From: Martin.X.Kleman@marakanda.se
Date: Wed Apr 25 2001 - 06:32:58 MDT
[Emlyn]
Goth!!!!! It can't be true - how embarrassing.
Can anyone suggest something appropriate by way of genre?
[Martin]
I wouldn't personally put The Land Canaan in the "goth" cathegory right
away as it only bears some resemblance (male vocals, the strings and
some of the melody style) to what characterizes goth music in my
opinion. However, both the music and the song is very much what would
in most countries be filed under "goth" or "darkwave". It's quite close
to bands such as Soil & Eclipse and Dronning Maud Land, and I find
myself thinking of Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. ;)
The resemblance to Soil and Eclipse is quite striking anyway. I prefer
your lyrics, the voices are about as good but Soil & Eclipse is a
little bit better musically, at least their more recent releases. Not
to say your music is bad at all. On the contrary, I really like it.
Goth music isn't all about darkness, vampires and death, which is the
thing which is appalling to a lot of people. If you listen to any of
the bands that are hailed as the "founders" of gothic music such as The
Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Alien Sex Fiend and
Bauhaus, you will find that most of their lyrics are about other
things. I could post a lot of examples of intelligent, imaginative or
rather stupid lyrics far from the "doom and darkness" that is Cradle of
Filth and Marilyn Manson (I'm not saying anything about whether these
bands are good or bad, mind you. Just that they are quite different and
very not-goth) but if someone on this list is interested in that, the
lyrics aren't hard to find.
I personally believe that much of the flirting with death in gothic
music is done more as a means to overcome the fear of death and all the
drama surrounding it, rather than trying to scare little children (or
their parents). There's no reason reason for letting death dominate
your life. I think music that makes fun of death and dying partly
functions much in the same way as festivals of death at various places
in the world. This is my opinion and not something I call a fact.
"Don't worry, we're all going to die. Let's have some fun meanwhile."
Or in some cases: "Don't worry about dying, do something about it
instead." Am i rambling now? Yes. This has nothing to do with whether
The Land Canaan is goth or not, but is however an interesting subject.
Anyway, "gothic" (or "alternative", which doesn't really mean much
these days) would probably be what most people'd call your music, but
you could always call it "neo-ambient" or something. It is tradition
for bands labeled as "goth" to say "we're not goth!". ;) But don't
despair. I label my own band Kallisti "experimental rock" and everyone
else says "oh, your goth band". ;P
Personally, if I'd write a review of The Land Canaan, I'd say that it's
musically mostly "slow, dark electronics", vocally "musical" and leave
the classification at that. Genres aren't the most important thing in
the world. I'd concentrate on whether it was good or not, and on the
content of the lyrics.
/Martin, goth/synth/metal/pop music journalist in Sweden
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