deep and brooding palette to drool over, a cloak, a shroud, a dagger, a mystery, an air of things held back. Nine solid chunks of empirical Goth rock, enough to darken a million doors and then some. Straying away from their usual occult themed material, we still remain steadfast in the gloom, where shadows dwell, with their tales to tell.
Enter the inner ‘Sanctum’ to find charismatic keyboards, living, breathing textures that are inviting and eerily innocent.
‘Veronica’s Room’ is a symphony; sonically sinister yet soothing and with that 3.54 riff to the finish to expedite the torment, we accept it graciously. Having jumped the good ship Black metal to board the midnight train to Goth City, it’s not a bad move actually. Artists call out for a chance to explore and expand their portfolio, and this a great example of that. We head for ballad central in ‘Cotard’ and beg for the night as the day offers us nothing. The echoing ‘collapse now’ is disturbing and deadly, yet decidedly moreish.
The industrial doom and steely construction of ‘Black House’ cannot hold back the ‘flickering of death’ and with its penetrative stare, nothing is off the table. The rousing chorus of ‘so long mute God’ is reflective and inspiring, a declaration, maybe even a promise. Be still my beating ‘Heart’ as the ‘Earth Hour’ is upon us, retrieve your marinated melancholia and proceed to devour at dusk, at will. Be copper-fastened by the magnetism and the solemnly pulchritudinous, rejoice emphatically and ‘sing while the world burns’.
Deceptively exotic and finishing with the truth-seeking and acknowledging ‘all that was is gone’ this record is omnificent, omnipotent and omniscient, despondent in the desolation it brings.
Meanwhile, over at the black house, you’ll find the secrets of the moon. Stay safe stay well my friends.
Secrets Of The Moon – Black House out now via Lupus Lounge.