Browsing Tag

Dark Folk

JoeJoe S – Bow to the Screen: a deadpan honky folk confrontation with vapid digital noise

Posted on 11 April 2026

There’s almost a sense of surrealism in how JoeJoe S, the mesmerically talented singer-songwriter otherwise known as Joy Seroussi, uses the harbingering honky folk tones of Tom Waits in Bow to the Screen to deliver an exposition on how modernity is enslaved by our digital dopamine addictions, our lives and faces becoming hollower and hollower the more we transfix ourselves to our screens.

Seroussi, a father of three living between Tel Aviv and Plomari, only began writing songs at the end of 2022, yet there’s nothing tentative or amateur about the force or clarity of his voice here. His songwriting comes from a place of feeling, consequence and self-therapy, and that lived candour gives the single its sting.

That sting deepens through the waltzy dark folk instrumentation and deadpan vocals, which make the track visceral enough in its conviction to snap you out of the cycle of waking up and staring into the void of vapid, banal noise, making you question how we’ve allowed ourselves to call this life living.

Written as a reflection on the way endless content has started replacing meaningful human connection, the song frames a familiar reality with startling sharpness. I could quote every single lyrical line as a testament to the singer-songwriter’s ability to cast an aspect of reality in a completely new light. Nick Cave and Amigo the Devil themselves would bow down in reverence to the ingenuity of this release.

Bow to the Screen is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Manchester’s Mat Thorpe Confronts Widespread Malaise in the Sermonic Dark-Folk Reckoning of ‘Jaded’

Posted on 20 March 2026

As a fledgling goth coming of age in Manchester, fellow native Mat Thorpe appeared more as a monolith than a cornerstone in the city’s scene. His presence behind the decks at goth nights and his performances with The March Violets and Isolation/Division kept the alternative undercurrent vital, alive, and reverent to Manchester’s post-punk legacy. That lineage runs deep, and now, writing and performing under his own name as a solo dark-folk spectre on the airwaves, Thorpe is summoning sermonic atmospheres entrenched with ritualistic energy and iconography.

His seminal piece, Jaded, stands as a hymnal intersection between post-punk influence and pagan folklore. The track addresses widespread malaise through vivid imagery that flashes past you while you are harbingered away from letting apathy swallow you whole. There is something almost liturgical in the pacing as the instrumentation draws from traditional folk textures while allowing cinematic shadows to gather at the edges, reflecting both Manchester’s industrial ghosts and Thorpe’s own lived past.

The final crescendo is the epitome of an aural reckoning. That symphonic visualisation of overcoming adversity to find the light lands as a broadsiding cinematic touch, promising far more as Thorpe continues to explore his talent in uncharted territory. For those who hold New Model Army close to the soul and playlists alike, Jaded feels like an ethereal awakening rooted in grounded conviction.

Jaded is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

‘Oh, the White Death’ ties mythic mortality to modern consciousness through the threads of Leiting & Van Kammen’s folky post-rock poetry

Posted on 18 December 2025

Leiting & Van Kammen dig through the annals of history to parable what still remains in modernity in Oh, the White Death, excavating ancient, immortal corners of the soul and tying us to our roots through traditional European folk instrumentation. As one of the standout compositions on their concept EP Death’s Dowry, the piece leans into atmospheric post-rock aesthetics while its accordant cacophony of folk strings resounds, reverberates, and angularly strikes with melodic fortitude. The vocals project as a sermonic hymn, spilling dark imagery to paint a portrait of how we all live with death hanging above us, trying to evade its gaze as we fill our worlds with heartbreak, hope and faith.

Based in Somers, Wisconsin, the duo shaped Death’s Dowry as a concept EP centred on Death as witness rather than villain, tracing legendary figures such as Saint Olga of Kyiv, Simo Häyhä and the Finnish tale of Lalli and the Bishop. They self-recorded and produced the collection, bringing together vocals, acoustic guitar, mandolin and cello into sparse, cinematic arrangements later shaped by mixer and mastering engineer Rob Kleiner.

Oh, the White Death channels their vision with particular force; it reaches the epitome of profound by leaving expansive room for interpretation as you absorb poetry that nestles into contours of consciousness rarely touched. Passive listening feels implausible while digging through this stridently impassioned, anthropologically macabre fable that wedges itself between mythology, mortality and melody. Against the skeletal hush of winter imagery, the song thrives as a reminder of how the stories we inherit can still mirror our own evasions and reckonings.

Oh, the White Death is now available on all major streaming platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Black Halo carried ancient-weighted progressive folk pop rock into ‘In Death I Linger On’

Posted on 11 December 2025

Black Halo’s moniker instantly leaves you with the impression that you’re about to be greeted by an artist who thrives on the uncharted intersections of emotive duality, and In Death I Linger On proves that impression right from the first chilling breath of sound.

Through the torrid yet calming arrangement, urgent yet measured in its pacing, Black Halo folded a meditation on mortality into a lattice of intricate fingerpicked notes that wrap themselves around stormy tension. The track sits comfortably in progressive folk pop rock, although it also touches the spiritual post-rock sphere with a natural ease, carrying a timeless sense of ancient wisdom as it moves. With quasi-operatic vocals reminiscent of the theatricality found in Nightwish and Within Temptation, fused with Euro folk motifs and Latin guitars, Black Halo showed a steady hand in pulling visceralism to the surface through confessional performance rather than forceful theatrics. It’s the kind of sound that sinks its teeth in slowly, then refuses to loosen its hold.

Behind that intensity sits a duo who have weathered enough turbulence to pour lived truth into their work without posturing. The themes they explore in their wider discography echo the same emotional excavation that shaped their debut album, Utopia, a concept-driven piece built around troubled characters and the demons that chase them.

Years ago, guitarist Randy Ellefson stepped away entirely after a long cycle of vocalists dropping out and delaying the record. Time passed before he picked it back up, reconnecting with Chase Breedlove, whose recovery paved the way for the album’s completion. The partnership returned renewed, shaped by perseverance, and that persistence hums beneath the surface of In Death I Linger On, where mortality, reflection and the need for release meet in a single strike.

In Death I Linger On is now available on all major streaming platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Joy Seroussi Created a Brooding Folk-Pop Ballad That Strikes Between Shadows and Light with ‘Sleepless Lullaby’

Posted on 15 July 2025

With all the gravitas of a Nick Cave duet, Joy Seroussi struck every nerve in the release of Sleepless Lullaby. The folk-turned-pop-rock ballad excels at broadsiding you while you’re caught off-guard, especially when you hear the opening lyric, “I’m floating like an angel, yeah feeling like a creep” – a line that burrows deep under the skin. In this dark folk dream, religious iconography lingers and rings against post-punk tinged guitars, conjuring an atmosphere where influences such as Cohen are transcended altogether.

The real magic of Sleepless Lullaby is how it creates a vignette of duality – never settling for the knee-jerk pull towards shadows, but embracing the light and darkness that lives within us all. Rather than posturing, the duo focus on the nuanced interplay of their influences and their own lived experiences, allowing the track to become a tour de gothic force that feels vital and unforced.

Drawing from the lived stories of Joy Seroussi – a father of three who splits his life between Tel Aviv and Plomari, only recently stepping into songwriting after decades of music as a listener and dancer – the track wears its heart and wisdom on its sleeve. Since 2022, Seroussi has poured his life’s ups and downs into his music, pulling inspiration from legends like Dylan, Cohen, Lennon, Cat Stevens, and Nick Cave. With five recordings to his name, his craft is both a form of self-therapy and a storytelling vessel, delivered in a language and style that refuses to play for mainstream affection but instead seeks resonance with those who understand the need for catharsis.

Sleepless Lullaby is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nicola Madill Stitched Shadows into Acoustic Flesh with Gothic Folk Reverie in ‘Absentee’

Posted on 19 May 2025

Absentee by Nicola Madill

With guitars that carry epochs of history in their Southern Gothic timbre and arcane harmonies which tear through the space-time continuum into a metaphysical arena of soul, Absentee doesn’t pander to genre pastiche; in the same vein as Low, Nicola Madill allows the arrangements to summon emotive hypnosis into the minds of her audience.

The masterclass in production gives space to every instrumental layer and ethereal whisper; as the arrangement thrums, twangs, shimmers and rhythmically reverberates, Madill tempers the alchemy with poetically introspective luminosity. It is an unforgettable introduction to the singer-songwriter who is so attuned to the decadence of dark gothic glamour that she triumphs in baring the true aura of it in her compositions.

With her MLitt in Creative Writing informing the richly metaphorical lyrics and cinematic scale of the soundscape, Madill stitched a narrative thread through the track that is both seductive and unsettling, coaxing catharsis from spectral corners of folk-rock. The restraint in her vocal performance speaks volumes in intimacy, echoing with the same unsettling grace that earned her debut album Selene, a Record of Note title from BBC Radio Scotland.

With her upcoming LP to be released in full on the midsummer solstice, Absentee serves as a portal into the atmospheric depths of her cultivated dark hymnal sound. Before the full record lands on 24th June 2025, Nicola Madill will carry the spectral torch across the UK and Ireland, supporting Martin Stephenson, including dates at The Cavern Club and London’s 229 Club.

Absentee is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Saint Senara’s ‘Lost Lisa Marie’: Where Sothern Gothic Folk Blues and Ghosts Collide

Posted on 2 February 2025

Saint Senara’s latest single, Lost Lisa Marie, demonstrates the award-winning singer-songwriter duo’s unrelenting commitment to crafting southern gothic folk with depth and distinction. Since their 2020 inception, their evolution has led to a sound that combines blues rock’s raw intensity, folk’s piercingly poetic imagery, and the atmospheric richness of Americana.

The haunting arrangement in Lost Lisa Marie invites listeners into a vivid sonic panorama. Blues rock guitars, distorted crescendos, and angular riffs collide to create an audibly tactile experience. As the powerhouse chanteuse’s vocals re-emerge over the brash blues-rock climax, her delivery cuts through the chaos with grace, grounding the intensity in rich, emotive clarity.

Far removed from the pitfalls of pastiche, Saint Senara imbue their sound with authenticity and power, allowing Lost Lisa Marie to unfold like a narrative in motion, leaving space for reflection as much as visceral connection.

For fans of blues-soaked Americana and raw poetic intensity, this is a track that will leave your pulse racing out of rhythm and your finger hovering over the replay button. Off the back of their successful headline shows in 2024, Lost Lisa Marie is both a standalone triumph and a stepping stone towards what promises to be an uncompromising future.

Lost Lisa Marie will be available to stream on all platforms from January 31^st. Find your preferred way to listen via the band’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Enter the Abyss: Michael Beirne’s Dark Folk Descent in The Doctor.

Posted on 11 October 2024

If you thought dark folk couldn’t get any darker, Michael Beirne’s seminal single, The Doctor., takes the listener to the genre’s most shadowed corridors. Taken from part 1 of his two-part LP The Haunted, The Doctor. is part of a larger chapter narrating an emergence from depressive, anxious, psychotic & sinful patterns of thought into hope & forgiveness.

Drawing inspiration from his Catholic faith, Beirne fuses religious iconography with motifs from avant-garde compositions which echo Glenn Branca, creating an eerily electrifying soundtrack to your darkest installations of introspection.

Vocally, Nick Cave meets Jim Jones to instil intensity around the pseudo-rap cadences which serve as dark sermons, resonating through the brooding production through which Michael Beirne cements himself as one of the most fearless figures in the contemporary alternative folk scene.

His ability to fuse experimental soundscapes with deeply personal themes, all while avoiding the genre’s clichés, shows just how much he’s evolved since his early days of experimentation.

The sombre tones may be all-consuming, but Beirne’s ability to make the descent into the abyss feel like a cathartic act of faith is nothing short of divine. If this is what Beirne can accomplish while staring into the void, we can only imagine what’s next.

Stream The Haunted Album, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 in full on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Harmonies of the Haunted: Michael Richard Beirne Shares His Artistic Revelation in an Exclusive A&R Factory Interview

Posted on 3 October 2024

This week, we sat down with Michael Richard Beirne to explore the depths of his unique approach to music showcased in his two-part LP, The Haunted.

Since 2020, Beirne has transitioned from crafting experimental soundscapes to composing structured, narrative-driven dark folk vignettes, influenced by Nick Cave and seminal albums such as Radiohead’s In Rainbows, which shape his distinct sonic identity. Beyond the melodies, Beirne intertwines his Catholic beliefs, addressing themes of redemption, the nature of evil, and divine love. As he shifts from darker, introspective themes to the exuberant and vibrant energies expected in future projects, Michael Richard Beirne is forging a powerful auditory narrative that resonates with deep personal and spiritual truths.

Michael Richard Beirne, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us and discuss your unique approach to lyricism and sonic expression exhibited through your two-part LP, The Haunted. How did you hone your clearly cultivated songwriting style?

Thank you for the opportunity of this interview & for your complimentary words.

I’ve been writing songs since 2020 when my brother gave me a new laptop with music-making software, a synthesiser & a microphone. The ability to write shorter, structured, narrative songs arrived after an extensive initial 2.5-year period of pure research, sample-collection, & eclectic loop-shopping, during which I made bizarre, rambling, experimental non-songs to find a way with lyrics & various ways of deploying my voice. At the end of 2022, I had a few songs which suggested the shape of a pair of albums, one set in Ireland and one set in Malta.

The Haunted is as sombre as it is strikingly Avant-Garde; the soundscapes give Nick Cave a run for his money. Who or what are your biggest influences and how do they fit into your distinct sonic identity?

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds are undoubtedly the single most important influence. I find inspiration in the soundscapes of particular tracks; for example, the cavernous, epic feeling of Song of Joy from the album Murder Ballads, the enormous eeriness of Do You Love Me? Part 2 from Let Love In, as well as the narrative complexity & storytelling in Oh My Lord from No More Shall We Part. These songs suggest a scope and vast ambition to which I aspire.

Beyond that, I am really inspired by the idea of the album itself as a consummate artistic object and statement of belief. In this respect, I aspire to create something as integrated as In Rainbows by Radiohead, Merriweather Post Pavillion by Animal Collective, Skeleton Tree by the Bad Seeds, & Speakerboxxx/ Love-Below by Outkast. These albums are scorchingly eclectic, varied, and unpredictable, and yet achieve a holistic and coherent singular vision. They transcend individual songs & become a unified narrative, harnessing multiple modes of expression.

As a Catholic, how important is it for you to incorporate your religion into your music?

I am strongly committed to ensuring that my music both directly & indirectly describes God (in that my songs are condemnatory of evil) and Jesus Christ (in that they are expressive of a joyful, redeemed universe which is founded on forgiveness & love). To express this belief, I take cues from traditional Irish folk tunes, as well as from gospel music, & gospel-infused funk & hip-hop.

You’ve teased that there are more releases in the pipeline; what themes will be explored in your future projects?

Part 1 is very much a kind of story of emergence from depressive, anxious, psychotic & sinful patterns of thought into hope & forgiveness. Part 2 is more directly a celebration of joyful adventure in a happier, more redeemed state of mind in a futuristic world.

Part 3 is very much about the idea of the interaction between believers & non-believers, and communication. This Part 3 is therefore, in Christian terms, a kind of “Holy Spirit” album; the songs are designed to be more obviously catchier, groovier, and infectious, with strong rhythm sections & boom-bap.

How does your music usually come to fruition?

Songs are usually built from just a single chord progression or electric bass riff. I give that a title which suggests some sort of character & dramatic narrative. I then record improvised singing, rapping & general wailing over the top. I listen back to these improvised takes until I begin to hear in them the shape of the words. I type these up as I listen back to the improvisations. Then I repeat the process through many iterations, adding in sonic details. I listen to the song for weeks or even months to iron out all the lyrics.

When are you most creatively inspired?

I’m most inspired by just a song’s title & the feeling that a loop or sample contains within it a hidden story & personality. It is as if the song already exists in a single note & the import of a single word.

How do your debut LP and your forthcoming releases fit into your creative ambitions?

My ambition is simply to make albums that in some way try to measure up to my favourite records and be like the kind of records that my father introduced me to. He introduced me to Songs of Leonard Cohen, Nebraska by Springsteen, and the Pogues’ Rum, Sodomy & The Lash, as well as the Johnny Cash American records. All I hope is that my albums will form a small part of the history of music and that they can exist alongside those timeless albums on platforms such as Spotify & Apple. My other main purpose is to share my gratitude for my life and my belief in Jesus.

–

Stream Part 1 and Part 2 of Michael Richard Beirne’s Haunted LP on Spotify.

Connect with the artist on Instagram.

Interview by Amelia Vandergast

An Avant-Garde Echo of Isolation: Lena Lovelace – The Lonely Doll Song

Posted on 12 July 2024

Lena Lovelace unexpectedly returned with her new single, The Lonely Doll Song, an audacious exploration into the depths of isolation and faded glory. Contrary to her announcement of a musical hiatus earlier this year, Lovelace’s latest orchestration plunges into the melancholic reality faced by child stars past their ephemeral peak of fame.

Inspired by the narrative of Björn Andrésen, whose youthful foray in the spotlight dwindled as portrayed in the documentary The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, Lovelace crafts a soundscape that mirrors this descent. The minimalist yet profound single, consisting of little more than ethereally haunting vocal layers paired with the sparse, resonant notes of an electric piano, becomes a raw, unfiltered reflection of neglect and obscurity.

Lovelace’s approach in The Lonely Doll Song eschews mainstream appeal to embrace a spectral quality; the melody and composition invoke a sense of disquiet, perfectly aligning with the theme of the piece which also exhibits the singer-songwriter’s awe-inspiring refusal to conform.

The Lonely Doll Song is now available to stream on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

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