Vestige & Vigil has taken Bellwether Syndicate six years to produce, the band are the brainchild of William Faith and Chad Blinman with assistance from Scary Lady Sarah, Corey Gorey, Philly Peroxide and Stevyn Grey. Who between them have been in among others Christian Death, Clan Of Xymox, Face To Face and Jarboe.
This opens with Vestige a semi orchestral goth prelude to the album, with what sound like military drummers going full pelt against the string section.
Beacons was the second single from the album crashes in with the guitars riffing away like The Cult on rare, good form, the staccato rhythm never lets up as the darkened hues come through in the bellowed vocals.
Noir Thing takes an Eddie Cochran riff, re-works and remodels it, into a speedy ode to the darker side of things as they go out and about at midnight getting up to no good.
We All Rise slows things down to a more normal Goth pace, not quite funereal as this explodes with rage and anger at the chorus, getting properly disturbed, before calming down once more as they look at all the lies and treachery of our times.
Republik makes clear how they are not happy with the direction the Republik they live in is headed in, they acknowledge what's been lost, can never be recovered, as the tribal drumming gets locked into a groove for the guitars to fire off from.
Clarion is the first tune to feature vocals from Scary Lady Sarah whose vocals have a bit of a Rose Macdowall influence, with the guitars creating a wall of sound behind her vocals as the drums are slower and softer than on the rest of the album.
Vigil has a ticking clock, like they are waiting for the last breath before the doomy guitars come in and this tale of all the loss and sorrow of the last few years unfurls.
Dystopian Mirror was the first single from the album has good industrial goth sound, pounding drums, angry vocals trying to make sense of the modern world, while all they see in that Mirror is Dystopian pain, suffering fear, over soaring guitars, rambunctious bass, searching for a way to take the shame away, without losing your mind.
Wetworks is a title that brings some weird scenes to mind, as golden showers of guitars strafe across the speakers, waterfalls of drums descend, as the lyrics make clear what sort of Wet play they are into. Oh the sort that's perfect for the Golden Age of course, this is a dark hued duet with hints of Sparkle In The Rain as the huge guitars encase everything.
And If We Miss The Night is a slow dark goth bulb changer, to twist in a thin things style too, as the guitars howl in anguish at this requiem for what's been lost or left behind.
The album closes with Voltairine as string laden outro with a slow heartbeat pulse for the end credits to roll over.
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