Snake River Conspiracy: Sonic J!had (4.5/5)

Year: 2000
Genre: Industrial Goth Rock
Label: Morpheus
TRT: 45:55

I went through a huge industrial goth phase in my teenage years, especially when it came to female fronted ones.

This band is/was comprised of two people, Tobey Torres (that's a chick) on vocals, and Jason Slater (former bassist of Third Eye Blind) on everything else. I think they added a guitarist later.

Unlike their musical contemporaries (Collide, Kidneythieves, et cetera), most of thier lyrics are self-satirizing and tongue in cheek. Very entertaining. This, their lone album, also contains two of the best covers I've ever heard, Love Song (The Cure) and How Soon is Now (The Smiths).

I keep hoping that one day a sophmore release will appear out of no where and blow me away, but for now, I'll just have to be content with what is available.

01 Breed
02 Casualty
03 You and Your Friend
04 Lovesong
05 Act Your Age
06 More Than Love
07 Strangled
08 Oh Well
09 Somebody Loves You
10 Vulcan
11 How Soon is Now?

Search for Snake River Conspiracy on Amazon

Rackets & Drapes: Love Letters From Hell (4/5)

Year: 2003
Label: Self Released
Genre: Dark Synth Electro Goth
TRT: 53:18

Forget what you know about this band if you're familiar with Rackets & Drapes from their first few releases, which were nothing short of Gothic Shockrock from a Christian perspective. While I personally liked this angle back in the day, I realize that was a turn-off for many.

However, their 2003 (and final?) release, Love Letters From Hell, completely ditchs this kitsch. What you get here is a really sick and dirty synth-driven electrosextronic instead. All based on sex, prostitutes and the adult film industry.

01 Shock Therapy
02 Children of the Damned
03 Redlite Deadlite
04 Sex Doll
05 Valentine
06 Retail Slut
07 Halloween (Bring Out the Dead)
08 Distortion
09 She Devil
10 Stiletto 13
11 No Place Like Hell

Search Amazon for Rackets & Drapes