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Band: MGT
Album title: Gemini Nyte
Release date: 23 February 2018
Label: Cleopatra Records
Tracklist:
01. All The Broken Things
02. Every Little Dream
03. Dystopia
04. Trading Faces
05. Everything Undone
06. The Reaping (Reprise)
07. Say Hello Wave Goodbye
08. The Assembly Line
09. Armageddon's Sideshow
10. Tear The Sun
11. Waiting For A Sign
12. Hide Your Secret
13. Atlanta
MGT, is a band/project formed by UK's guitarist Mark Gemini Thwaite, a musician who doesn't really need any introduction, because everybody who's into goth and alternative music should know him as being a composer and guitarist including The Mission, Tricky, Peter Murphy, New Disease, Spear Of Destiny, Theatre Of Hate, Mob Research (with Paul Raven of Killing Joke) and National Velvet, not to mention his various live and recorded appearances with many other well known names like Al Jourgensen, Revolting Cocks, Gary Numan, Roger Daltrey, P.J. Harvey, Alanis Morissette and Combichrist, just to name a few of them. MGT released the acclaimed debut album named Volumes in 2016 and on that album Mark gathered various very notable guest musicians like Ville Valo (HIM), Wayne Hussey (The Mission), Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls of The Wonder Stuff, Ricky Warwick (Black Star Riders, Thin Lizzy), Raymond Watts (PIG, KMFDM), Saffron (Republica), Julianne Regan (All About Eve), Ashton Nyte (The Awakening), Carlo Van Putten (Dead Guitars) and goth legend Andi Sex Gang. The track that got most plays was without any doubt the cover version of Abba classic “Knowing Me Knowing You”, which features Ville Valo on vocals.
Now, Mark Gemini Thwaite, under his MGT acronym returns with a new album, Gemini Nyte, and as the title already suggests he found a proper collaborator in nobody else than the amazing vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Ashton Nyte, who already did great things with his band The Awakening, and as well as a solo artist. But it doesn't stop here, the drums on this album are played by Paul Ferguson of Killing Joke and we can't skip a surprising guest appearance of Burton C Bell of Fear Factory. And if on Volumes there was still some melowness present, it seems that with Gemini Nyte MGT found the right balance between the hard hitting driving rhythms and gothic rock melancholy. Gemini Nyte is a modern dark rock album, not that much because of the sounds that might have influenced it, more because of the performance, songwriting and production.
MGT's sophomore album is a strong one and I can say that it brings forth the true essence of gothic rock, which this time is not really just one more plain and simple 80s inspired thing, it is much more, even though that it'll appeal in the first place to those who are into the dark sounds of that period, but believe me that we rarely hear something like this inside this scene anymore. All of the songs are very dynamic, starting with the catchy hit single "All The Broken Things". Gemini Nyte feels like a perfect combination of The Sisters Of Mercy, The 69 Eyes, HIM, The Mission, Killing Joke, Type O Negative and The Awakening. The hard driving edgy metalic guitars, plenty of typical gloomy goth rock elements, together with vibrant rhythmic line and deep, smooth, dark and absolutely powerful Ashton's versatile voice, are in the right balance to offer an astounding sonic experience. Just listen how dynamic and captivating is "Every Little Dream" or how powerful is "The Reaping (Reprise)", and how well can go along melancholy with strong rhythms in the catchy as hell "Say Hello Wave Goodbye". There's no need for huge amount of synths to create a dark atmosphere, MGT does that mostly with classic rock instruments.
Gemini Nyte is quite a long album, it has more than one hour of a playing time, not boring for a second and throughout it also delivers highly emotive moments, for example like is the evocative "Trading Faces". Ashton's voice can really go under your skin, but that's the thing that we already experienced with his band The Awakening. The songs on this album are constantly very melodic and all of them have a very nice drive. The two also made some nice experiments with industrial rock sounds on staggering "Everything Undone", reminding a bit to a blend of Marilyn Manson, KMFDM and Killing Joke in certain segments. In the middle of the album there comes a couple of more mellow songs, like is the groovy "Armageddon's Sideshow", but still good enough and it should be a real blast when played live. Then they are nicely experimenting with multiple alternative genres in the dark but tripping "Tear The Sun" and offering another dose of gothic goodness in "Waiting For A Sign", just listen to the guitar lines here, and to the haunting vocal performance, just amazing and it brings shivers down the spine. The beginning of "Hide Your Secret" reminds a bit to "Hotel California" of Eagles, but just the beginning, the rest is another story. The album ends with the harrowing soundscapes of semi-ballad "Atlanta".
Mark and Ashton did an album that every single gothster or any lover of dark rock, darkwave, gothic metal should be crawing for. It's professionally done from start to finish, and those critics who write that this is just another 80s revival album should give to it another listen, this one has much more inside than just that. It's a dream come true for every gothic rocker, and absolutely sets the trends for new things inside the gothic music scene. The only complaint that I have is the rather uninteresting front cover artwork, and plain and simple album title, but who gives a shit about that if the music is so amazing.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 8,5/10
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