Various Artists

Item: Excelsis: A Dark Noël
Author: NecRoSarX

Excelsis: A Dark Noël

(1995)

Reviewed by NecRoSarX

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Label Rugged Cross ConnectionsDead Zine2003

ambient darkwave gothic rock

It never fails, like clockwork, every year when the Christmas season approaches, my gothic tendencies tend to dominate a bit more. I don't know, it may have something to do with my uncle going out behind the barn one Christmas when I was five, shooting off a shotgun, and then coming back in to inform me that Santa Claus had just committed suicide. Come to think of it, that was also the first time that I saw Grandmother chase him around the farm with a cookie sheet...

Anyway, therapy session aside, I'd like to turn everyone's attention to this most excellent collection of Christmas songs covered by various Goth bands that, unless you're well aware of the subculture, most will never have heard of. This is actual Goth, put out on a Goth mainstay label. I haven't seen this one sold in many Christian book stores, simply because most of the bands on the CD aren't Christian artists. About the only two here that I know are Christian are Lycia and the Godmother of Goth / death rock Eva O., doing a very haunting rendition of "O Holy Night". Beyond the issue of who's saved and who's not though, the music is very beautiful, very poetic and very traditional in the Christmas sense that the lyrics honor the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well okay, Love Spirals Downwards does a cover "Welcome Christmas" from How the Grinch Stole Christmas (it was the song the people of Whoville sang), but let's face it, it's a Christmas staple. Some of the other standouts on the disc are: Argania opening out the disc with "Carol Of The Bells"; FuchiKachis Ethu's part English, part Latin rendition of "O Come All Ye Faithful"; another cover of "Carol Of The Bells" by This Ascension; Thanatos' very dark "The First Noel"; Faith And The Muse's "A Winter Wassail"; and Attrition's "Silent Night".

This is a Christmas CD that I listen to a lot, although I do want to point out that the overall feel of the disc is SOMBER. I recommend this disc for my Christian Goth brethren, and anyone seeking not-so-traditional Christmas albums.

8/10