Released
September 1998

Label
Metropolis Records

Reviewed by
lastsigh (at) waste dot org

Contact
Metropolis Records

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Last Edit/Update
04 July, 1999

Clan Of Xymox

Creatures

Track Listing

1. Jasmine and Rose
2. Crucified
3. Taste of Medicine
4. Undermined
5. Consolation
6. Waterfront
7. Creature
8. All I Have
9. Falling Down
10. Without a Name
11. Doubts

Xymox is
Ronny Moorings - voice, guitar
Mojca Zugna - bass, voice, keys
Rui Ramos - drums
Rob Vonk - guitar, b. voice
Nina Simic - keys
Xymox formed in Amsterdam in 1984.

     This is actually a pretty nice CD. It's *not* that pretentious goth-rock that abounds in the scene these days. Xymox has actually been around for a long time to perfect their sounds. "Creatures" has a deep powerful sound on this release, vocals sound to me a bit like Bowie, but it could be the accent thing going on? Melodic, guitar in the all the right places to accent the individual pieces, dark yet not depressing, and woofer jiggling bass is quite prevalent. Track two ends with a little taste of what sounds like an acoustic guitar and vocals stating, "You have changed.... you have changed...." which was pretty nice to hear.
    Track three, "Taste Of Medicine", is very good with whining atmospheric guitar and synth (Nina Simic), and is a great track for a dance club to hear! Really strong in terms of "let me push you on the dance floor and do our thing!" Yep, I can just picture those dark clad people of the night grooving out to this one. This CD reminds me of one of the few gothic type bands I have heard that I like, which is Sisters of Mercy, not all of Sisters work mind you, but some of it. The release also had a pretty fair amount of keyboards on it, I really can't make out when the vocals change from person to person....which would mean that they sound like the same person in every track. A couple tracks have backup vocals however. Most of the tracks also have the same type of background guitar/synth makeup which is one reason I tend to shy away from listening to this type of music at my leisure, ie. it bothers me/is boring to me.
    Overall I think this release sounds great for the type of music it is. If you are a Clan Fan you might want to pick this one up. I haven't heard other Clan releases so I can't do any comparative analysis here.