Pinkish Black: Pinkish Black (2012)

Deathrock, I Guess?

A lot of different things led me to check out Pinkish Black's self-titled debut. I've had a renewed interest in the areas where punk and metal overlap--specifically Killing Joke, Samhain, Amebix. The Alaric/Atriarch split introduced me to the sound of deathrock. And the record is on Handmade Birds, a label that gets a lot of underground attention for its adventurousness, but which I've sadly neglected.

I am definitely not disappointed. From the two deathrock bands I've heard, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it sounds like the goth/punk equivalent of doom metal. But this band's sound has been categorized a lot of different ways, including krautrock, doom metal, avant-garde, and many more.


It's built around a very deep sound. The bass is the focal point, usually in looping, trance-like riffs. Theremin leads give it an old-school sci-fi meets psychedelic quality. A clean, gothic-sounding male voice gives it emotion and hooks. Which, on a very weird-sounding record, ends up being the part that seems weirdest. For all the odd, experimental, dark, and atmospheric nature of this, it still manages to be quite catchy.



The Verdict: Honestly, I don't know how to make heads or tails of this. But I like it more with each listen. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.