Various Artists / Unquiet Grave Vol 4
Album: Unquiet Grave Vol 4   Collection:General
Artist:Various Artists   Added:Sep 2004
Label:Cleopatra Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2004-09-13 Pull Date: 2004-11-14
Week Ending: Oct 17 Oct 3 Sep 26 Sep 19
Airplays: 1 2 1 4

Recent Airplay
1. Aug 24, 2006: Cognitive Overload
Vote for Love
4. Oct 02, 2004: On The Warpath
Novocaine Live
2. Jul 22, 2006: Bloodstains Across Atherton
Visions of Ezekiel
5. Sep 29, 2004: Stirling's Approximation
Urdoguzes
3. Oct 13, 2004: Brownian Motion
Urdoguzes
6. Sep 24, 2004: Bloodstains Across Atherton
Dawn

Album Review
Ragnar of Ravensfjord
Reviewed 2004-10-17
L: Unquiet Grave Vol. 4 (Cleopatra) This is one of the better series of compilations this label has put out. As opposed to their never-ending series of sketchy quality-at-best tribute albums. “Hot For Remix: An Electronic Tribute To Van Halen”. Was THAT even necessary? Anyway, this focuses on gothic rock/electronic EBM/some doom metal/dark folk & a bit of synth pop. It’s mostly good stuff - so here’s the low down.
Disc I
((((1)))) The Dagons: Brooding organ sound followed by pounding drums and some possessed women singing in what sounds like backwards Spanish or French. Rad!
((2)) Lacuna Coil: In a word: overrated! Yeah, OK, I’ll confess Christina Scabbia’s really good looking but what about the music? Well, standard form, so-so etheral pop/gothic stuff. It’s been done before and much better. Touring with P.O.D. & Evanesence is artistic fucking suicide.
(((3))) Mortiis - No more straight-up bleak dark ambience from this Norwegian elf. Nope he’s gone & done groovy EBM with some Peter Murphy styled vox. It ain’t a sellout, it’s just another turn in the strange life of Mr. Elfssen.
((((4)))) Switchblade Symphony - One of the best gothic bands in the current age. Slow, nicely paced with trippy percussion & acoustic guitars. Not too different some stuff by The Creatures. Most of the vocals seem to be in some weirdly phrased Cocteau Twins way.
(((((5))))) The Gathering - One of The Netherland’s finest bands. Strummy guitars and some groovy electronics waves & trippy beats. Lest I forget the highly addictive voice of Anneke Van Gisberg.
((((6)))) Tiamat - Another Northern European band like The Gathering who started very much death metal and now is pretty much etheral/gothic rock. We’re not at a loss for the change. Great mix of The Church/Sisters of Mercy style with hynotic Loop-styled guitar riffing.
(((7))) Audra - Noisey dancey/electro-industrial. This easily would’ve been home on Wax Trax! Circa 1989-90. Some twist of The Neon Judgement and Tones On Tail.
(8) Birthday Massacre - Great band name but severly cheesy synth pop. Missing Persons lite?
(9) Lunarclick - Slightly more groovy version of the formula that Birthday Massacre does but still nothing too enticing & still hella corny.
(10) Morticians - Pretty decent, slowly moving synths and then morose Brit-guy vocals. Jeez what is this the Pet Shop Boys? Next!
((11)) Cellardweller - A little better but serious NIN worship. At least it has some bombast. NIN mixed with Gary Numan. Not bad, but too obvious.
(12) Razed In Black - EBM/techno which falls under the generally annoying side. Fuckin’ Aye please KILL that bloody “rave” sound!
(((13))) The Third Man - Bouncy, electroic laser something like recent Skinny Puppy and some pretty good sombre & distant vocals. Very late 80’s sounding but in a good way.
((((14)))) Bio: tek - Now that’s more like it! Sample of some twisted documentary and some total Wax Trax! 1989 style. Big-ass beats and repetitive electronic “blek-blek-blek” stuff. Sounds like something that could’ve been from 1988-89 era Belgium or Yugoslavia.
(((15))) Fr/Action - Sped up videogame sounding (think “Pole Position” on speed) cycling through this pretty bareable Giogio Moroder laden wave of driving electro-disco. Normally, i’d hate this but this ‘un has that “jenny say kwa” that just works.
((16)) Frequency Construct - Slow, bouncy & kind of pissed off vocals yet very melodic layers of syn ths & computer sounds. Pretty dance-y I’d suspect.
(((((17))))) Maelstrom - Killer noise & pounding done the OLD WAY! Think SPK, Throbbing Gristle.Einstrüzende Neubauten, Cabaret Voltaire.
(((18))) How Like A Winter - One of the weirdest named bands ever. Anyway, these Italians make some pretty nice gothic/doom metal ‘ala mid-period My Dying Bride. The main problem is that is just too derrivative of M.D.B. The violin & guitar parts are still quite good, though.
(((19))) Wehrwolfe - Slow moving percussion & bass.

Disc II
Note: I can’t listen to tracks 1-3 ‘cause someone put a sharpie across the CD and those tracks don’t play at all!
(((4))) Honey To Ash - Folksy, strummy etheral chill-out. Kinda warm, kinda fuzzy. Something like Azalia Snail meets the Cocteau Twins.
((5)) The Autumns - Great acoustic guitar playing but the vocals are a little too “fey” for me.
((((6)))) Steve Von Till - OK, I’m biased - EVERYTHING that Von Till touches is just about gold! Slow, smoky vocal, dark folk starkness. Not too different from the equally excellent solo work by Mark Lanegan.
(((7))) AntiMatter - Etheral folk with an ex-member of the metal/melancholly rock band, Anathema. Some pretty good female vox. Listen to this one late at night.
((8)) Dragonspoon - Sounds like one of the lesser bands from the old Cest L’mort label. AKA: So-so border-line Tori Amos-ish semi-dark folksy etheral pop.
(((9))) Gary Numan - What can you say this robotic mofo has still got it. Some airy, sort of spacey sci-fi electro pop. Not his best but something about the disembodied voice that really makes this work.
((((10)))) Corpus Delicti - Awesome medieval-era music gone dark psych with creepy spoken vocals.
(((11))) ZZZ Bot - Some voices of kids and minimal electronics & spares beats. Teerting on downtempo trip-hop. This weirdness grows on you.
((((12)))) X Vortex - Super generic electro/EBM/industrial name but hauntingly good EBM/industrial with creepy whispery female vocals. Lydia Lunch goes EBM?
(((((13))))) November’s Doom - Jazzy, shimmering guitar chords beautiful female vocals (and some occasional spoken male vocal lines) instead of doomy & loud metal. Gorgeous stuff no matter what style.
((14)) October Hill - Nice acoustic guitars & OK female vocals but mostly bland.
(((15))) Inner - Bouncy, ping-pong-like beats, with slow sort of poetic gothic etheral vocals. Great vocal performance if anything.
(((16))) Plink - Yep, that’s what they sound like. Some electroic water faucet dripping, a computer blipping & plinking under the very blissed out etheral vocals. Almost too slowed down & blissed out but nice notheless.
17) Molotov Elysian - Sounds very sombre. Something like a bland version of The Moon Seven Times or Azure Ray. Nothing goin’ here.
((18)) Trippy & creepy suicide story samples mixed with folk sturmmy and wallpaper beats. This reeks of bad college coffee house music. Though the samples are rad.
((((19)))) The Lvrs - Spoken word - about some harsh experience at an attempt at murder & rape underscored by brooding, slow waves of electronics. Pretty similar to Lydia Lunch’s spoken word stuff. Pretty fucking confrontational, too. Don’t listen to this alone! (2:15 FCC “fucked”)



Track Listing
 ArtistTrack Name
1. Dagons, the Urdoguzes
2. Lacuna Coil The Ghost Woman and the Hunt
3. Mortiis Monolith
4. Switchblade Symphony Novocaine Live
5. Gathering, the Debris
6. Tiamat Vote for Love
7. Audra Cabaret Fortune Teller
8. Birthday Massacre Horror Show
9. Lunarclick A Smile
10. Morticians Wonderland no Illusions Remi
11. Celldwerller Frozen
12. Razed in Black Am I 2 Blame? Soil & Eclipse
13. Third Man, the Timephase
14. Bio-Tek Die-Sect Vnv Nation Mix
15. Fr/Action Crime Pays
16. Frequency Construct Infected
17. Maelstrom Visions of Ezekiel
18. How Like a Winter A Flower that Sears in Silen
19. Wehrwolfe Ashes
20. Ulrich, Peter At Mortlake
21. Black Tape for a Blue Girl All My Lovers
22. Dreamside Faery Child Cruxshadows Mix
23. Honey to Ash The Last Day in June
24. Autumns, the Lux
25. Von Till, Steve Dawn
26. Antimatter The Art of a Soft Landing
27. Dragonspoon Deep Blue Sea
28. Gary Numan Absolution
29. Corpus Delicti Dragon Song
30. Zzz Bot Chubby Kitty
31. X-Vortex System Failure
32. Novembers Doom All the Beauty Twice Again
33. October Hill Desert Snow
34. Inner Myphilosophy
35. Plink Undo
36. Molotov Elysian Today a Mountain Has Been Mo
37. Pariah Project Reena
38. Lvrs, the The Sum of Her Parts