Dark Awakening Vol. 5 CD

Somebody must be buying these compilations. This is yet the fifth volume in the deeply D.I.Y. series Dark Awakening, featuring cuts by bands from all over the European and American spectrum who fit (or don't quite) in the darkwave/goth/industrial/electro sub-underground genres. The big name on this installation in the series is Fields of the Nephilim with a latter day cut "Xiberia (Seasons in the Ice Age)," from the 2006 release Mourning Sun on SPV, but other standouts are the spooky, creepy, and icy electronics of "F*ck You," by Virtual Embrace that is as nihilistic as the most buttheaded hardcore punk band from the late '70s or early '80s but are musically far more interesting. There is also a winner in the slimmer than slim pulsing electro of Virtual Space Industry's "Traitor," and FabrikC's over-the-top sterile German nightmare programming in "Der Zweite Tod." All of these appear on disc one. The second disc offers plenty more ice scape vibes with Voices of Masada's gothic rock & roll on "Flight." (How come all these singers sound like either Ian Curtis, Andrew Eldritch, Peter "Blitz" Murphy, or Carl McCoy?) There's the God's Army's drum machine-driven guitarfest in "The Ninth Gate," the predictable male vocal countered by an elegant female one, the metallic gothic glam of Devilish Presley's hiply titled "She's Not America," and the acoustic gothic and darkwave machinations of Tors of Dartmoor's "Welcome to the House," aptly sequenced dead last on this comp. Fans of this stuff will no doubt eat it up, but someone should add least try to ape Billy Idol's taut baritone to make the vocals seem, well, alive. ~ Thom Jurek