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Eighteen Visions

Eighteen Visions - nowadays when you see this name posted online it is usually followed by disappointment and the word emo.

Allow me to totally disagree with that!

I’ve listened to their self titles album too many times to count. I listened to it after I woke up, after I ate, when I was happy, when I was cranky, when I was in a rush and when I was relaxing – the result was the same – I was listening to some cool rock album.

All of their songs have their core in the darker side of life and they were heavy with metal and hard core influences… up until now.

Eighteen Visions follow up new direction in music – reinvention, progression and growing.

Vocally I think James has grown tremendously. I think this progress and change they developed works well with his vocal capabilities and it would have been a shame to waste this talent on hard core and metal.

One of the things that catches my attention beside the vocals are the drums. You can say I have a soft spot for them but they are powerful, intense and hard not to notice. Way to go Trevor!

The bass line and the guitars blend beautifully!

18 Visions are a good band with great potential and they showed it once again!

Let’s not forget that these wonderful musicians are amazing people as well. Word goes they are the only band whose artists are all straight edge. And over 10 years too!

It’s good to have some good examples out there! Congratulations guys!

Take a look at their official website or their myspace profile for tour dates, buy their album and join the army of fans!

There you have it! Another band that’s worth your time!

Deathrock

- (also spelled death rock) is a term used to identify a subgenre of punk rock, which incorporated elements of horror and first emerged most prominently in the West Coast of the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The music of "modern" (post-1990) deathrock bands have a stronger post-punk influence than the earlier deathrock bands. Additionally, the term "deathrock" can be used as a synonym for first generation gothic rock.

Deathrock emphasizes a creepy atmosphere and an introspective mood within a punk or post-punk musical structure.

Deathrock songs use simple chords, echoing guitars, a prominent bass, and drumming which emphasizes repetitive, tribal beats.

To create atmosphere, scratchy guitars, keyboards, and experimentation with other instruments are sometimes used. Lyrics can vary, but are typically introspective, surreal, and deal with the dark themes of isolation, disillusionment, loss, life, death, etc.

Deathrock singers typically have strong, distinctive voices and a strong stage presence.

The punk subgenres most closely related to deathrock are horror punk and psychobilly.

Deathrock sounds more introspective and romantic than horror punk and it is less lound and fast as it too. Keyboards are another differentiating point: deathrock bands frequently use keyboards for atmosphere, whereas horror punk and psychobilly bands usually do not. Psychobilly, however, is easier to distinguish from horror punk and deathrock because psychobilly bands normally use an upright bass, whereas horror punk and deathrock bands do not.

Despite the similar sounding names deathrock (which is a subgenre of punk) has no connection to the similarly named death metal, which is a subgenre of thrash metal.

Deathrock is also not related to any other music genre with "death" in its name.

While deathrock, positive punk and the Batcave bands were similar enough in sound to eventually all be filed as "gothic," later generations of gothic rock moved progressively away from the original sound.

Nearly 20 years after deathrock first appeared on the music scene in Southern California, the deathrock revival began in Southern California. During 1998 in Long Beach, California, owners of the Que Sera, a local bar, to throw a one-night "old school" Gothic Halloween party. After the success of the one-off party, the event quickly evolved into a regular deathrock club called Release the Bats and a focal point in California for the reemerging deathrock movement. (The club is named after a song by the Australian band the Birthday Party.)

The current deathrock movement is similar to the original deathrock scene in Los Angeles and the Batcave movement in London. In addition to clubs, the current scene is centered around concerts, special events, parties, and horror movie screenings.

The internet is playing a major role in the deathrock revival. There are websites devoted to the discussion deathrock music, bands and fashions as well as horror movies, such as deathrock.com and post-punk.com, plus mailing lists for deathrockers on various online virtual communities, such as MySpace.

The current deathrock movement has four additional influences which didn't exist in the late 1970s.

There has been a shift to a more post-punk sound then there is the apolitical influence of psychobilly which discourages political debates that have the potential to fragment the scene. And the Drop Dead Festival, which is similar to psychobilly's Hootenanny, gives bands with smaller fan bases an opportunity to play before larger crowds.

Deathrock is not only about music, being centered around movies and book it ceases to be all about music and it becomes a life style.

What I like about it so much is the more relaxed and joking like manner in which things are seen. Horror punk with the lively influences puts a smile on my face more often than no.

“Nobody likes you when you’re dead” said Zombina and the Skeletons, 45 Grave don’t care about the concerned citizens and they say it’s Party Time.

Then I have the sensible side with Virgin Prunes and Echo & the Bunnymen; the love with Bella Morte. I get distinctive voices like Klaus Nomi and Robert Smith and so many others.

I get the sadness, the desperation and the fight with Anna Varney Cantodea.

And still I don’t fear the reaper cause we’re all undead and it’s fun.

Release the bats and come to our side! Deathrock never sounded better!

Bands:

- through the 90's

* 45 Grave

* Ausgang

* Bone Orchard

* The Birthday Party

* Brain Eaters

* Burning Image

* Castration Squad

* The Children's Zoo

* Chop Shop

* Christian Death

* Cold September

* Death Cult

* Death Ride 69

* Fahrenheit 451

* The Flesh Eaters

* Gargoyle Sox

* Gun Club

* Holy Cow

* Inca Babies

* Kommunity FK

* Mighty Sphincter

* The Misfits

* The Mob

* The Naked and the Dead

* Nervous Gender (could also be classified as punk)

* Nichts

* The Ochrana

* Of A Mesh

* Paralisis Permanente

* The Plague

* Red Temple Spirits

* Sacred Lies

* Samhain

* Screams for Tina

* Shadow of Fear

* Skeletal Family

* Sorrow (Rose McDowall)

* Specimen

* Super Heroines

* TSOL

* Theater of Ice

* Voodoo Church

- modern

* A Spectre is Haunting Europe (Vancouver)

* All Gone Dead (UK)

* Antiworld (Portland, OR)

* Astrovamps (CA)

* Bella Morte (VA)

* Black Cat Rebellion (IN)

* Black Ice (CA)

* Bloody Dead & Sexy (Germany)

* The Brides (NY)

* Cinema Strange (CA)

* Deadchovsky (France)

* Deadfly Ensemble (CA)

* Devils Whorehouse

* Dinah Cancer and the Grave Robbers (resurrected 45 Grave) (CA)

* Divino Bastardo (Chile)

* Eat Your Make Up (France)

* Frankenstein (CA)

* Frank the Baptist (CA)

* Gorgonas (Mexico)

* Hate in the Box (NY)

* Heiress Presumptive (OH)

* La Peste Negra (Spain)

* Last Days of Jesus (Slovakia)

* Miguel and the Living Dead (Poland)

* Murder at the Registry (Germany)

* N/A (Cincinnati, OH)

* The Phantom Limbs (CA)

* Pagan Holiday (Cincinnati, OH)

* The Poisoning (UK)

* Pins and Needles (CA)

* Penis Flytrap (previously featuring Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave)

* Red Voice Choir (CA)

* Scarlet's Remains (CA)

* Sixteens (Berlin)

* Sleeping Children (France)

* Spooky DeVille (SLC, UT)

* Sunday Mourning (GA)

* Tragic Black (SLC, UT)

* The Vanishing

* When You Fail (Cincinnati, OH)

* The Young Werewolves (New York, NY)

I wanna thank answers.com and the well known wikipedia.org for their immense help in creating this entry.

Every day is Wednesday, 13

Ghouls, vampires, ghosts, werewolves and all dead, deadly and poisonous creatures of the night look at what the bats dragged in!!

Wednesday 13 is an American artist that worked on different project until now. His world is gothic, filled with creatures from campy horror movie parodies and mildly macabre TV shows.

Beside from being a musician, Wednesday [Joseph Poole] also put together a comic book called Thirteen Dead Kids.


Discography

Maniac Spider Trash

• "Dumpster Mummies", (1994)
• "Murder Happy Fairytales",(1995)

Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13

Full-lengths
• "The Late, Late, Late Show", (1996)
• "Night of the Living Drag Queens", (1998)
• "Songs From The Recently Deceased", (2000)
• "Viva Las Violence",(2001)
• "6 Years, 6 Feet Under the Influence", (2004)
• "Little Box of Horrors", (2006)

Compilations
• "Sweet FA", tribute to Sweet.
• "Thinking of Alice", tribute to Alice Cooper.

Murderdolls

• "Right To Remain Violent EP",(2002)
• "Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls",(2002)
• "Freddy vs Jason Soundtrack


Wednesday 13
[the band]

Wednesday 13 got a new temporary band together Eric Griffin on guitar, Racci Shay on drums and Brix on bass.

Discography

Fang Bang (2006)

1. Morgue than Words
2. American Werewolves in London
3. My Home Sweet Homicide
4. Faith in the Devil
5. Happily ever Cadaver
6. Curse of Me
7. Haddonfield
8. Too Much Blood
9. Till Death Do Us Party
10. Buried with Children
11. Kill You Before You Kill Me
12. Die Sci-fi
13. Burn the Flames

Transylvania 90210.
Songs Of Death, Dying, And The Dead (2005)

1. Post Mortem Bordom
2. Look At What The Bats Dragged In
3. I Walked With A Zombie
4. Bad Things
5. House By The Cemetery
6. God Is A Lie
7. Haunt Me
8. Transylvania 90210
9. I Want You... Dead
10. Buried By Christmas
11. Elect Death For President
12. Rot For Me
13. The Ghost Of Vincent Price
14. A Bullet Named Christ


Check them out if you want to have a devilish laugh.

My room came alive, my dog just died,
stacked 13 pennies in his eyes
I stared at the wall, it stared back at me
Started to breath and then it started to bleed

The moon cracked open and it started to flow
And my future was exposed
The gods gave me my own TV show and they called it
Transylvania 90210


Sources:
the official website
a fan site

A FIRE INSIDE

“Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll” Old cliché! Better separated.

They bring you an unique taste of goth punk, an impressive career and a fan base that’s every band’s dream! Let’s hear it for AFI aka A Fire Inside.

A Fire Inside are: Davey Havok – vocals, lyricsist; Jade Puget – guitarist, composer, back vocals; Hunter Burgan – bass guitar, back vocals; Adam Carson –drummer; back vocals.

Their latest album Decemberunderground featuring the single Miss Murder brought them a VMA award for best rock band.
The voting system: fans free to vote as many times as they could. This is a way for people to see how devoted their fans are.
I could also bring up the body art inspired by the music AFI makes.

What is also important when it comes to this amazing American band is that on stage, backstage and on the street above the artists you can see the people. It is them that influenced thousands of teenagers, young adults and adults world wide.

Davey Havok and Jade Puget are straight edge.

[Sometimes abreviated xxx or sxe – straight edge is an alternative life style that claims abstinence from drugs, alcohol and casual sex and which supports fun and togetherness. It’s a decision that once reached lasts for life.]



There is no need in expressing how valuable these people are in our time and age with the increasing drug use and the ever easier way for youth to get them.

The members of AFI are vegan [Davey and Adam] and vegetarians [Hunter and Jade]. Most of their fans took up their life styles and it’s amazing to know that at least three are some examples worth following in the turbulent world of stardom.



AFI has the most amazing fanbase and I know I said that before but I am a fan of several other bands [Placebo, The 69 Eyes, Dope Stars Inc.] and I know that fans of other bands would likely never let go if they were able to touch a member they worshipped.
It’s not the case with AFI.
Davey, Adam, Jade, Hunter and even their tour manager Smith – who has huge fan following as well, go out alone, shop, go to movies, walk down the street without the fear of harassment.
Why? Because whatever is touched by AFI is changed forever!
AFI means everything to their loyal fans and their fans mean everything to AFI!

No one, absolutely no one but Davey Havok would do this:




I am a gothic girl and any goth knows that The Crow and Tim Burton’s movies – especially The Nightmare before Christmas – have become such a must in this subculture that we ended up idolizing them and making them a must.
When a person wears The Nightmare before Christmas characters tattooed on his arms he becomes a gothic figure.

For me being a goth is a state of mind.
It means being sensible to the world around me, letting my feelings surpass and oicking them like scabs. It also means finding beauty in edges, because the grotesque is touchable and always real. The decay is the real beauty in spite of all those eyes that search for that fading perfection that last a second.
Staying in touch with your true self is only possible through art and this time through music.
AFI makes sensible music – music that stirs deep feelings and makes you remember who you are and where you came from, and it make you move forward.

Some fans would begin talking about AFI’s music with Black Sails into the Sunset, or The Art of Drowning.
This time I will begin with Sing the Sorrow, released in 2003.

Once you listen to this album you can’t deny that Davey’s voice is among one of the best voices in rock music – powerful, melancholic, angelic, sad, strong and unforgettable – yes, that’s the audio signature of AFI.

Go to a live show or watch a live recording of a concert and hear the fans chanting and showing their devotion claiming ‘we all form one dark flame’!
It’s something surreal that I never heard before!


Silver and Cold – the music video

By the time I saw this video, I read quotes, I knew some things about each member; I saw a couple of pictures and heard enough songs.
I watched it and I cried!
Davey has a theatrical performance that is remarkable; the idea of the videoclip is full of strong feelings and is rather unique.

As human beings we all found ourselves close or on the rim of the abyss, some of us wanted to jump, some did but were caught, some tried to catch someone and failed, some heard the echoes of a fall.
We all know and we all can feel the grand emotions portrayed in the video.


Hidden meaning of the album

Hardcore fans discovered the true meaning of the album.
Based on Buddhism believes of karma, esoteric astrology, Chinese astrology, and numerology, AFI presents the struggle of a human being in its life circles. “What happens to the flawless” - they reach Nirvana and will not reincarnate.

The whole CD goes in a circle.
It begins with Bleed Black. The breathing at the beginning of the song could represent life.
Playing that as the first song, and going full circle around the CD, that puts the Leaving Song and Leaving Song Pt II into order, and ends the CD with The Leaving Song Pt II.
Some people think that the character "dies" over the course of this CD, and that the "death" (if there is one) occurs during This Time Imperfect.
That would explain why Miseria Cantare would be the beginning from nowhere, bodiless. Then followed by The Leaving Song Pt II, whose very first lyrics say: "Don't waste your touch, you won't feel anything."
The Spanish in the song says, "Yo he estado aquí muchas veces antes y regreso" ("I have been here many times before and I return"); "Y regreso aquí otra vez y comenzo" ("So I return here once again and I begin") is like being reborn - the full circle of birth and death and rebirth. "I saw its birth. I watched it grow...."
Also the fact that the Secret Poem is read as in the 3 stages of life. Like he is aging through it.

We should also not forget that in Chinese astrology, Davey is a rabbit. He was born the year of the rabbit and rabbits cannot be reincarnated. Rabbits are on their last life in this world, and do not have another chance.

This is one theory. There are many others that can be found is you browse AFI’s official forum – The Despair Faction.


Decemberunderground

Decemberunderground, released in 2006, came as a dramatic change.

You either accept AFI is all about change or to don’t. However fans had the album’s logo tattooed even before the album was released - this shows trust. Amazing!

This record is dark, moody filled with striking choruses and music that really stands out.


Miss Murder videoclip

Putting the lyrics and the video together “Miss Murder” deals with suicide.

Lyrics link to clip

Beauty means anything from a better situation or state of mind that you can offer to the others to the subject of point of view of the word.
The reference to suicide is clear “if I take my life”.

The character seems to have it all, or so it seems, and falls deep and what remains are questions and the others that try to understand.
The use of the word ‘children’ can be a reference to followers or fans.
In the videoclip the character [played by Davey Havok] walks into the light trying to get on the balcony, the light is an obvious symbol of death.
The speech on the balcony is the message that surfaces in the gesture.

My opinion is that the images are not presented in epic order. Therefore the meeting with Miss Murder at the end is in fact the character’s resolution to “make beauty stay”.


Whatever you like in and where ever you are going you just can’t deny the obvious - AFI of talented.

We live in a world ruled by numbers so let them speak... they speak loudly in this case.
And still…




<< I’ll swallow your fear I will show you how... >>

Quotes Sources: Magazines: RollingStones; Kerrang Issue 1116
Special thanks to Despair Faction and its devoted members for the priceless information I found out thanks to them!

Goth'n'roll with The 69 Eyes.



Check their official site or their myspace profile!

The 69 Eyes catch your ears first by Jyrki's voice. I truly doubt the fact that you can ignore it. The Helsinki Vampire's bring a new sound to the love, sadness and the long nights reserved only to goths. Nothing's gonna make them stop cause they wanna rock! I LOVE THEM!!!

Jyrki has a way of sneaking good movies, nice places, amazing artists and overall interesting information in his songs. They are like a map!

Another reason why I like them so much is because Jyrki is a Goodwill Ambasador for Unicef. I admire people who fight to make a change.

Before posting their discography, I have to add that The 69 Eyes were first formed as a rock'n'roll sleaze band and they have 3 albums composed in this style, however their 4th album started to become darker mostly with the song and album 'Wasting the Dawn', the other 3 album become darker - goth'n'roll!

Bump’n’ Grind 1992

Voodoo Queen
Juicy Lucy
Alive
House By The Cemetery
Hot Butterfly
Sugarman
Dream Master
Too Sick For You
No Hesitation
Blind For Love
The Hills Have Eyes
Barbarella
Burning Love

Savage Garden 1995

1-800-Sleazorama
Tang
Smashed'n'Trashed
Velvet Touch
Mr. Pain
Lady Luck
Motor City Resurrection
Ghettoway Car
Wild Talk
Get It Off
Always
Demolition Derby
Savage Garden

Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams 1997

Call me
D.I.D.
Broken Man
Get Around
Too Much to loose
Sore loser
Skanky man
Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams
Hellcity 1999
Turbobitch
L8R S8N

Wasting The Dawn 1999

Truck On
Lay Down Your Arms, Girl
Wasting The Dawn
You ain't the Reason
Lazarus Heart
Who's Gonna Pay the Bail?
All-American Dream
Be My Speed
Hand of God
Next Stop Paradise
Starshine


Blessed Be 2000

Framed in Blood
Gothic Girl
The Chair
Brandon Lee
Velvet Touch
Sleeping with Lions
Angel on my Shoulder
Stolen Season
Wages of Sin
Graveland
30


Paris Kills 2002

Crashing High
Dance d'Amour
Betty Blue
Grey
Radical
Don't Turn Your Back On Fear
Stigmata
Forever More
Still Waters Run Deep
Dawn's Highway

Devils 2004

Devils
Feel Berlin
Nothing On You
Sister Of Charity
Lost Boys
Jimmy
August Moon
Beneath The Blue
Christina Death
Hevioso
Only You Can Save Me

Bonustracks on the Japanish CD:
From Dusk Till Dawn
Pitchblack

The new album is due in 2007 and will be called Angels. It will be influenced by the American tour and the City of Angels. Can't wait to see what information Jyrki will sneak in the lyrics!

I dunno what to write about... I am just browsing through my stuff trying to set my mind on something and I can't.
I can't concentrate on anything right now - studying, aimless reading, music listening... nothing.