As often in its long and storied career, Clan Of Xymox has picked the perfect moment for its eagerly awaited return. Exodus, the band's 18th studio album, showcases the strengths and virtues of the darkwave and goth scene leaders. Three years after the eerily echoing Limbo, an account of the pandemic and its consequences, wave wizard Ronny Moorings returns to the scene of the crime, but this time he offers a black bouquet of mournful requiems for a sick new world that also serves as elegies for the new status quo.
Four decades since Clan Of Xymox's inception, Moorings and his band remain beacons of tragic elegance and morbid tristesse, spearheads of a scene that has recently attracted the attention of a much younger generation seeking to express their angst and pain through music. Exodus offers ten new anthems of exquisite darkness and is yet another masterpiece packed with yearning melodies, brooding vocals, heavily reverbed guitars and hypnotic drums.
Dancing towards the abyss (but at least we're dancing) in a world where all hope seems lost as yet another evil tiding of biblical proportions is thrust upon us, sometimes all that is left is to succumb to the music. A darkly spellbinding exodus towards catharsis, Exodus contains some of the deepest, darkest songs Moorings has crafted in many years, nodding back to late 80s contemporaries such as The Cure but also pointing directly towards the (no) future. There is no way to bleed all his sorrow, anger and weltschmerz into his mournful music. Not because the world will necessarily be a better place but simply because it is the only way for him to cope with the brutal insanity otherwise known as everyday life.
Exodus is not an album for dreamers, but neither is it the stuff of nightmares despite the dark shadows lurking beneath the surface - it is a gateway for all who acknowledge these dark days and yet refuse to give up completely, encouraging its listeners to sing these nocturnal lullabies together and dance when still have a floor or platform to do so. We can do nothing else.
While Exodus is coming on 7 June via Metropolis Records, the X-Odus EP has just arrived. Link
Exodus tracklist:
01. Save Our Souls (Album Version)
02. Fear For A World At War
03. The Afterglow
04. I Can See Miles Across
05. We Are Who We Are
06. Blood of Christ
07. X-Odus
08. Arcanus
09. I Always Feel the Same
10. Once Upon A Time
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"They wrote that we wanted to influence people's minds with our bagpipes so that they would be willing to attack the police." - Irdorath
"There were already bands doing small illustrations of symphonic metal, and I was thinking, why doesn't someone do this all the time?" - Christofer Johnsson
"We paused our work as I was grieving heavily, but once we returned to it, things took on a whole new meaning." - LV Darkling
"Goth people want to have fun sometimes too. I guess if your listening time is 99% dark, sad songs or evil black metal songs, sometimes you want 1% joy, and here I come." - Franck Hueso
