Brandy Kills - Dead Love Songs

For someone like me who is dissapointing with the way Germany has closed off its dark scene for new bands and sounds, its always good to stumble upon a band which really suprises me. Personally i feel the darkwave scene in Germany is in its dying days because of the scene eating its own tail with its isolation based on the monopoly imposed on the dark scene by the big magazines, promotors and labels. It is refreshing the indie-goth scene keeps rising up, and here we have another fine act to make German mediocre look as bad as it is.

Brandy Kills hails from a remote city in Siberia, Russia, and delivers good quality Darkwave with Gothrock influences. Its Darkwave like made by the big bands like Clan of Xymox, Deine Lakaien, Wolfsheim, Diorama and such, and we can also hear influences from 80's pop acts like OMD and The Human League. The songs are all very catchy, with the moody pop songs "Unicorn" , "Undressed" , "Strangers" and "Red Trees Falling Slowly In The Water".

There are also some gothrock influences not unlike The Sisters Of Mercy to be heard in particular the bass guitar. I personally have always liked that kind of playing, so this album is a nice addition to the goth section to me.

I have to say that with song titles like "Unicorn" and the less obvious "Lonely At Night Looking For Bears" i get the slight impression this artist might also be of some interest to the gay community, but i am not sure. Not much information on this dude to go around. But maybe he just like those hairy sharp clawed and teethed critters which run around in Russian woods.

Only low is the ugly song "Drunk" but its only one and a half minute long, so that's forgivable. This is among the last four songs, and those sound like they were recorded in another session with more live instruments. Apart from "Drunk" these songs are all good, but i prefer the first eight more electronic songs.

In short 'Dead Love Songs' shows darkwave is still alive, but one has to stop looking at Germany to find the pearls in all the mediocrity. This pearl is from Russia and if you like darkwave, you get a quality album with a good chuck of new favorites. Feb 17 2013