Track Listing: Serpentarius, Wants Me Dead, Undead Friend, Nidhogg, Lovely Lies, Seas Of Blood, Deny Yourself, Little Lady Lillit.

Despite the self promotion, I would not call this group a metal band, and I am not too sure I would call them progressive either (whatever that might mean). They don’t readily fit into any storebought category. They do remind me of sundry darkling bands of the 60s and early 70s – albeit with considerable evolution in the musical skills department – who would show up at rock festivals and love-ins and do things like a tarot reading on the audience or an attempt to conjure real demons on stage via a black mass. The original female fronted Black Sabbath was one of these, from a time before Ozzy and the real Black Sabbath. I saw them do exactly that, an attempted demon raising, live on British TV: pentagrams, magic circles, cauldron, the whole nine yards. It was an unsuccessful attempt.

The problem with most of those bands is that they sucked out loud artistically and were more about witchcraft than music. The best of them were poor knockoffs of Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver, et al, which is probably why BBA inclines my ear to that aura, sans the suckitude. Cruella, at times, comes off quite a bit like Grace Slick in her heyday; the potent vocal authority and that ability to come howling right at you on the crest of a musical crescendo. The group also makes excellent use of the cathedral organ sound that many witchwave bands of yore merely affected.

So, is By Blood Alone any good... er... bad? Well, Cruella goes after beauty via melodic invention and, more often than not, snares her prize. Listen to “Nidhogg” a few times and then try to get it out of your head for the rest of the day. “Deny Yourself” is another such track. The band is tight, with well crafted stops and unexpected twists to the deftly plotted song structures. Guitar, bass, and drums form a solid rhythm section and also indulge in crafty interplay with the keyboards. The songs aren’t all the same, featuring subject matter that varies from sick to sardonically wicked to heart wrenching...with a forthright lyric style that is engaging in its drectness.

I just can’t decide if Seas of Blood is a delicious anomaly or a bold new voice in the arcana nouveau side of the underrock. Time for me to give “Nidhogg” yet another replay.

For more info visit the band website or their MySpace page.

Track Listing: Before The Storm/First Damnation, Angela, Adoration, Dead To The World, Rebekka, Godmother, Seduction, Hope Springs Eternal, Shine (In The Haze), Light, Acceptance, The Magician, Victoriana, The Desert Song.

An excellent, classic goth rock band. Earth Calling Angela, formerly from the UK, has now resurfaced after a ten year hiatus and is spread abroad, yet still functioning as a cohesive unit. The current offering is a remastering of their material from the early to mid 90s. How these guys never got huge is beyond me. They have a sound that pulls a listener right in with strong musicianship, writing/arranging, and quality vocals. Their new material seems to be more of the same, updated and upgraded for the new century, yet still driven by the same dark forces.

For more info visit the band website or their MySpace page.

Track Listing: Embrace the Fool, Love, Ecstatic Dance, My Moments of Tranquility, The Desillusioned Nihilist, Ode on Melancholy, The Golden Cage of Fateful Emotions, Traveller of Stars, Your Eyes So Strange to Me, Innate, I Drowned in You, In Your Dreams, Soul Friend.

Very interesting Dutch/German acoustic duo with the support of several other players for live events and studio backup.They sound very medieval or from an even greater antiquity and are clearly in love with ancient mysteries and processes. I spend time in various medieval/gothic themed role playing SIMs of Second Life, and find it compelling to discover people who are actually living that style in real life. They are way beyond mere role playing, having been led to this mode of existence by some truth deep within.

On the musical side, the playing here is very fine, intricate, mostly acoustic; somehow ethereal and earthy at the same time and very European. The vocals are clear-eyed and straightforward, constructed of clean, well executed lines, and delivered with a sort of peaceful urgency. The lyrics reveal a sometimes startling juxtaposition of light and darkness, sort of like having your limbs gently twisted off.

For more info visit the band website or their MySpace page.

Track Listing: Walking Roots, Hesperos, The Garden of the Hesperides, The Magnificence of the Night, Rime Glitters in the Sun, The Warm Whisper of the Wind, Artemisia, The Call of the Ibis, Ritual, Loto Nero, Nana, Winter Rhymes, Ave Maria, Walking Roots II.

Hexperos is the latest project of Alessandra Santovito, the founding member of the band Gothica; hence some of you may already be familiar with her sophisticated vocalizations. Her founding partner in the current group is Francesco Forgione, who plays double bass and keyboards.They are joined by a number of, I assume, other classically trained musicians on harp, violin, etc.

The music is lush, mysterious, divine, and also mythically inspired, as the band name might suggest. Though the leading lady is conservatory trained and has an active career as an operatic soprano, the music here sounds like opera only on occasion. There is more of a slant toward Mediterranean folk styles with discreet touches of rock and Middle Eastern, thus more suited to embrace dark atmosphere and arcane esoterica. As a bonus, there are some very pretty little instrumental miniatures scattered among the song tracks.

For more info visit the band website or their MySpace page.

Track Listing: Violent Heartstrings, Turning Colours, Knives, Somewhere Girl, Breaking the Sorrow, Walk on Water, Does Anyone Truly Love Anybody Else?, Everything, Shattering Walls, Dusk.

From what I gather, this goth-ish, post-punk group from D.C. is something of a rage on the East Coast of late. They are undoubtedly a fantastic live band, with relentless high-energy assaults that puncture the dome of lameness hanging over America like really high temperatures will puncture a smog inversion layer.

Their influences seem to run through everything that ever rocked ass and didn’t suck, hence the sounds like thing just doesn’t work here. Just when you are thinking Robert Smith does Bowie it metamorphoses into Jim Morrison jamming with The Pretenders. This is creative process having its way and rising above imitation. The vocal lines and guitar licks often start from something you think you’ve heard before and skew into outre and unexpected angularities, all the while tearing the air with wildness and longing. That they may resort to the same structural devices a little too often seems to stem more from a persistant straining to get the hell out of here and into a better zeitgeist than from any inspirational dearth.

For more info visit the band website or their MySpace page.