Gothic rock (also referred to as goth rock or simply goth) is a musical subgenre of post-punk that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes. According to both Pitchfork^[2] and NME,^[3] protogoth bands are Joy Division,^[2][3][4] Siouxsie and the Banshees,^[2][3] Bauhaus^[2][3] and The Cure.^[2][3] The genre itself was defined as a separate movement from punk rock during the early 1980s largely due to the significant stylistic divergences of the movement; gothic rock, as opposed to punk, combines dark, often keyboard-heavy music with introspective and depressing lyrics. Gothic rock then gave rise to a broader subculture that included clubs, fashion and numerous publications that grew in popularity in the 1980s.

Style, roots and influences[link]

According to music journalist Simon Reynolds, standard musical fixtures of the Gothic rock include "scything guitar patterns, high-pitched Joy Division basslines that often usurped the melodic role; [and] beats that were either hypnotically dirgelike or 'tribal'".^[5] Reynolds described the vocal style as consisting of "deep, droning alloys of Jim Morrison and Leonard Cohen".^[5] Siouxsie and the Banshees tended to play the flanging guitar effect, producing a brittle, cold, and harsh sound that contrasted with their psychedelic rock predecessors.^[6] Several acts used drum machines that do not stress the back beat in the rhythm.^[7]

Gothic rock typically deals with dark themes addressed through lyrics and the music atmosphere. The poetic sensibilities of the genre led gothic rock lyrics to exhibit literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and/or supernatural mysticism.^[8] Musicians who initially shaped the aesthetics and musical conventions of gothic rock include Marc Bolan,^[9] The Velvet Underground,^[10] The Doors,^[10] David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and The Sex Pistols.^[10][11] However, Reynolds considers Alice Cooper as "the true ungodly godfather of Goth" due to his "theatrics and black humor".^[9] Nico's 1969 album, The Marble Index, was also particularly influential.^[12] Gothic rock creates a dark atmosphere by drawing influence from the drones used by protopunk group The Velvet Underground, and many goth singers are influenced by the "deep and dramatic" vocal timbre of David Bowie, albeit singing at even lower pitches.^[7] J.G. Ballard was a strong lyrical influence for many of the early gothic rock groups; The Birthday Party drew on Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire.^[13]

In 1976, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice was published. The main character, although dark, wanted companionship and love. The book, according to music journalist Dave Thompson, slowly created an audience for gothic rock by word of mouth. The same year saw the punk rock band The Damned debut. The group's vocalist Dave Vanian was a former gravedigger who dressed like a vampire 24 hours a day. Brian James, a guitarist for the group, noted, "Other groups had safety pins and the spitting and bondage trousers, but you went to a Damned show, and half the local cemetery would be propped up against the stage".^[14]

History[link]

Origins and early development[link]

The term gothic was used to describe Velvet Underground singer Nico as early in 1971. The term was used occasionally in the years that followed.^[14] In the late 1970s, the word "gothic" was used to describe the atmosphere of post-punk bands like Joy Division. In 1979, Martin Hannett described Joy Division as "dancing music with Gothic overtones"^[1] and in September, their manager Tony Wilson described their music as "gothic" on the television show Something Else.^[15] In 1980, Melody Maker wrote that "Joy Division are masters of this gothic gloom".^[16] When their final album Closer came out a couple of months after the death of their singer, Sounds noted in its review that there were "dark strokes of gothic rock".^[17] Not long after, this appellation "became a critical term of abuse" for a band like Bauhaus that had arrived later on the music scene.^[1] However, the term would not be adopted as "positive identity, a tribal rallying cry" until a shift in the scene in 1982.^[1] In addition, Simon Reynolds identifies The Birthday Party and Killing Joke as essential proto-goth groups.^[18] Despite their legacy as progenitors of gothic rock, these groups disliked the label.^[19] Adam Ant's early work was also a major impetus for the gothic rock scene, and much of the fan base came from his milieu.^[20]

Bauhaus's debut single "Bela Lugosi's Dead", released in late 1979, is retrospectively considered to be the beginning of the gothic rock genre.^[21] According to Peter Murphy the song was written to be tongue in cheek but since the group performed it with "naive seriousness" that is how the audience understood it.^[14] Around the same time, post-punk bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure included more gothic characteristics in their music.^[22] According to Simon Reynolds, with their fourth album, 1981's Juju, Siouxsie and the Banshees introduced several Gothic qualities, lyrically and sonically^[22] but for The Guardian, Juju was also art-rock on certain songs and pop on the singles.^[23] Bassist Steven Severin attributes the aesthetic used by the band around that time to the influence of The Cramps.^[22] The Cure's "oppressively dispirited" trio of album Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981) and Pornography (1982) cemented that group's stature in the genre.^[24] The line "It doesn’t matter if we all die" began the Pornography album, which is considered as "The Cure’s gothic piece de resistance".^[25] They would later become the most commercially successful of these groups.^[26] The Cure's style was "withdrawn",^[24] contrasting with their contemporaries like Nick Cave's first band The Birthday Party, who drew on funk, blues, and spastic, violent turmoil.^[27] With the Birthday Party's Junkyard album, Nick Cave combined "sacred and profane" things,^[28] using old testament imagery,^[29] with stories about sin, curses and damnation.^[29] Their 1981 single "Release the Bats" was particularly influential in the scene.^[30]

Killing Joke were originally inspired by Public Image Ltd., borrowing from funk, disco, dub, and later, heavy metal.^[31] Calling their style "tension music", Killing Joke distorted these elements to provocative effect, as well as producing a morbid, politically charged visual style.^[31] After being a punk band, The Damned performed dramatic surges with a crooner's voice on The Black Album.^[32]

Gothic rock thrived in the early 1980s. In London, the Batcave club opened in July 1982^[33] to provide a venue for the goth scene.^[34] That same year, Ian Astbury of the band Southern Death Cult used the term "gothic goblins" to describe Sex Gang Children's fans.^[35] Southern Death Cult appeared on the cover of NME in October:^[36] they became themselves icons of the scene, drawing aesthetic inspiration from Native American culture.

Expansion of the scene[link]

Rubella Ballet at the Clarendon Club, London 1985.

In February 1983, the emerging scene was described as "positive punk" on the front cover of the NME:^[10] in his article, journalist Richard North described Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate as "the immediate forerunners of today's flood" and declared, "So here it is: the new positive punk, with no empty promises of revolution, either in the rock'n'roll sense or the wider political sphere. Here is only a chance of self awareness, of personal revolution, of colourful perception and galvanisation of the imagination that startles the slumbering mind and body from their sloth".^[10] That year, myriad Goth groups emerged, including Flesh for Lulu, Play Dead, Rubella Ballet, Gene Loves Jezebel,^[37] UK Decay, Blood and Roses, The Virgin Prunes and Ausgang.^[29] The 4AD label released music in a more ethereal style, by groups such as Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and Xmal Deutschland.^[29] The Icelandic group Kukl also appeared in this period, which included Björk and other musicians who later participated in The Sugarcubes.^[29]

Simon Reynolds speaks of a shift from early Goth to gothic rock proper, advanced by The Sisters of Mercy.^[38] As journalist Jennifer Park puts it, "the original blueprint for gothic rock had mutated significantly. Doom and gloom was no longer confined to its characteristic atmospherics, but as the Sisters demonstrated, it could really rock".^[39] The Sisters of Mercy, influenced by Leonard Cohen, Gary Glitter, Motörhead, The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, The Birthday Party, Suicide and The Fall, created a new, harder form of gothic rock.^[40] In addition, they incorporated a drum machine.^[40] Reynolds identifies their 1983 single "Temple of Love" as the quintessential Goth anthem of the year, along with Southern Death Cult's "Fatman".^[41] The group created their own record label, Merciful Release, which also signed The March Violets, who performed in a similar style.^[42] According to Simon Reynolds, The March Violets "imitated Joy Division sonically".^[43] Another band, The Danse Society was particularly inspired by The Cure in their Pornography period.^[42]

Subsequent developments[link]

Fields of the Nephilim, Live at the Agra Hall, Leipzig, Germany 2008.

Southern Death Cult reformed as The Cult, a more conventional hard rock group.^[41] In their wake, The Mission UK, which included two former members of The Sisters of Mercy, achieved commercial success in the mid-1980s,^[44] as did Fields of the Nephilim and All About Eve.^[45] Bands who continue to be associated with gothic rock include Alien Sex Fiend, All Living Fear, And Also the Trees, Balaam and the Angel, Claytown Troupe, Dream Disciples, Feeding Fingers, Inkubus Sukkubus, Libitina, Fields of the Nephilim, Nosferatu, Rosetta Stone and Suspiria.^[46]

American gothic rock began with 45 Grave and Christian Death, both of whom were strongly influenced by The Cramps.^[47] This style is often described as deathrock.^[48] European groups inspired by the style have also proliferated, including Xmal Deutschland^[49] and Clan of Xymox.^[50] These groups are associated with Dark Wave, which draws on gothic rock in addition to synthpop and industrial.^[51]

In the nineties, several mainstream acts including PJ Harvey,^[52][53] Marilyn Manson^[54] and Nine Inch Nails^[55] put gothic characteristics in their music without being assimilated to the genre. According to Rolling Stone, PJ Harvey's music in 1993 "careens from blues to goth to grunge, often in the space of a single song"^[52] where as American bands like Marilyn Manson combined "atmosphere from goth and disco"^[56] with "industrial sound".^[57]

In the years 2000s, critics regularly noticed that new comers were marked by the genre.^[58][59] English band The Horrors mixed sixties garage with eighties goth.^[58] When presenting female singer Zola Jesus, writers questioned if she announced the second coming of the genre^[60] as her music was described with this term.^[61][59]

Gothic subculture[link]

Members of the Toronto goth scene after leaving a goth rock event in 2008.

The gothic subculture that grew up with the beginnings of the genre in London, spread to continental Europe and North America in the 1980s.^[62] Although going through periods of decline, as in the late 1980s, it has enjoyed several revivals and has continued to diversify and develop, with active subcultures in places such as Portland, Oregon, New Orleans and Toronto.^[63] In terms of dress it incorporated influences from 19th-century Gothic literature along with horror films and to a lesser extent the BDSM culture.^[64] Gothic fashions within the subculture range from deathrock, punk, androgynous, Victorian, some Renaissance and Medieval style attire, or combinations of the above, most often with black clothing, makeup and hair.^[11] Modern gothic novels and films, particularly the works of Anne Rice and Poppy Z. Brite, have been highly influential on the development of the sub-culture.^[62] Gothic subculture has also become incorporated into works of fiction, including graphic novel The Crow and role playing games, including Vampire: The Masquerade, which has also been adapted into two video games.^[65]

See also[link]

• List of gothic rock bands

References[link]

Footnotes

Bibliography

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Lacrimas Profundere is a gothic rock band from Germany. Their name means "to shed tears" in Latin. Their stylistic aesthetic has evolved over time; originally a death doom rooted gothic metal band, they have progressively changed their style to a more mainstream gothic style with the later albums.

Biography[link]

Lacrimas Profundere was founded in 1993 by guitarist Oliver Schmid. At the time, the band was influenced by doom metal, and also made use of feminine vocals and classical elements. With the entrance of vocalist Anja Hötzendorfer, they drew enough attention to themselves to be able to record their debut, entitled ... and the Wings Embraced Us, which was released in 1995 and was followed by La Naissance d’un Rêve (French for "Birth of a Dream"), from 1997.

After the said releases, the band was granted a deal with Napalm Records which included five albums. A harpist was added to the band's line-up and they proceeded to record Memorandum (1999).

Burning: A Wish from 2001 was Lacrimas Profundere's first album to receive attention from the international specialized press. This album featured the removal of the band's classical elements to some degree, and was also the first time they employed baritone vocals, supplied by Oliver's brother, Christopher Schmid. Their first international tour then began, including countries of Europe and Latin America.

Lacrimas Profundere's subsequent albums were Fall, I Will Follow from 2002 and Ave End from 2004.

Filthy Notes For Frozen Hearts received considerable attention from Jackass star Bam Margera and the songs My Velvet Little Darkness, Short Glance, Should and Sweet Caroline along with a vocal excerpt from Sad Theme For a Marriage were played on his show Bam's Unholy Union.

In April 2007, Christopher Schmid, the band's founding member and vocalist left the band; citing prolonged stress from touring. It did not take long to find a new vocalist: Peter Kafka, who also sings for the German band Sonicslave. A Few months later basist Daniel Lechner left the band and vocalist Peter Kafka became the new basist and Rob Vitacca employed as the new vocalist, who also sings for the German Rock band Lost. Long time keyboardist Christian Steiner also left the band but supplied some parts for the new album. The album called "Songs For The Last View" was released in the summer of 2008. This was the first album featuring their new singer, Rob Vitacca.

Lacrimas Profundere's new album, The Grandiose Nowhere has been released on 30 April 2010.

Members[link]

Current members[link]

• Rob Vitacca - Vocals
• Oliver Nikolas Schmid - Guitars
• Tony Berger - Guitars
• Domonik Sholtz - Drums

Former members[link]

Guitars[link]

• Marco Praschberger
• Christian Freitsmiedl
• Stefan Randelshofer
• Manuel Ehrlich (Seraph (Ger))
• Ryan Gabriel Short

Bass[link]

• Markus Lapper
• Rico Galvagno (ex-Darkseed)
• Daniel Lechner
• Peter Kafka

Drums[link]

• Willi Wurm (ex-Darkseed)
• Christian Greisberger
• Stefan Eireiner
• Lorenz Gehmacher
• Kevin Sumner

Other[link]

• Christopher Schmid - Vocals
• Christian Steiner - Keyboards
• Anja Hötzendorfer - Violin, Backing Vocals
• Ursula Schmidhammer - Harp
• Eva Stöger - Flute, Keyboards

Extra Members[link]

• Tony Cheirichetti
• Alexandra Diehl

Discography[link]

• ...And the Wings Embraced Us (1995)
• La Naissance D'Un Rêve (1997)
• The Crown of Leaving (1997)
• The Embrace and the Eclipse (1998)
• Memorandum (1999)
• Burning: A Wish (2001)
• Fall, I Will Follow (2002)
• Ave End (2004)
• Again It's Over (2006)
• Filthy Notes for Frozen Hearts (2006)
• Songs for the Last View (2008)
• The Grandiose Nowhere (2010)

Videos[link]

• "Ave End" (2004)
• "Amber Girl" (2004)
• "Again It's Over" (2006)
• "My Velvet Little Darkness" (2006)
• "A Pearl" (2008)
• "And God's Ocean" (2009)
• "The Letter" (2010)
• "Lips" (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Lacrimas Profundere at Napalm Records
• Lacrimas Profundere at MySpace