Black Ice- Myopia

ARTIST: Black Ice
ALBUM: Myopia
LABEL: Hungry Eye Records
REVIEWER: Matthew J.
DATE: 10-28-07

Black Ice's new album is the kind of artsy experimental rock the early goth scene was built on: the throbbing bass and squalling guitar of Bauhaus, the brooding punk atmosphere of Joy Division, and the violently romantic vocals of a young Siouxsie Sioux. Album opener "In the Dark" has the abrasive, nervewracking atmosphere of Christian Death's slower early material, "In Ruins" throws a creepy keyboard chime over an undulating punk bass, and "Signals" softens a screechy guitar with narcotic electric organs. Then things start to get weird. If the first half of the album is a new take on old themes, the second half sees Black Ice moving toward more rampant experimentation. The bleak atmosphere is there and droning, moody vocals are still in effect, but standard arrangements and production techniques go out the window. "Blind Spots" layers the vocals deep enough to run together as low-fi glitches keep the keyboard lines sharp as tacks. "Imitation/Imagination" drenches everything from vocals to pianos in cavernous reverb for an effect like a Lycia song, filtered through schizophrenia instead of clinical depression. With its hollow drums and minor-key synthesizers, "My Fever" is like old school death rock meets new school ritual ambient, and an instrumental reprise of "In the Dark" finishes things off with a blast of creaking strings over a slow-plodding drum. This isn't new school goth, meant for remixes and club rotation. This is the old stuff, the real stuff, the stuff you go to see live in a smoky basement club, the kind of stuff you used to borrow from your friends on thrice-copied cassette tapes. People are still making it. And now you can get it on CD. And you really have no excuse not to.

Check out Black Ice at https://mungaso.com/blackice/.