Synth Single Review: “Twisted” by Cassetter & Isidor

by Karl Magi

Cassetter & Isidor’s “Twisted” rises with terrifying weight and force. The track starts as a mysterious melody unwinds along with a dark laugh and twisting, clattering sounds that grow into a susurrus. The rhythm is insistent and crushing while the fearfully intertwining synth carries a nervously unfolding melody, tinged by gentleness.

Slamming bass grinds with fierce strength while the drums roll like a gathering gale. An unholy, distorted choir chants as the battering beat rocks the music. Palpable shadows reach out with hungry claws while the unsettling tones twist. As the synth bends with unhallowed, writhing sensations, the distorted notes howl and the shattering foundation pounds.

Swirling notes add to the growing disorder before they fall and wriggle alongside a ferocious guitar. The guitar melody is full of hungry energy and evil import, carrying me away into the dark void at the music’s centre. The underpinnings heave with malevolent force while growling sounds add to the demonic sensation. The drum beat smashes hard again while the nervous melodic pattern shivers and the track ends with a great roar.

Synth Single Review: “Out Of Time” by Leo Golo & LAU

by Karl Magi

Leo Golo & LAU’s “Out Of Time” reflects a relationship that’s running down the timer. The song begins with a ticking clock and Leo Golo's gliding, resonant voice carrying a surging vocal pattern along with the solidly pulsing low end. The way in which Leo Golo chants creates a hypnotic pattern as the lyrics climb along with the synth that permeates the music in urban glow.

LAU’s voice is richly expressive, while fragile tones hover, and she captures the same powerful emotions as Leo Golo. As the urgency of the vocal melody joins the thumping rhythm, there's a sense of mounting tension as the vocals weave together. The drums drop as Leo Golo’s breath-warmed tones unfold ardently, transporting me into the song’s emotional world.

The beat continually ticks like a countdown while the fully surrounding vocals echo. Both singers mingle their unique and compelling voices while the surging melody moves with growing drama before the song ends.

With nowhere to go and nowhere to hide, our first storyteller is kept up all night by the second storyteller. He adds, "It's easy to know, it's easy to say, but do you really want this to go right? Do you really want me to forget it?" The second storyteller asks if he could leave their connection behind, going on to say, "I'm losing control, you put me on hold, this might be the final love fight."

Running out of time, the first narrator realizes it's too late to make the second narrator his. He is "out of time, a second chance to make it right." He points out that they've lost what they couldn't find and says, "Know that we’ll end tonight, way out of time." The second narrator adds that they are "caught in the fire, lost in the tide," as she wonders if they've just crossed the line.

Our second storyteller says it's too late, adding, "It's never enough, it's always the same, your silence cuts me like a knife." She asks if the first storyteller really wants her to surrender because "we are trapped in a world of black and white." She knows that it is "written in stars" and they are on fire. She asks, "Does it have to end tonight?"

For the first narrator, it's too late for them to fix what's broken and "the high will come down when we're done." He concludes, "I can't give you love any more, but you keep me loving."

Pink Skylines & Gasoline

Photo by Lexi Lauwers from Pexels

by Karl Magi

This is the first in a series of vignettes inspired by synthwave and related genres. I want to share some of the images painted in my mind by the music as I listen to it. I hope you’ll enjoy the journey as the music flows.

As a sleek black S-Class Mercedes coupe slides down the road, glinting city lights flash off the lustrous paintwork while its distant V8 rumble mingles with traffic sounds and muffled beats from a nightclub. Pink luminescence limns the city skyline as phosphor from streetlights reflects off dark asphalt. Passing neon-lit buildings and hidden alleyways, the car moves like a stealthy panther, urban brightness reflected in its tinted windows. Moving onto the freeway on-ramp, the driver accelerates, V8 growling urgently before fading into the background again.

Buildings pass by, lights winking like a thousand stars, while the soft patter of the tires on asphalt becomes a hypnotic throb. The driver pops a cassette in and music flows around her while the city lives and breathes. She allows her mind to wander, letting go of loss and bitterness as they flood her. He’d left her earlier that week, only a note to tell her that it was over. She’d known it was coming, but the pain still flared when she thought about it.

High-end condominiums glide by, each unit glowing with soft-focus light, painted in gentle pastels. The Mercedes moves like a shadow, all smooth elegance, while the driver rolls a window down and lets the summer air pour in, washing over her skin as she exhales, aching emotion filling the sound. Inhaling deeply, mingled scents of flowers and gasoline create a surreal contrast, as hurt and lingering passion remain tangled in her mind.

Letting herself move without thought, she slips off the freeway and back into downtown as the city grows denser, skyscrapers climbing above her. She glances at millions of tiny motes of sparkling luminosity, like broken hearts in that galaxy of pinpoints of light. The downtown streets throb with life, a crowd of mohawk-sporting punks in leather mixed with men and women dressed in charcoal grey out on the town. She watches it all pass by, her gaze drinking it in, as though it might push away the brokenness hidden inside her.

Once again, she pulls onto the high-speed road, the big Mercedes coupe squatting on its haunches like a leaping cat as the V8 roars and launches her forward. The lines on the road blur into a continual yellow rush while a galaxy of luminosity begins to fade behind her. The city becomes a distant creature, the horizon glowing with soft moonlight and she disappears into the desert darkness that enfolds it all. Maybe out there, in that vast place, she’ll escape for a little while.

Top Releases of 2025: DARK Edition

Foreword by Vero Kitsuné - CZARINA

I was really confused when the Pantone Color of the Year turned out to be this really boring shade called “Cloud Dancer” White. Either Pantone has lost their touch, or they’re just not paying attention to what’s happening in the world. I would argue that the Pantone Color of the Year should have been either Gothic Black, Vampire Crimson, Funeral Ink, or Widow’s Amethyst—something dark and gothic.

2025, as I’ve already noted earlier in Part 1 of our Year End list, may have been one of the toughest years in recent memory, but it also happens to be one of the most gothic, with gothic culture re-penetrating mainstream consciousness.

The year was kicked off with movies like Nosferatu, carried through with Netflix series like Wednesday. Fashion labels like Rodarté filled the runways with their own gothic sartorial tales, while Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and the new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Luc Besson reignited why we fall in love with darkness in the first place.

Congruently, in music, modern darkwave, goth, dark synthpop, coldwave, and post-punk seem to have ridden one of their highest waves this year, with many of the freshest and most exciting records and EPs emerging from the dark genres. But just like the films this year, we see the rise of the dark heroine — a lot of the best dark music this year has a very strong female lead as we see in artists and acts like Pixel Grip, Mercy Girl, Mari Kattman, Vioflesh, Apnoie, Haezl, Lacrimorta and more.

Just as we did with Part 1: NEON EDITION, the Absynth team invited a couple of our favorite editors and curators to join me and Chris Magdalenski in picking out the finest dark gems of the year for Part 2: DARK EDITION.

Our guest curators for this year:

Chi Ming Lai of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK

Chris Brandon of Synthpop Fanatic

Awfully Sinister

• Chi Ming Lai of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK Our favorite human wikipedia of all things related to new wave and synthpop, Chi founded UK-based journal ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK March 2010 and aims to feature the best in new and classic electronic pop music. With informed opinion and rich in trivia, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK delivers also some of the most insightful, reviews, interviews and historic bits on synthpop, new wave and electronic genres.

• Chris Brandon of Synthpop Fanatic. Synthpop Fanatic is a blog devoted to dark dance music: synthpop, futurepop, darkwave, electro. Songs you hear on a dark, smoky dancefloor. Songs filled with melancholy and despair. Songs with Depeche Mode firmly encoded in their DNA. Check out Chris’ full list of his top picks for Best of 2025 on his website: https://www.synthpopfanatic.com/

• Awfully Sinister is a DJ and tastemaker in Phoenix, Arizona. He has tens of thousands of followers online but no credentials to speak of (so he claims) –just a love for music and an equally big love for yapping about it to anyone who will listen.

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ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’S Picks

A Thousand Mad Things - Cry and Dance

Possibly the most promising male UK synth act since Mirrors, ‘Cry & Dance’ is the debut EP release from A Thousand Mad Things. Navigating young manhood as a tortured outsider, William Barradale’s haunted demeanour shows those purveyors of all that generic darkwave a thing or two about songwriting and production

Patricia Wolf - Hrafnamynd

Patricia Wolf composes ambient music utilising field recordings which makes her perfect for soundtracks. Icelandic for “raven film”, ‘Hrafnamynd’ accompanied an unconventional autobiographical documentary by filmaker Edward Pack Davee which featured a rescued talking raven named Krummi. Even without the visuals, the album offered a feeling of fresh breezy escapism.

Mari Kattman - Year Of The Katt

Moving away from the trip-hop and trap that characterised her first two long players ‘Hover’ and ‘Stay’, ‘Year Of The Katt’ was the best solo effort yet from Mari Kattman, taking her place as the alluring gothic club queen she always had the potential to be. Incidentally, her 2023 cover of ‘Breña’ from the ‘Sacred Geometry’ tribute to A Perfect Circle album is superb.

Assemblage 23 - Null

Incidentally Mari Kattman’s husband, ‘Null’ ranks among Tom Shear’s best albums as ASSEMBLAGE 23 with its on-point social commentary, reflecting on the fact that the world has gone crazy! ‘Null’ provides a soundtrack to help navigate around and against the ensuing chaos. The future might be bleak but the resistance starts now.

Lady Gaga - Mayhem

Returning to the glitzy electropop of ‘The Fame’ and ‘Born This Way’ albums, ‘Mayhem’ was a triumph with its array of classic influences. A Siouxsie Sioux interpolation figured on ‘Abracadabra’ while ‘Killah’ crossed DAF with Prince! But on ‘How Bad Do U Want Me?’, our heroine did imagined Taylor Swift doing a Yazoo cover! 

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SYNTHPOP FANATIC’S Picks

Tobias Bernstrup – Shadow Dancer

Tobias Bernstrup honors alternative nightlife and the “creatures of the night” who inhabit it with an incredibly cohesive and moving record that dazzles with sentiment and significance. Shadow Dancer combines pulsating beats and twinkling Italo bleeps with empowering, vivid reminders to embrace yourself, fight oppression, and never stop dancing.

Assemblage 23 – Null

Assemblage 23 captures the anger, exhaustion, and moral confusion of 2025 with songs rooted in confrontation and cutting ties. But what truly elevates Null is Assemblage 23’s refusal to let us sit in despair. Again and again, the album pivots toward connection and resolve, offering messages of hope, helping hands, and especially love.

Seeming – The World

Seeming examines how end-times anxieties shape us personally, often through the bonds we form with others. The World offers moving, complex reflections on relationships, especially on the devastating ballad “Assassin’s Lovesong,” one of the loveliest songs I’ve ever heard. It’s unpredictable, offering everything from menacing electronics to a haunting wind instrument.

Promenade Cinema – Afterlife

Promenade Cinema continue to flirt with theater and performance motifs on Afterlife. But this is their darkest production yet. Chimes set the tone right away, while moonlight and shadow recur throughout. Every song glimmers with sublime soundcraft, as glistening bleeps and hovering pads whirl around Emma Barson’s voice in a captivating dance.

Bootblacks – Paradise

Bootblacks blend guitar and synth in classic darkwave fashion, but do so with densely layered production that feels rich and complex, lush and romantic. Every track on Paradise bristles with intrigue, incorporating buzzing electronics, intricate drum programming, even sultry saxophone that constantly reminds you of its New Wave pedigree.

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AWFULLY SINISTER’S Picks

Seeming - The World

“I’m gonna break out my skin. I am more than the pain I’m in.”

Since 2014’s Madness & Extinction, Alex Reed’s project Seeming has occupied a space in my lifelong affair with music that I’ve never found the words for to properly describe. In fact, each successive Seeming album has only further confounded me and my limited vocabulary, not just because of the sheer diversity of different music styles at play, but because of the songs’ immediate accessibility.

The World, Seeming’s 4th album, continues the project’s bold embrace of our declining, well, world. Reed’s musings on our current moment are colored by personal feelings, anecdotes, and declarations of the emotions that such a topic can elicit. “Tomorrow Place,” as perfect of a pop song as you’ll find on any album concerning the end of the world, sounds like an affirmation of hope in a hopeless reality. “Any Other World” is a speedy, frantic piece on the verge of spiraling out of control, Reed in desperate and yearning form. “Assassin’s Lovesong” is a warm, folksy piano ballad whose subject matter is exactly what the title describes. 

The World’s electronic foundations support all manner of piano, harpsichord, strings, horns, post-punk rhythms, and rough, distorted textures, synthesized into songs chock-full of infectious melodies, choruses, and hooks. Reed is the one-man show in a theatrical gothic play about the anguish, dreams, and hopes a cruel and destructive reality inflicts upon us and the environment. It’s both a widescreen view of us as a species and a deeply personal confession, like notes from a diary. “Post-gothic” might not be a helpful descriptor if you’ve never listened to Seeming before, but it’s one of only a few genre tags that feel appropriate when talking about music this immediate and accessible but also so ambitious and dark. Listen to The World and apply it to your own world.

Corlyx - Purple Pain

With post-punk exploding like it has over the last 5 to 6 years, I tend to eyeball newer acts making music in this vein with a more critical, more cynical lens. How many more Boy Harsher and She Past Away wannabes does the world really need? 

Corlyx’s newest album Purple Pain brings the energy, fun, pop, and mirth to the modern goth/darkwave scene that I feel is missing a lot. Corylx’s attention to melody in the riffs and programming is essential, but even more so is frontwoman Caitlin Stokes’s expressive voice. No pseudo-Ian Curtis mumbling here; Stokes is up-front and center–confident, beguiling, and powerful. Of course, collaborations with German vampire extraordinaries Blutengel on “Upon on the Cross” and Finnish darkwave solo songstress Suzi Sabotage on “Kill Cave” make the space that Purple Pain occupies feel that much bigger.

At 19 songs, a lot of ground is covered, from the brooding, “Apocalipsis,” to the midtempo dancefloor cut “Darkness is the Future” to the goth rock stormer “The Sacrifice.” Stokes and co. serve up big choruses and hooks galore in each song. Corlyx sound cool and they look cool on Purple Pain.

Pixel Grip - Percepticide: The Death of Reality

I’m happy to see Pixel Grip get a big profile boost over the last year, though I certainly didn’t see it happening by way of Travis Scott sampling one of their songs without permission or giving credit. Nonetheless, I can only hope that scandal at least put a few additional eyes on the Chicago group, especially considering Percepticide: The Death of Reality is one of the year’s best albums in my estimation. 

So much music that’s considered “goth” or “darkwave” or “industrial” is withdrawn, mopey, and down on itself. I love a lot of music that fits those descriptors, but that’s also why it’s so remarkable when an album like this comes along. Rita Lukea and the gang have always had attitude, but Percepticide is abundant with riposte. The fast electro-punk of “Bet You Do.” and the clubby, aggressively sexual “Stamina” is a one-two punch against fuckboys everywhere. “Insignificant” is a love letter to The Haters. “Jealousy Is Lethal” is equal parts vulnerable and contemptuous. 

Percepticide: The Death of Reality pounds, buzzes, whirs, and gyrates. EBM and techno influences are here, but so is the more melodic side of synthpop and even trap and punk. It’s a synthesis of electronic music styles in one angry, engrossing package.

Gallows’ Eve - For the Black Birds

The follow-up to their 2024 debut 13 Thorns, Gallows’ Eve delivers another helping of heavy, riff-focused, and uncannily catchy gothic rock. The band’s roots in heavy metal show, not just in the intensity of the riffs but also in attitude and atmosphere, with respect to the ultra-goth lyrical themes and the dramatic baritone of vocalist Andreas Lundberg. Synth strings and mournful piano complement the rocking guitars and recall the more symphonic moments of early Fields of the Nephilim and The Mission albums. “We Chase the Dark” is a future goth rock classic, with an anthemic chorus and hooky riff. “Empty Night” is the kind of gothic love song you don’t hear too much these days. “The Hunger” is a stormy, slow closer that concludes the album in heavy tragedy. 

Gallows’ Eve will likely repel people who prefer subtlety and detachment in their music. But if you like the melodramatic and even campy side of this sort of music, the gravitas of For the Black Birds will feel like it was made just for you, like how I feel it was made just for me. 

Mercury’s Antennae - Among the Black Trees

It’s been a long 7 years since the last time we heard from Mercury’s Antennae, in the form of the excellent EP The Moon Viewing Garden. New album Among the Black Trees is another exploration of that specific style of wooshy, whismiscal gothic dreampop that I adore so much. Given the band’s pedigree, like Dru Allen of This Ascension heading vocal duties, this style shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to newcomers. The electronic beats are floaty and soft, carrying ethereal guitar riffs that make up so much of the personality of Among the Black Trees. The Portland trio’s gauzy and gentle vibes pairs nicely with the dark atmosphere of tracks like “The Reflecting Skin” and and the shoegazy “As I Lay Hidden (Deer Island).” 

Among the Black Trees was inspired by forest fires in the Pacific Northwest, crumbling relationships, and personal distance among the band members. The result is a style of music that should be catnip for those in the know: a dreariness and mystique that sounds like it could only be made by forest sprites who read too much gothic poetry and later picked up guitars and a drum machine. Okay, maybe I’m projecting my own mind palace onto the band and their goals, but the fact remains that Among the Black Trees by Mercury’s Antennae should be on your radar if you like goth music of any stripe. 

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VERO’S Picks

Mercy Girl - Closer (EP)

I got introduced to Mercy Girl earlier this year, and I fell immediately in love so hard with their blend of coldwave, post-punk and modern darkwave. Super lush, smokey and extremely tasteful productions, effortless and sensuous vocal delivery, with infectious melodious synth hooks all over massive bass grooves and beats. It’s such a fantastic vibe and a wondrous masterclass in aural aesthetic - whether for that cool gothic underground club or dimly-lit bedrooms. Their 5-track debut EP “Closer” hits every mark and delivers an impactful experience. A band on an expeditious rise in the modern darkwave realms.

APNOIE - Sad Living + Sad Mind

This record took me by surprise this year. Apnoie has released a fun dark pop album before, but in “Sad Living + Sad Mind” she really elevated the genre. The use of rich atmospheric pads, crystalline arps and giant saws running under her doe-eyed, effervescent vocals reminiscent of Alice Glass and early Crystal Castle days all create a beautifully unsettling, haunting yet infectiously wondrous vibe as though a white rabbit leaves us a trail of candy into a dark forest. With songs in English, French and German, it really is that special type of record you would discover in a chic and super cool Parisian underground club that only the fashionable crowd would know about. And the brilliant album cover is the album art of the year for me for sure — look how cool!

VH x RR - 101 (EP)

I think everyone has their own key synthpop band that they go to instead of the usual Depeche Mode, and it has been VH x RR for me whenever I need that fix. Consisting of Von Hertzog and Rob Rowe of the 90s synthpop band Cause & Effect, I’ve been following them since day 1 and every release has been truly superb, evocative and thoughtfully put together. They’re very perceptive about their writing and arrangements - nothing is taken for granted. Production is premium grade (Von is quite the production maestro and engineer to the stars - ahem! ;), the compositions are rich and kaleidoscopic, but chill — not demanding yet catchy AF. I’ve called Rob’s vocals the “cool boyfriend vocals of nostalgic years” before that would rival and trump over any synthpop and new wave male vocalist in history. I would die on that hill.

101 is their top offering to date that delivers a fluid concept and storytelling contained within their very own unique soundscape.

Vioflesh - Nostalgia

Vioflesh from Chile has been successfully ploughing and cutting through the very thick marshes of coldwave and modern darkwave the last couple of years, and they are quite the breakthrough act, recently opening for Twin Tribes and wrapping up their very first North American tour to be followed by a European tour in 2026! Cool, chill yet haunting vocals over some of the catchiest and most memorable synth hooks, hard-hitting bass synths and giant kick-and-snare grooves, their music vibes like dark velvety dreams in violet-tinged smoke with their effortlessly jeweled, atmospheric production.

Their full-length album Nostalgia seamlessly delivers this velvety rich experience from start to finish. If they hit your city while on tour, consider yourself lucky!

2DCAT, HAEZL - This Is Not For You

No matter how we feel about the app, Spotify’s discovery algorithm works super well sometimes as that’s how I discovered 2DCat and Haezl not too long ago. I am quite the sucker for incredible vocalists and some real awesome chops. It’s just something that despite of all the trends happening with drone-y, nonchalant vocal performances, I need my fix of spine-tingling yet soothing mastery. Their record “This Is Not For You” mixes and explores dark synthpop with synthwave and neon noir, alongside Haezl’s amber-hued vocal range that can span grounded depths to soaring ethereal heights. Some of the tracks carry giant, moody synth designs reminiscent of Stranger Things or the band S U R V I V E interwoven with their exuberant synthpop sensibilities.

Mortes - Thorns

Post-punk and gothic rock artist-producer Mortes delivered one of the most lush and charismatic, vampire-themed records this year entitled “Thorns.” And it’s his debut with the opening track inviting listeners to bite him. And this was enough to want to start donning fangs, velvet gowns, and bat wings around dark castle halls. In the sea of post-punk acts that frankly could easily sound the same — and sometimes I find a little too laid-back in their production— the concept, bleeding-heart performances, the guitar and bass-driven arrangements and production in Mortes’ “Thorns” are remarkably sensational and truly thoughtful. Mortes may very well be the new Duke of Darkness.

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CHRIS’ Picks

Panic Priest - Once Wild

I don’t know how Panic Priest flew under my radar for so long. Every song I’ve heard is a certified goth club banger. Check out “Dance to the Downfall” on their latest release and move to the vibe.

Tetrarch - The Ugly Side of Me

This list needs at least a couple of metal picks, and Tetrarch’s brand of straight ahead riff-fueled rage is one of the ones that turned my head this year.

Lacrimorta - One Flesh, One End

I’ve loved every single one of Lacrimorta’s albums, and her latest continues the trend. One Flesh, One End is pure gothic elegance.

Messa - The Spin

Dark, atmospheric and heavy. Italy’s Messa injects a black-tinged beauty into their grand visions of doom.

Mechina - Bellum Interruptum

When you want your prog metal with a heaping side of sci-fi, look no further.