By DJ Monk
Now and again, something just a little bit special lands on the doormat at ÜRHQ. Something that just makes us sit up and pay it that smidgeon of extra attention. Despite arriving in a package of other nefarious and less worthy offerings, this, the eighth album from Berlin’s Vlad In Tears, is just such an example: a gothic rock masterpiece that both pushes the boundaries and appeals to the imagination, while worming its way into your aural cortex with the efficiency of a Ceti eel.
The album comes in two halves, with the second part consisting of acoustic versions of songs from their previous seven albums, as well as a cover of Alice In Chains’ ‘Man In The Box’. We will, naturally, come to that in a few paragraphs’ time, as first we have to concentrate on the first section of the album, which in itself is something of a dark gothic masterpiece, a Lynchian, noirish soundtrack to your darkest nightmares with more plot twists than a Harlan Coben novel.
From the Muse-meets-Bauhaus alt-groove of opener ‘We Die Together’ to the latter day Depeche Mode electro-pop porn rumble of ‘Tonite’, through the EDM vibrancy of ‘Born Again’, the U2/Radiohead/30STM infusion of ‘Dead’ and the dank melancholy of the atmospheric ‘Sleep Lover Sleep’, VIT deliver a gothic noir soundtrack worthy of a re-imagined Fritz Lang movie. Yes, it’s more melancholic than Morrissey in one of his darkest moods, but by the same token it’s enervating and mysteriously joyous. With his love for all things dark and gothic, my colleague Astrocreep would shit his boxers for a copy of this…
As mentioned above, the CD version comes with seven additional tracks, with the band stripping things right back for unplugged versions of some of their earlier material, plus the aforesaid cover, which is … Now, I’ll admit to not being familiar with VIT’s material until now, so the remaining songs are actually new to me – but, I love them, especially as they show what an exceptionally great voice Kris Vlad possesses. This part of the album kicks off with that cover of ‘Man In The Box’ – and it’s an absolutely stunning reinterpretation: stripped right down to the bare bones, with just a piano and one of the most spine-chilling vocals you’ll ever hear… seriously. The undoubted highlights, however, are the truly haunting ‘Still Here’, which quite literally had the Dark Queen in tears on her first listen, and ‘’You’ll Come Back To Me’, which features some of the most impressive screams you’ll hear this side of Miljenko Matijevic’s sublime performance on ‘We All Die Young’.
To be brutally honest, the acoustic section of the album hit me harder than the full band sessions beforehand. As I mentioned, Kris Vlad has an awesome voice, one which my humble words cannot do justice apart from saying that it deserves to be heard by a much wider audience, and the latter part of the album truly showcases my reasoning.
- ‘Dead Stories Of Forsaken Lovers’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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