If we're going purely on sound, I'm really into Blessure Grave, they have got a handle on just enough goth paired with a super low-fi aesthetic to throw it off in a Blank Dogs kind of way. Maybe that recording style evokes even more dread...like some kind of fog over the whole thing...it's murky, you don't know exactly what your hearing even and you fill in the blanks. Unlike Cold Cave who is leaning lately more towards some kind of electronic dance probably just do to the slickness of that latest one from Matador.I was just about to catch a show of theirs in the neighborhood But I watched the video for 'Open or Shut' that afternoon and it just threw the whole image I had of them. I wanted the Hoods from the black and white Learn to Love the Rope sleeve, I thought they were a little bad ass. Black metal with a 4-track? The two of them? That's gold...maybe I'm still thinking of that Portal show. I wanted it that hardcore. Not playing with silly string, crying in the corner.
No matter what though 'I will reduce you to black smoke' on the split DiTG single will always be amazing, I just wish they didn't ham it up like it was goth 1989. They're just too stylized and into their image in a little bit of a cheesy way. There's just no defending that video. Why are you even in it? There was such an opportunity there.
Then they're collaborating with some kind of Urban Outfitters fashion label?
I'm totally confused.
This is available with or without t-shirt from insound.
If you're confused, why not reach out and ask?
ReplyDeleteI'm confused about the bands image, and I'm sure they don't give a shit about my stupid blog.
ReplyDeleteWell what's confusing you about their image exactly? What do you want them to look like or be?
ReplyDeleteBTW They also have a newer video for "Stranger in the House."
http://vimeo.com/12538163
Blessure Grave and well the entirety of the modern crop of Goth and Death Rock, EBM is something we've been actively and openly supporting for a long while now (amongst other things) on our blog, with shows and now this 7-inch project is just a natural progression of that.
I guess what confuses me is the kind of over the top, outdated goth aesthetic. It's like a watered down Depeche Mode, a commercial stand-in for Joy Division....and the video is too safe...even 'Stranger in the house'. I was expecting something more interesting then eyeliner and being sad at night. I wanted bleeding pentagrams or jerky stop motion...
ReplyDeleteMy dream version of Blessure Grave would hide themselves from the public like Mike Sniper, wear black monk robes like Enigma, and strike fear in the hearts of parents with their borderline witchcraft live shows.
But then again I should just be paying attention to the music but I can't help but be affected by the whole package. What they are trying to portray is as important as what they actually are.
I appreciate your intelligent explanation in the wake of my researchless ranting. I'm just jealous.
These guys are total pussies! Go home and wash your weepy vaginas, pussies!
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to speak for the band but outside of Reyna who is female I don't think anyone is wearing or wears eyeliner. I'm obviously biased but I in no way see them as the outdated goth aesthetic. They're anything but. An outdated goth aesthetic is what the scene turned into in the late 90s. With 5" platforms, vinyl pants, fangs and neon extensions. This is very much to me a return to the music i grew up loving, dark and moody rock made by dark and moody people.
ReplyDeleteWhile I like the over the top video ideas your describing, bleeding pentagrams and witchcraft ceremonies really don't have much to do with Blessure Grave's lyrics or image. Most of their songs are about isolation, urban blight, pain, depression, love and loss, just really the whole spectrum of human emotion. I think they perfectly represent themselves in that regard as modern band. A lot of the occult imagery you're describing I think are more suited for say a band like Mater Susperia Vision, not Blessure Grave.
I don't know how old you are, but some of the things you're asking for are what eventually turned "Goth" into the Hot Topic thing it became for so long, you know the over the top fetish costume party. The things that made it hard for me at certain point to even take bands seriously.If you're singing about a secret covenant then by all means! But if most of your songs are really about the pain of a broken heart, I can't take you seriously if you come out as a druid with a decapitated chicken in your hand while singing about that. But that's me.
There was a time when most of the bands could pass as regular joes. Sure you'd have a Bauhaus here a Robert Smith there... but for the most part a lot of bands were guys in a shirt and pants singing about the darkness within.
I don't know if you've ever seen Blessure Grave live, But I suggest you do.
Speaking of videos with occult ceremonies.. Hussle Club's Good Morning, Midnight. Hussle Club will also be doing a 7" soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYg0Qr97MQg&feature=player_embedded
M,
ReplyDeleteI'm exaggerating about the eyeliner. I want BG to be regular guys who are sad, not using the old signifiers for cold wave, the usual costume. They should be able to do whatever they want with a song like '17 years of hell'. Maybe what it is about the video that gets me is focusing on the theatrics, I start to feel like it's an act. Something that someone manufactured that's hitting on all the right trends.
I am way too old to care about 7 Inches.
I don't want witchcraft ceremonies exactly, I just didn't want it to be about a serious haircut, and leather boots. I still think the tracks from Unknown Blessures are great in the end I have no problem with the song content...it's the image they seem to want out there just didn't match the creepy low-fi aesthetic of the record for me.
You're almost making me want to see that Druid video.
It's my own fault for watching videos in the first place, and I should go see them live and get out of the house if I can get someone to cover my shift at Hot Topic.
J