Genre/Influences: Gothic.
Background/Info: Gitane Demone (ex-Christian Death) is a legendary Goth artist I don’t have to introduce. “Past The Sun” is an album that has been composed as a ‘quartet’ featuring Paul Roessler, Deb Venom and Rikk Agnew (ex-Christian Death). “Past The Sun” is an album revealing 8 songs.
Content: Gitane Demone remains a unique experience. This Gothic diva has this particular, bewitching timbre of voice you’ll immediately recognize. She reflects passion, anger, sensuality and still has a kind of ritual expression. She’s a real blessing for a gothic formation.
And the music definitely sounds gothic-like. It’s filled with bombast and obscure atmospheres, but I also noticed some psychedelic passages. The last song is a surprising cover version of Suicide’s “Ghost Rider”. It’s meant as a bonus track while revealing more electronic arrangements.
+ + + : The main strength of this work definitely is to be the maturity of the production. Gitane Demone Quartet is a band driven by experienced and talented musicians fronted by one of the most charismatic singers in gothic history. The songs are particularly elaborate and reveal a kind of ‘free-goth’ expression. You’ll notice some experimental passages and other psychedelic parts. I also like the somewhat ritual approach on a few cuts (cf. “Circle Ov Air”, “Lorca”) and the totally crazy, but genius “Eva Braun” on, which Gitane Demone literally excels. Last, but not least the cover version of “Ghost Rider” is a pretty cool finale.
– – – : One of the only cuts that couldn’t totally convince me is the more experimental-minded “Standard Upright”.
Conclusion: “Past The Sun” is a passionate, diversified and fully accomplished production, which will for sure please all fans of Gitane Demone.
Best songs: “Eva Braun”, “Man Made God”, “Lorca”.
Rate: (7½).
Band: www.gitanedemone.net / www.facebook.com/gitanegdq
Label: www.darkvinyl.de / www.facebook.com/darkvinylrecords
Since you’re here … … we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 2 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
