Herald rating: * * *
It's with a song like The Dog's Vapour, a dark and eerie track on Bauhaus' fifth album - and first in 25 years - that you realise why they were one of the leaders of the goth music scene with Siouxsie and
the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy and the like in the late '70s and early '80s.
It's a twisted and tense track that erupts into a haze of distant howls and circling and searing riffs. It's gloomy in the extreme, everything you want from a new Bauhaus record.
They've reunited a few times since disbanding in 1983 but on International Bulletproof Talent, where singer Peter Murphy's droll voice turns into a yelp, the band start leaning into the songs more and Go Away White starts to fume. Endless Summer of the Damned stalks its way into your mind; in the other extreme, six-minute Saved creaks into life; and the dissonant whistling and wheezy vocals of Black Stone Heart make an otherwise jaunty song sick.
But while there's many menacing moments here, Bauhaus don't quite conjure up the passion of old - you know, that wild passion that makes you wanna hang from the rafters.
Label: Shock/Cooking Vinyl
Verdict: First new music in 25 years from goth godfathers sounds good and gloomy
