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For anyone who's interested, here followeth preliminary-listen comments on the albums I picked up at Whitby.

In alphabetical order...

Convenant - Northern Light

The couple of people I mentioned this to both said "Oooh, that's a really good album", and I'm inclined to agree with them. I don't know much Covenant, and I bought it on the strength of liking one song (Call The Ships to Port).

This album mostly hangs around at the dancey end of things, with sweeping lush synthy sounds and long, slow vocals. I actually really like it, and have been listening to it a lot this week. And good lyrics too - and lots of 'em, none of yer "one world one sky" nonsense on this album.

A good album for evenings.

Deathboy - Music to Crash Cars To

Bought because I enjoyed their performance on Thursday night at Whitby.

The sound on this album is rather more stripped-down and less fierce than it seems live, though they do still manage to get an impressively fat, industrial sound out. And look! Programmed loops'n'stuff and drums.

And despite the lyrics being mostly snarled rather than sung, they're audible. Which is unusual. And have some good moments - I'm not saying they're nice lyrics, but there's some great lines in there.

Gloomy, dark, and grindy overally, but I'm enjoying it. killer reminds me of one of the FLA remixes from Re-Wind, but I can't off-hand work out which one.

Disappointingly, it doesn't include The 80s Are Dead, and despite Deathboy having more mp3s than God avilable for download, I can't locate it on line. (

deeteeuk or

diffrentcolours, can you provide a copy?)

Katscan - Feral Bios

Bought because I enjoyed their performance supporting Crüxshadows in, er, I dunno, July or something.

I think Katscan are the easy-listening of unlistenable music. They combine thumpy back beats, electronic noise, bleepy bits and shouty vocals in such a softcore way that even your mum would probably like it.

I recognise one track (Flowest Cunning Demonator) from when they played live, and it's just how I remember it - great to dance to. I'm as yet unconvinced whether these tracks work on headphones. At anything other than full blast, they sound a bit feeble...

Manuskript - The Cyprus Recordings

Bought after Resurrection had it playing while I was browsing, and I'm fond of Manuskript anyway.

This is a collection of Manuskript rarites, liveities and covers. And is, as you'd expect, mostly cheerful and bouncy, and all a bit outdated-synthy-sounding. I like it, though on a few listens the four live tracks at the end (before the cover of Rock Me Amadeus) have kind of passed me by without much being noticed about them.

I'm pleased to notice that No Reprise still has the power to make me smile - it made me laugh out loud when they played in on Sunday night. It contains The Cheesiest Key Change In The World. Ever. If you have a copy to hand, have a listen.

Then again, no one else laughed on Sunday, so maybe it's just me.

Psychophile - Transition

Bought because I enjoyed their performance at Gotham in May/Juneish.

Of all the bought-because-I-liked-them-live albums, I think this was probably the most disappointing on first listen. Whatever it is that makes them good on stage most definitely doesn't come over. They're lacklustre, samey, and Lucy's amazingly powerful and flexible voice somehow comes out as a monotonous wail. The loopy-bleepy bits are uninspired, and I haven't even particularly noticed the guitars yet.

To be fair, on a second listen I noticed some more interesting bits about it, but was still disappointed that Darklight (fantastic live or in a club) just sounds a bit... silly.

So, at present, I'm filing this under sub-standard gothy pop shite, and hoping it gets better with a few listens. (For reference, Manuskript are file as good gothy pop shite.)

You know, writing these kind of worries me, since I know how many of the people involved in these bands have LJs. Thankfully, none of them are likely to read mine :)