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CEMETERY  self-titled  LP   (Mass Media)   15.98
self-titled IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR ORDER

Loved this goth-punk outfit's Wind And Shadows, which led me to their previous LP, an eponynmous collection of demo material that came out a couple of years ago. Like a lot of the stuff that has been coming off the killer Mass Media imprint that I've been picking up, this interprets that early 80's death rock sound through a modern lens, weird and dark and brooding but injecting a bit of a peace punk attitude into this stuff as well. Cemetery are one of the more powerful sounding bands that's come out of this scene, a gang of Sisters Of Mercy-worshipping punkers who combine their obsessions with spiked n' studded hardcore, dark new wave music, early Christian Death and 80's goth rock into their own punchy, gloom-drenched sound, laced with more aggression and noisiness than is the norm for this sort of stuff.

Between this and their album, these guys are fast turning into one of my favorite bands doing this sound right now. This self-titled LP combines the tracks from their 2011 demo tape with the bonus track "Sex Foil", that latter track a furious anthem that's one of their best, blending disaffected vocals and a driving, infectious goth rock hook with energetic bass guitar, sheets of eerie chorus-drenched guitar, and a storm of crashing cymbals, sort of like First And Last And Always-era Sisters amped up into an early hardcore style fury. The demo stuff is just as good, the songs all sharing that familiar dark post-punk/goth vibe, and they wear their influences proudly on their sleeves (a few tracks nod vigorouslty in the direction of Only Theatre Of Pain - the singer does one hell of a Rozz Williams impression on songs like "Grave Dance" and "State Ward"). But Cemetery deliver this stuff woth enough youthful anger and frantic energy that they give it their own ragged flavor. They also mix things up with stuff like the thumping drum-machine driven "Voices From The Floorboards" that shifts into a weird electronic direction, resembling some mutant version of classic darkwave draped in lysergic synth, the languid baritone singing melting into a delirious dreamhaze; and closer "Voices In The Walls" wraps it up with a cool instrumental keyboard piece, the gothic organ-like keys glimmering in the darkness above the sound of a raging surf.

Really great stuff that fans of contempo morbid punk revivalists like Anasazi, Lost Tribe, Arctic Flowers, Deathcharge should check out, expecially those into the tougher, harder sounding end of the spectrum.


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