Gothic darkwave act The Awakening deliver their eponymous album as their twelfth. Founded in 1995 in South Africa by multi-instrumentalist Ashton Nyte, The Awakening has been a genre-defining band for gothic rock and darkwave for 30 years. I was not familiar with Ashton’s work but had some familiarity with gothic-inspired acts like My Silent Wake, Virgin Black, and Kohllapse, which are regularsin my musical rotation. The Awakening is something different.

As mysterious as a vampire, the history of The Awakening is hard to piece together. It started as a side project for Ashton and another bandmate from Martyr’s Image along with other musicians. Focusing on a gothic rock sound, their style meandered through darkwave and art rock, eventually developing their self-described style of dark future rock. Ashton split his attention between The Awakening releases and his own solo albums for most of the band’s history, garnering much success particularly in South Africa and abroad thanks to his own label, Intervention Arts.

This one took a couple of spins for me to understand. I was unimpressed on the first listen mostly because I didn’t know what I was listening to. However, after a couple of times through, it started to click. The album is all about atmosphere, mood, and message with enough musical technicality necessary to accomplish the vision. The atmosphere for me is like moonlight shining through trees like splinters with silhouettes of vampires who lament their lot in the world. The mood is an overwhelming melancholia that is born from lamentations of the pains of the world. The message, oddly enough, is not as gloomy but like the moonlight splinters, is bright hope around an overwhelmingly dark world. From a Christian’s perspective, this presents as a rather unique angle on the spiritual journey.

Ashton’s timbre instantly reminds me of David Bowie. He has a deep baritone that lends well to this gloomy genre. Having a low voice is difficult to get a good hook, but Ashton delivers some infectious lines like in “Mirror Midnight” and “See You Fall.” Guitars and synths are interwoven together to form the musical fabric ranging from electric guitar-driven songs like the Saviour Machine-esque track “Through The Veil” to gentle acoustic work like “Your Vampire.” On the more instrumentally dense songs like “Haunting,” synth pads add atmosphere and other tones give just a hint of melody. Drums are rather formulaic, but do the trick of supporting the mood without breaking it. It is elegantly simple.

The songs vary between lower energy sorrowful crooning and the higher energy gothic rock tracks. The “wave” aspects of the songs move the songs forward at a steady pace, while the “dark” keeps an ever-present shroud over the mood. There is a simplicity in the song structures which make the punk roots of darkwave easily heard on tracks like “Mirror Midnight” and “See You Fall.” For the more somber tunes, the music has a somewhat depressive feel that never has enough initiative to actually do the emotional work of catharsis. For example, the mood of “Continuum” to me is a resignation to gloominess.

This is very much an art rock approach to the genre, with great attention to detail and subtlety. After the more brooding opening tracks “Below the Emptiness” provides a hint of optimism in the synth voices and the melodies. The song swells a little in the middle before fading into the next song. The intentional non-instrumental interlude speaks to the album as a larger journey instead of an assortment of songs. Towards the end of the album, “Cabaret” showcases one of the most complex musical landscapes of the album that actually ascends to some intense musical moments that are quite stirring. “Continuum” has a profound stature with its intentional piano motif that reminds me of Charles Ives’ “The Unanswered Question.” And with that track, the album ends more with a whimper than a bang.

This is dark art rock done well. At times the heartbeat goes as slow as a vampire’s, but there are some moments of energy and light that contrast well. It has good dynamics, but doesn’t always make it to climactic heights. I hear a musician with great vision and great skill delivering a solid helping of gothic darkwave for anyone curious about the genre. Fans of Saviour Machine or Eric Clayton would find this entertaining for sure.

Talking of checking them out, if you are blessed to be in Europe or out west in the US, The Awakening is taking to the stage and likely bringing more than a few songs from this release on tour. The culmination of the tour is at Brainstorm in the Netherlands in November, which has quite the roster so far. Definitely worth checking out if you happen to be around!

Rating: 8/10

Written by Sean Bailey

Tracklist
1 – Shimmer
2 – Mirror Midnight
3 – Through The Veil
4 – Your Vampire
5 – Haunting
6 – Below The Emptiness
7 – See You Fall
8 – Fallout
9 – Sliver
10 – Not Here
11 – Cabaret
12 – Continuum

The Awakening is:
Ashton Nyte – everything

Release Date: October 18, 2024

Record Label: Intervention Arts

Discography:
Risen (1997)
Request (1998)
Ethereal Menace (1999)
The Fourth Seal of Zeen (2000)
Roadside Heretics (2002)
Darker Than Silence (2004)
Razor Burn (2006)
Tales of Absolution and Obsoletion (2009)
Chasm (2018)
This Alchemy (2021)
The Passage Remains (2022)
The Awakening (2024)

Social Media: Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify | Bandcamp

Video for Mirror Midnight

Video for Haunting

Video for Through The Veil