Teen Gothic

Hey. I'm looking for albums or tracks with specific guitar sound. My absolute benchmarks are Cocteau Twins — "Shallow Then Hallo" and The Cure — "One Hundred Years". I need the guitar to be the absolute main focus of the mix. It must play a primitive, bleak, minimalistic riff with a heavy, "rusty", "wet" flanger or chorus drowned in a massive, cavernous studio reverb. Please avoid dry, angular post-punk and any boring, uninspired goth rock. I do not want theatrical, high-pitched, or shrieky vocals that ruin the atmosphere. I just want that heavy, massive, wet guitar wall of sound in an empty room with buried, dark, or detached vocals. Can be 80s, 90s, or modern coldwave/darkwave/shoegaze. Any hidden gems?

Hi everyone! I’m a newer goth (only a couple years have I been TRULY listening to goth music and partaking in the sub culture) and I have developed a very specific taste that I can’t quite figure out how to pinpoint. I really love goth music that has quieter, muffled vocals and is more focused on the instrumentals. Obviously I HAVE found music that fits that taste profile, but I struggle to find more/new music that fits it for my playlists. Song or band recommendations are highly welcome! On that same note, how does one tell if a band is actually goth or not? May be a dumb question, but I find it hard to discern between goth and non goth when such similar themes are used and I don’t want to be offensive to any old head goths that have curated the sub culture we enjoy today. Thanks, any answers or recs are much appreciated <3

It feels like there should be or very easily has potential for something good there

I like plenty of new school bands and old school deathrock but there's a kind of unique fun energy to 45 Grave that I can't really seem to find anywhere else, I think Super Heroines are maybe the closest thing I can think of. Can anyone recommend anything with similar vibes?

Or anything similar or interpretable as that really. Just something to feel miserable to! I don’t think it’s easy to find songs about kind of specific situations so I’d hope anyone here could perhaps help me out. I don’t have other wishes for subgenre or anything else. Just has to be about title. Thank you to anyone that can help out here.

I got this clip from a friends Instagram when she went to one of their live performances around 4/21/23. Nox Novacula is a death rock band from Seattle. I know this isn’t a lot to go off of and don’t blame you if you can’t find it cus i’m having even less luck

Hello! So i have fallen head over heels with Ethereal Wave. But i have been trying to find bands that have more of a similar sound like Black Tape for A Blue Girl and Dead Can Dance. More specifically “A Serpants Egg”. Any suggestions?

I'm probably going to come off as a snob here, but when it comes to my musical tastes, I am indeed a bit of a snob, so bear with me, I'm not judging anyone's tastes.

For the most part, I like music with meaningful lyrics that tell a story – that's one of the reasons I love The Cure so much. The old classics – Bauhaus, SoM, Siouxsie, Fields of the Nephilim and so forth – most of their songs tell a story. I like music that just sounds good and has a beat you can dance to as much as the next guy, but I need more than that.

Recently, I checked out a few of the newer bands I see mentioned here – She Past Away, in particular – and I honestly wasn't impressed. The melodies were repetitive and the lyrics were kind of inane – just sp00ky words repeated. It was enjoyable enough, but I would quickly get bored with it without some more variety.

I would love to explore more goth music from the 2000s to now, so given everything I've written here, what would you recommend? TIA.

Like I can barely process a lot of song lyrics, and it takes a lot of time for me to even understand the song, so I usually listen to one song from a bunch of artists (personal favorite rn Beyond The Grave by Detoxi). My only issue is that it kinda makes me feel like a fraud, even though I listen to a variety of Goth bands, I can't say I have a favorite and I can't pull up someones whole music career.

Idk I guess I just have imposter syndrome, plus it's hard to speak to others about goth music when most people don't do this.

Edit: Probably should've made my title liking one specific song from multiple bands but, y'know, shit happens.

Says it all in the title 🙂