GOTHIC PARADISE
CD Reviews - October 14, 2014
Chasing Shadows
Gothic Paradise

Maintaining their busy schedule, these New Yorkers continue to churn out great new music.This latest album captures once again the essence of this band's style of gothabilly sounds with a soft ethereal yet jazzy touch. We have a great collection of music across nine tracks for fans to enjoy.

"Creeper" kicks it off with a little jazzy feel in the music as well as the vocals with a perfect vibe you get from a shady character in a dark alley. While maybe not the favorite on the album, this sassy piece is a great way to start off and introduce the material on the album. Once again there's a diverse range of pieces here from the dark and brooding, to the light-hearted and satirical. The music maintains that mix of various guitars you find across so many genres from country, oldies and modern rock for a diversity that you would never think would work but comes off so well. The album delves into each of these diverse genres with Mollie's vocals varying from piece to piece as much as the overall diversity of the mustical compositions on each track.

We have some great stand-out selections worth mentioning here, though the entire album is great to listen to from start to finish as I've done at least a dozen times in the last few weeks. "Too Hard, Too Fast" I think was the first to really capture my attention with more of a solid rock sound and that goth touch with just a bit of sass in the vocals for a nice accent to the song. I've had fun listening to "Trust Me" which really goes back to the old classic styles where country meets 50's oldies rock as that solid bass and reverse beat percussion move the track along. As the album continues we're back in to the darker moods of "Treachery" with a bit heavier and darker guitar providing the back-drop for the lyrics and vocals. Along these lines we're greeted with "Chasing Shadows" which is very appropriately named as this is probably one of the darker pieces on the album with the heavy and brooding moods the guitars and bass create which are all grounded with the solid vocals, making this a definite favorite here for the gothic tastes. To wind down the album we're presented with another gem in the form of "If I Could". This softer piece still maintains the solid classic sound while softening the edge a bit with Mollie's vocals creating even just a bit of an ethereal atmosphere to bring the album to a close perfectly.

There you have it, another great album from this talented band with their signature sound creating a new classic. This album is well worth picking up especially for those that love the gothabilly or rockabilly scene, don't miss out!

Rating: 4/5

[link]

BACK TO REVIEWS