10 Essential Goth Rock Albums Everyone Should Own
It’s not just a phase. It’s a lifestyle. Dive into the best Goth records of all time.
The term “gothic rock” was reportedly David Bowie have all been cited as forebearers, the term only took hold on the other side of the Atlantic more than a decade later.
Indeed, by 1979, gothic rock essentially encomed any British band that sonically dealt in sorrowful guitars, primitive beats, and howling melodies, were lyrically focused on the mournful and the dramatic, and stylistically, owned a wardrobe that never strayed beyond the pitch-black.
The subgenre would evolve over the following years, incorporating everything from pop and folk to metal and electronica. Evanescence were just some of the major names who drew from its eerie well during the 1990s and beyond. But it was undoubtedly in the aftermath of post-punk when the scene enjoyed its imperial phase.
Here’s a look at ten classic albums that any self-suspecting goth rock fan should have in their collection.
Joy Division
Unknown Pleasures (1979)
Provocative producerUnknown Pleasures in so cold that the band could see their breath while recording. As suggested by its iconic front cover, the ten tracks reflect the austereness of its surroundings.
From Ian Curtis’ booming baritone, guilt-ridden lyrical themes, and unbridled intensity, particularly on “She’s Lost Control” and “Insight,” grants Unknown Pleasures its gothic grandeur.
Bauhaus
In The Flat Field (1980)
Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” What it lacks in odes to horror movie icons, it makes up for in Orwellian paranoia (“Spy in a Cab”), unashamed sacrilege (“Stigmata Martyr”), and Middle Ages hysteria “(St. Vitus Dance”).
While In the Flat Field’s nihilistic lyrical themes were always singular its resolutely intense sound. Soon after its release, every other British band that developed an interest in the macabre adopted the band’s despairing vocals, descending guitars, and dirge-like beats.
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Juju (1981)
After flirting with electronica on predecessor Billy Corgan, and essentially every other key figure from the alt-rock movement of the ‘90s.
Of course, Siouxsie Sioux still commands attention throughout nine tracks steeped firmly in the realm of psychological horror, too, whether wailing “Trick or Treat” on spooky playlist staple “Halloween” or inhabiting the mind of the Yorkshire Ripper on the truly disturbing “Night Shift.” Counterbalancing all the inherent creepiness are some of the most compelling pop melodies in the Banshees’ oeuvre.
The Cure
Pornography (1982)
“It doesn’t matter if we all die,” is how Pornography does indeed sound like a band on the verge of implosion.
“Phil Spector in hell,” one critic pithily Phil Thornalley — which envelops Smith’s unbridled misanthropy. But misery can sometimes breed innovation.
On the likes of the frenetic “The Hanging Garden,” funeral march-like “Cold,” and warped fusion of screeching synths and BBC sound recordings that make up the closing title track, the lipstick-smeared, wild-haired trio take gothic rock to new desolate heights.
Killing Joke
Night Time (1985)
Recorded just 150 meters away from the Berlin Wall with Night Time, combined Cold War paranoia (“The day humanity is over/Let nations east and west tremble at the sight” goes “Europe”) with a new-found sense of showmanship.
The U.K. Top 20 success of lead single “Love Like Blood” and the fact the sinewy guitar hook on “Eighties” was later borrowed by Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” proved they could straddle the mainstream while still retaining a sense of underground aura.
Indeed, although pop was no longer considered a dirty word in the Killing Joke camp, Night Time still contains Jaz Coleman’s forceful tones, all of which combine to perfection on the gothic sleaze of “Kings and Queens.”
The Cult
Love (1985)
Selling nearly three million copies worldwide and spawning, arguably, the genre’s most radio-friendly single, Love proved gothic rock and mainstream success didn’t need to be mutually exclusive .
“She Sells Sanctuary,” a drive-time anthem in which the howling Ian Astbury fully committed to his stadium showman tendencies, may have alienated some fans who signed up for the band’s darker early incarnation. But there was still plenty of brooding menace to be found elsewhere, from the atmospheric melodrama of “Brother Wolf, Sister Moon” to the fiery psychedelia of “Phoenix.”
Indeed, the Cult’s attempt to “make a flower instead of a barbed-wire fence” lands somewhere in between.
The Damned
Phantasmagoria (1985)
Frontman Captain Sensible – wasn’t quite the outlier some purported.
The Londoners certainly commit to the darker side, whether the vampiric opener “Street of Dreams,” baroque nightmare “Sanctum Sanctorum,” or the creepy gothabilly of “Shadow of Love.” Further proof of goth rock’s ascendancy in the mid-’80s came when Susie Bick, became the biggest hit of their career.
The Sisters of Mercy
Floodland (1987)
Following the departure of founding the Sisters of Mercy looked to be a spent force. Instead, the cult favorites staged a triumphant comeback with an audacious blend of goth rock, dark wave, and theatrical pop.
Inspired by Chernobyl, the Cold War, and the waters of its Hamburg inception, the one-man band (recruit Patricia Morrison didn’t play a note) embraced the world of sequencing on eight tracks that, although deeply macabre, were always imbued with a knowing wink.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Tender Prey (1988)
Nick Cave isn’t known as the “Prince of Darkness” for nothing. Australia’s most tormented rock export helped shape the primal side of the genre with the first outfit, the Bad Seeds.
Tender Prey bridges the gap in pathologically intense style, flitting between malevolent rock and roll (“Deanna”), fire and brimstone sermons (“Up Jumped The Devil”), and chilling piano ballads (“Watching Alice”). Then, there’s the seven-minute epic “The Mercy Seat,” in which Cave, assuming the role of a death row prisoner heading to the electric chair, bellows its biblical chorus 15 times before finally meeting his fate.
Goth rock has never sounded so wonderfully unhinged.
The Mission
Children (1988)
Released a year after the Sisters of Mercy further laid down the gauntlet, the second album from their more conventional gothic offshoot, the Mission, was the sound of a band with something to prove.
The Middle Eastern psychedelia of the opener, “Beyond the Pale,” and signature hit “Tower of Strength” clock in around the eight-minute mark. Frontman John Paul Jones.
Subtle Children certainly isn’t. But it’s the genre’s finest embodiment of “go big or go home.”
More Essential Goth Rock Records
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AbyssChelsea Wolfe2016Rock, Indie Rock, Ethereal, Folk Rock, Experimental, Alternative Rock2 x Vinyl, LP, Repress
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The Great AnnihilatorSwans2017Alternative Rock, Folk Rock, Industrial2 x Vinyl, LP, Reissue, Remastered
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