Eclecticism
Dead Tank Records is a small label that's hitting my eclecticism in a lot of the right places right now. It looks like they specialize in vinyl and cassette, but you can hit them up on a pay-what-you-want for most (all?) of their releases. Three cases in point:Thou: Ceremonies of Humiliation (2014)
3.5 out of 5 stars
People seem to lose their shit over Thou. I don't, so much, but I appreciate their raspy-voiced slow-burn sludge well enough. This release collects all of their extensive contributions to splits from prior to Summit on 3xLP.
The Elsinores: Dreams of Youth (2014)
3.5 out of 5 stars
I'm still new to gothic rock, so forgive me if I don't have a lot of bases for comparison. The Elsinores kind of sound like The Cure, especially "Live" or the solo on "Empty Room." Overall they're a little more punk rock than The Cure I know, and with a much rougher production on this 1xLP, and that's just fine by me.
Decades/Failures: 002 (2014)
5 out of 5 stars
I'm losing my shit over this. Decades/Failures is more in the gothic vein, but with a much stronger synth orientation and a much darker bent. It's also catchy as hell. Again, I don't have many touchstones for goth, but I'm picking up late 80's Killing Joke and Musique/Assembly-era Theatre of Tragedy in here. I'd almost call 002 synthpop if it weren't so relentlessly brooding. If anyone knows of anything else that sounds like this cassette, let me know.
Going to disagree with my assessment of Decades/Failures from 6 years ago now. I've listened to a lot more goth and synthpop stuff since then and this is just boring compared to that. I'd give it 3 stars now.
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