Track Listing: Your Master Is Calling, I Coldly Stare Out, Walking On Both Sides, Michelle, S. Day, Moon, Seven Years, If Two Worlds Kiss, Catholic Sunday, Missing You, Pressurized, The First, Touch The Skies.

Why haven’t we heard this over here yet in a major way? This English-lyric, German darkwave band is an 80’s original that brings Xymox, old Mission, and Faith-era Cure to mind and makes me sigh pleasantly. They are still going strong, with a reunion performance at Wave Gotik Treffen in 2003 and this fantastic album (released last year). This Darkwave with a capital D is something to love on the first listen.

For more information, check out www.pinkturnsblue.com

Track Listing: Endless Dream, Face the Music, Pilgrimage, One Word, I Believe, Beyond Being, Extraordinary Way, Dying Light, Forever Lost, Into the Escape.

This one took a little time to grow on me. Poe sings guest vocals, like on the first Conjure One (but not under the name “Poe”), but somehow this album isn’t as strong as the first album. Maybe because Sinéad is missing from this one, but overall, I prefer the first album. After the second and third listenings, I enjoyed this album, and I think Rhys Fulber/Delirium fans will as well, but it’s not a “must have”. More like Chimera than Karma.

For more information, check out www.conjureone.com or purchase Conjure One here.

Track Listing: Ghazal, Nahan, Allahi Allah, The Hunt, Dunya, In the Shadow of Life, Golzar, Dilruba, Minara.

For those of you familiar with Vas, you are no stranger to the incredible voice of the Indian-born, Iranian siren, Azam Ali. This album is her latest project with Axiom of Choice’s Ramin (Loga) Torkian. Niyaz is a lush modern fusion of Persian and Indian music inspired by Sufi devotional poems. A stunning album, both for those gothic/tribal bellydancers and listeners; easy to have on repeat for days at a time.

For more information, check out www.niyazmusic.com or purchase Niyaz here.

Track Listing: Dressed In Black, For The Love Of God, Christmas, Blinded By Blood, It Is Not Sound, The Truth, In The Red, Your Call, Operator.

A dry, black metal symphonic dirge with vocals-stretched-over-a-rack glides from one song into the next, as only Norwegians could possibly execute. This album defies genre; I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like this before. It reminds me vaguely of the Finnish all-cello metal act, Apocalyptica, who opened for Rammstein at Wuhlheide this past June, but after three or four songs, it was too monotonous and muzak-like to enjoy. My pick for the stand-out track here, is “Your Call”, for its creepy, ambient beauty, pierced through another realm with the phone ringing incessantly in the distance. Ulver is not generally my cup of tea, but it’s an intriguing listen.

For more information, check out
www.jester-records.com/ulver/ulver.html.

Track Listing: Deluge, Always The Same, He Came Out To Me, Zero Point, Duchamp's Cycle, Enchanted Domain, The Cabinet, Attacking The Heart, No More Words, Dream Abuse, Chinese Whispers, Sun Blessed.

Zone is a Welsh duo with a trancey, avant-garde album: a throwback to early industrial, a la Throbbing Gristle. There are bouts of more readily palatable tracks in the mix, such as Enchanted Domain, with its basic, sorrowful piano, and Sun Blessed, with its Orientalesque electronica, as well as occasional spoken word that breaks up the ambience, but this is an experimental album. In my opinion, it's too monotonous to go anywhere, although I'm sure some clever DJs would swipe some tidbits here and there.

For more information, check out www.potentia-zone.com.