Unquiet Grave III — Unearthing the Underground

This is the third installment of Unquiet Grave, a 2 CDs compilation of songs from underground bands coming from various dark backgrounds; darkwave, goth-rock, industrial & a pinch of black-metal. This release comes in a very nice packaging with liner notes about Cleopatra Records' views on the advance of the digital medias and how they use them to discover some fresh talent. It also contains a booklet which includes contacts information for all the bands featured; all in all, it's impossible to fault the quality of the packaging.

But what about the music! 150 minutes of music for 10$? "Is that really as good a deal as it appears" will you ask; well, it depends.. The quality and style of the bands varies a lot, as is expected from a compilation, but I'm happy to report that there is no total garbage (the track by The Shizit gets on my nerves a lot but I can see how it would appeal to others) and that the production stays in the "decent to good" area. Some songs are more forgettable than others, but if you buy this compilation it's not for the consistency anyway; it's to discover some new bands for cheap (and in this case, they are handpicked by Cleopatra, so if you appreciate the kind of stuff they have on their rooster, chances are you'll find much to like here).

The first CD (the first is called "Sin" and the second "Doom") goes more toward the goth-rock/darkwave end of the spectrum with a little symphonic black-metal thrown in for good measure and the second hits a little harder with the electronics and is a bit more guitar oriented.

Some tracks I think are worth mentioning:

CD1 track #10 Gropius - Tents of Kedar = wow! Violin, great female vocals with some "1001 Nights" arabic influences.. Definitely a band I'd like to find out more about!

CD2 track #1 Messy (featuring Jessicka) - Make You Believe = Impressive, a very mellow start, some electronic sounds, nice female vocals.. And then BANG! Guitars blasting, no more nice female vocals - now we've got Satan's little sister screaming at the top of he lungs. Unexpected is the word.

CD2 track #2 Doll Factory - Touch = Am I going crazy? I was half expecting to see "Featuring Trent Reznor" in the liner notes. That guy's voice is very similar and even the music isn't that far removed from the guy with the long nails... This song could've been on Broken, no, more like on Fixed (the remix CD of Broken for those who didn't know).

For those who like this kind of music; as far as compilations go, it's hard to ask for more.