SOLEMN NOUVENA
KISS THE GIRLS

I love this CD! For an aural soundscape it is a wonderful and beautiful album. It takes the best elements of the lighter side of Goth and borrows heavily from the past in that you can hear the Sisters of Mercy and Banshees echoes almost like a heartbeat throughout the album. I didn't think they made them like this anymore.

The sound too has that old-school Goth pace and an ethereal beauty in the voices that slip across and through and under the driving beats like dark silk on blood-stained velvet.

Opener  ‘Juliette’ is driving and soft and beautiful and is all the things you feel Goth should have been before it took a wrong turn in the nineties and went industrial, concentrating on the steel rather than the silk.

And to be honest it doesn’t let up from there. As an old-school 80’s Goth fan I am amazed and astounded by this album. It is so well-turned, so vivid and so deeply broodingly melodic. Imagine ‘All About Eve’ crossing the path of ‘The Sisters of Mercy’ with great production and beautifully crafted songs.

Louise’s vocals shine throughout and really make this album for me, though the musicianship is excellent. As a big fan of the more melodic Goth–styled bands like Lacuna Coil, We Are the fallen and even the more metallic Nightwish, to me this is it!  This is what bands like Lacuna Coil hint at but because they are walking a different path only achieve sometimes. Here you get a full album that glows like a dark fire and delivers on every track.

As to favourites, I’m overwhelmed to be honest I could pick any of the songs here right now. ‘Juliette’ maybe just because it opens the album, the beautiful title track ‘Kiss the Girls’ though has a delicate beauty to it. ‘Silver’ and ‘Faerytale’ with great vocals from both Marcy and Louise; are great songs too. ‘Siren’ though could well be my current pick here.

If you want to know what Goth was like in the early eighties with the added bonus of modern production this is the album to buy. Wonderful.

Mark