“Born in fire and tempered in the batcaves and warehouse raves of Berlin, Johannes Stabel brings a leather-wrapped hammer to gothic nightlife. A Don amongst the burnt strobes, grime-soaked venues and endless nights of Berlin, Stabel is revered for his high-energy performances as XTR Human. His deeply rich and arresting vocals herald back to the dark romance of ‘80s legends, while a mere flex of his fists send brvtal blasts of bass scurrying, emotional coldwave terminated beneath a furioso of modernized hardbody EBM beats that put the Schwarz in Schwarzenegger.

Gracing the international stages of Wave Gotik Treffen, Absolution Festival, Autumn Moon, E-Only and more since 2012, he’s shared the spotlight with the likes of Die Selektion, Qual, Filmmaker, Lebanon Hanover, Black Marble, Minuit Machine, She Past Away and other forcible figures within [goth] nightlife’s crucible…. Stabel aims to keep ears, minds and boots as shredded as his muscular grooves.” (Promo Text)

Full tour dates:

• September 15 – San Diego, CA – The Whistle Stop
• September 16 – Los Angeles – Catch One
• September 17 – Sacramento – The Colony
• September 18 – Oakland – Elbo Room Jack London
• September 22 – Portland – The Coffin Club
• September 24 – Seattle – Vermillion Art Gallery & Bar
• September 29 – Philadelphia – Beautiful World Syndicate
• September 30 – New York – Saint Vitus Bar
• October 6 – Tampa – Crowbar (Absolution Fest)

The post Prolific Berlin Post-Punk and EBM Producer XTR Human Embarks On First US Tour appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Maintaining themes of “unease and loneliness” in their music, the duo stay true to the darkwave/post-punk genres while featuring a synthesized sheen of minimal wave and icy coldwave with lush saturation. The vocal duo of Vanee D.’s sweet and impassioned delivery with Dom R.’s brooding back-from-the-grave baritone creates tension that carries the songs. Production from Seattle producer Aaron C. Schroeder is also effective in capturing the band’s romantic gloom and intensity, offering a clean and clear distillation of the duo in their most vulnerable form yet.

It’s a development in sound from their previously released Subtle EP, adding stillness and silence to create eerie atmospheres to the wash of darkwave synths and hummable-yet-dreary melodies. In this layered bed of 80s-inspired darkness, some tracks teeter closer to goth/post-punk and others to synth-pop and minimal wave in a stripped-down Xeno and Oaklander style. The album closes with a Thievery Corporation-esque remix of their previous EP’s single “The Call” from Buried Electric, capping the release off on a note that’s just as sultry as sad.

The album’s first video for the title track “All That Is True Dies” also sees the band embrace a more minimal approach, directed in quarantine by and starring the band themselves. Dreamy edits of the duo holding burning flowers evoke feelings of impermanence, loss, and nostalgia. Dom R. says, “The song is about the past and how it follows you around but, in the end, everything is temporary.”

All That Is True is Hallows’ first release with Cold Transmission Music, and is out on CD, vinyl, and digital.

Order Here

The post Hallows Debut Dreamy Darkwave Synth Melodies on Haunting First Album “All That Is True” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

With the reliably morose production work of William Maybelline aka Qual (Lebanon Hanover) embalming the EP in a blackened glaze, only the bleakest atmospheres reign in this cemetery confessional. Minimal synths skate over a funeral procession of snares. “The Taste of India” reminds of ’80s world-influenced experiments such as Dali’s Car or C Cat Trance, and title track “Mourning Glory” emits the steady pulse of a ghost heartbeat. Things then edge into joyless-dance territory on Qual’s closing remix of lead track, “The Sharpest Dart in Melancholy’s Quiver.” 

Named for the pseudonym used by Oscar Wilde after his prison sentence, Sebastian Melmoth embraces dungeon-dark solitude with a steely lo-fi sound that clanks with martial-industrial machine spasms. The duo delivers a dreary dose of classic post-punk inspiration with agitated deadpan vocals, and an omnipresent tape hiss rekindles ’80s DIY synth rawness. Olivier W. says, “The music we wanted to create was an homage to a broken man, invoking images of decadence and decay: Epitaph Pop to guide you through your modern day delusion.”

Enter the snake pit below:

Mourning Glory by Sebastian Melmoth is out now.

Order Here

The post Sebastian Melmoth Debuts their Epitaph-Pop on Mourning Glory appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

On their latest release, Haunted Horses deliver an industrial hell-ride to remember, armed with disemboweling dissonance and frenetic noise-rock guitar lines. A nonstop horror atmosphere encircles the record from start to finish, lingering between intense feelings of doom and atonal bursts that leave you hanging for more. The duo’s live performance also ushers in the interactive night terror one would hope for. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest to catch their upcoming mini-tour with Daughters and Lingua Ignota, expect nothing short of an aural exorcism.

The second single from the record, “Vessel” is no exception to the formula that’s driven their success, chock full of aggressive gloom and surprising twists of sound that contort in delightfully unexpected ways. The songs are disassembled and rebuilt with moments of twisted remission that build to seething climaxes. Tension tethers the industrial-punk fragments together and forces us all to walk along the tightrope, but fortunately, it’s an enjoyable ride.

DEAD MEAT is streaming digitally via SIXWIX Releases. Pre-order for Limited Edition 12″ vinyl is now available.

Upcoming dates with Daughters, Lingua Ignota

• 11/30/19: Neumos (Seattle, WA)
• 12/1/19: Rickshaw Theatre (Vancouver, BC)
• 12/2/19: Bossanova Ballroom (Portland, OR)

The post Industrial-Punks Haunted Horses Reveal “Vessel” Video from DEAD MEAT appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Pairing bleak atmospheres with alternately driving and dreamy synths, the record opens with the synthwave soundscape of a lost John Carpenter soundtrack, “Un Dernier Regard sur le Vide.” Next up in this cross-genre whack-a-mole of darkened delight, the mechanized and ice-laden synth breakdown of “Essentialize,” a descendant of the EBM electro lineage that has crept so deliciously into the work of modern techno artists lately à la Phase Fatale. On from that dystopic “Los Niños Del Parque”-style floor slammer, “Moorderar” then sees the record at its hardest, with slower and moodier wave soundscapes building with shoegaze texture and eventually unrelenting black metal dirge.

Listen to “Moorderar”‘s pulsating darkwave ascension to gazed-out goth urgency:

For fans of classic darkness in its myriad forms, there’s plenty to revel in here. Icy industrial, dreamy noir-ish darkwave, and even post-trip-hop wooziness shifts the mood from soft introspection to walls-dripping-with-sweat after hours at the flip of a switch (or likely many switches). “Reface” takes us to the golden age of dark electro and EBM with mechanical repetition and aggravated Front Line Assembly-style vocals, the minimal wave inspiration comes back on “A Missed Tick,” whereas bouncier synth lines carry us through “Exploded Patterns” and then charge back into the dancefloor-ready beat of “A Leur Seul Désir.” After nine disparate tracks united purely by the darkness pulsing through their veins, the album fades out with another ode to the ambient, retreating from the club into self-introspection again. If you’re bored with “revival” acts who regurgitate the classics with little variety, this just might be your favorite new record.

Key tracks: Essentialize, Moorderar, Reface!, A Leur Seul Désir

Ahead is available for pre-order and streaming digitally now, and the double-LP is released September 23rd on Medical Records.

Ahead (MR-083) by Luminance

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