I’ve been into goth and punk music for about 35 years, and goth music right now is more vibrant and varied than any other time that I can remember. I’m not saying that the 80’s or 90’s were bad or anything like that, but the sheer amount of really good goth genre music being made right now is very staggering.
There is so much really good music being made right now that it’s very difficult to catch up on every single goth genre band out there making music. I used to DJ deathrock/goth rock about twenty years ago during the time that EBM and synthpop took over just about every goth club. When I was a DJ in Washington D.C. I was one of the only people who didn’t spin EBM or synthpop all night and I got a whole lot of shit for it. Goth music was in a pretty dire situation during those years and the deathrock revival happened during that time as a response to it. However, a lot of those bands were either not really good or over the top to the point of absurdity. There were some decent bands but the movement died out within a few years.
Every once in a while I would seek out newer goth genre bands hoping to hear something more guitar based that spoke to me, but I would always end up ducking my head back into my shell. I started to focus more on the new wave bands that I really liked in the 80’s and that somewhat filled the void. However, within the last few years, I felt like I was stuck in a rut of only listening to older bands. I didn’t want to be THAT person who bitches constantly about all of the newer bands being way worse than the older bands. I guarantee that you will bump into a few of them if you in any way participate in the punk or goth subcultures. I went onto the Reddit goth group and started to try out the bands that people posted, and to my surprise I heard music that was actually really well done and not derivative! My journey into discovering the music of newer bands had begun!
Before I start a list of the newer bands that I like you should know that I lean more heavily into deathrock and goth rock than anything else. Also, I like some darkwave and hybrid type bands. The only subgenre I really don’t care for that much are the wannabe 80’s synth and post-punk bands. I think a portion of them are definitely style over substance, and they try to go for an 80’s sound by using every bell and whistle that different bands used back then. In my opinion it makes some of them sound very similar to one another, when a lot of the original 80’s bands actually sounded very different from one another. Did early U2 sound exactly like Echo And The Bunnymen? No? You get my point. However, I do like some bands that mix the post-punk sound with darkwave. The band names are linked to their Bandcamp pages.
Mystic Priestess A pagan anarcho deathrock band that blends political statements into their songs. The vocals are very well done!
The Creeping Terrors Great political tinged deathrock with some excellent female vocals.
Then Comes Silence This is a hybrid band, a mix of post-punk, goth rock, deathrock and some darkwave.
Nox Novacula Great deathrock. The singer sounds a bit like Grace Slick and I think she is definitely one of the better vocalists in the genre right now.
Detoxi Deathrock with a political bent. I think they may be dropping some music soon, because they released a new song about a week ago.
Horror Vacui A deathrock band out of Italy whose bass playing is pretty stellar.
A Cloud Of Ravens They make some very foreboding goth rock with some tinges of darkwave. Very atmospheric music!
Amaranth Very good goth rock with some cool sounding layered guitar blended with cool darkwave elements.
The Cult Sounds Dark goth rock tinged with some deathrock.
Panic Priest Hybrid band that mixes post-punk with some darkwave.
Black Angel Solid goth rock with some darkwave sprinkled in. Pay attention to the lyrics because they are very well done!
Andi I’m not heavily into the electronic side of things but these couple of songs are very well done and I hope they release more music!
Mary Hybrid band that blends dreampop, darkwave and goth rock. Reminds me of My Bloody Valentine’s album Loveless.
That is a ton of really good music to sift through! I will do a sequel to this post soon because I know that there are some bands I’ve missed. Enjoy!
Thanks for reading and commenting.