Back in the day, the gothic sound was a sort of two-pronged attack. On the one hand, you had the formative digital experiments in darkwave dance sound; on the other, the guitar bands, more traditional rock poses with a penchant for all things dark.
The great thing about Noir Addiction is that they neatly encompass both worlds…and more. Take opener “Serve Me Some Crime”: big guitars, big beats, and gritty riffs, all doused in liquid sonics – the perfect meeting of the old-school analog world and the digital delights of electronic soundscaping.
Perhaps the song that best sums up their ability to drink from so many dark waters is “Toxic Twins,” a song that mixes industrial guitars with electronic grooves, poised digital beats driving darkness and desire into the heart of their glam-goth riffs: it’s big, raw, and energetic; it’s sassy, sensuous, and seductive!
“Money For the Honey,” a recent single, shows that even when they enter more commercial realms, it is never at the expense of their signature sound; the song is both truly underground and instantly accessible to the more discerning pop picker. Things round off with “Radio Funeral,” lyrically harsh and musically abrasive, and it signs Pretty Things Don’t Last in impressive style.
Goth music, like all genres, has changed a lot since my day. But in Noir Addiction, I find everything I loved back then and still love. A guitar sound dancing deftly with digital creativity, a band that understands melody, even when it is buried under shards of noise and fractured sonics, and a band that can throw out a killer hook as readily as build the most disquieting of soundscapes.
To quote the King of the Goths himself, “I Want More!”
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