Gothic Visions is a CD/DVD edition filled to the brim with 231 minutes of video and 80 (on CD) and 215 (as MP3-files on the DVD) minutes of audio. Styles range from dark ambient to goth rock, darkwave, neo-classical, electro and industrial. A fair share is reserved for guitar-based bands which will entice those who like it 'oldschool'. The emphasis is on current and upcoming bands, but some veterans appear as well.Â
The videos are split into two sections: clips and live renditions.
At times the clips really add something to the album versions, a number of marked videos is worth mentioning. "Tears of Avalon" by Place4tears benefits from the tranquil pictures that fit nicely to the song's Cocteau Twins-like brittleness. The same kind of visual support is shown on Verney 1826's "Ordo fractum minorum" and Ancient Tundra's "And silence finally prevails". The dolls on Dr. Arthur Krause's video of "Under silver moon" give the song a creepy accent and the band that kept things as non-prententious and simple as it can get is Vendemmian. At a Norwegian farm they perform "Starter for ten". "This time" by Beauty Of Gemina hardly needs a video, this song is alluring as it is.
What the live recordings is concerned Dead Guitars and Wayne Hussey draw your attention. A combined concert sees them supporting one another, Dead Guitars supports Wayne Hussey on "Butterfly on a wheel" and Wayne Hussey lends his vocals to Dead Guitars' "Isolation". These intimate songs contrast to the glam goth of Specimen. In 2008 Specimen performed at the Batcave's 25th anniversary event in London which resulted in the band's first ever live album called Alive At The Batcave. That concert was also filmed, you can see the band doing "Kiss kiss bang bang" and "Beauty of poisin" on this DVD.
As the audio part contains another 47 songs a quick scan is again the most effective way to bring out some saillant tracks. Derriere Le Miroir and Children On Stun bring us back to 1993 with Alibis and Hollow, respectively. Another worthwile recording from the 1990s appears with "The second coming" by the Swedish band Funhouse. Contemporaries Vendemmian are present with "Seen enough" from their come back album One More Time. Dr. Arthur Krause may not have been around during that prolific era, their 2004 track "Black hard hands" does unmistakably remind of years long gone, and especially The Sisters Of Mercy. Rammstein is being copied in a straightforward way by DIE!, but "Lüg mich an" is catchy enough to overcome that inevitable comparison. Catchy is also an appropriate term to describe Bionic's "It doesn't matter". The veterans of In My Rosary show with "Hypocrazy" that their synth-driven wave still counts, The Eternal Fall alluringly mixes elements from both darkwave as well as goth rock.
Gothic Visions gives you value for money, and a nice overview of the current state of affairs.
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