Berkshire Goths Her Despair have churned out quite a nice little EP in the form of Mournography (geddit?!)
Taking the usual suspects as a starting point, the band actually manage to weave a fair bit of tunefulness in with their default misanthropy; Consequently Valentine’s Mourning has shards of the Psychedelic Furs running through it where you might normally expect the first couple of Anathema albums to have laid their mark. Similarly vocalist J is more Peter Murphy than Nick Holmes, his inherent croaky melodicism infecting everything he sings over with an alluring singsong feel. Drenched in shades of black, obvs.
The songs aren’t quite world class yet, save for moments in the afore-mentioned Valentine’s…, but already there is enough evidence on hand to declare Her Despair a cut above the usual cider-fuelled graveyard frolics in song form offered up by young Byronics the World over.
Given a following wind and a few quid in the kitty to beef up the production values, Her Despair could well be on to something here…
Mournography is out now.
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