Project Goth Playlist Tag : Suspiria

The Project Goth Playlist Tag was created by The House Of Wyvern as a way to get more content out there talking about goth bands. Why? Because goth music is awesome and content on the internet tends to focus on aesthetics over music. The more exposure goth music can get (especially bands people may not know a lot about) the better.

I loved this idea and wanted in. I called dibs on my favourite goth band, and quite possibly favourite band of all : SUSPIRIA!

My original plan was to make a video for youtube but due to not having the time and opportunity to film it right and do it justice, plus I am about due for another Belfry Network article anyway, here we are.

Why Suspiria?

A big reason why I chose Suspiria is because I own all five of their CD releases and they are very hard to find now. In some cases I got lucky picking up most for around $20-40au each including postage. Yay for ebay sellers who had no idea what they really have and mislabel it “Heavy Metal” so the price remained low. The last one cost me around $50au. Steep for a CD but these things are out of print and don’t look like being reissued any time soon. They also have one vinyl record and I plan on buying it. But at over $100au to acquire a copy it is on my long term goal list. Though it would be pretty sweet to play them off a record when DJing.

I first heard Suspiria back in the mid-late 90s at the local goth night. There were a few Suspiria tracks on a fairly regular rotation at the time. Bands like Suspiria getting heavy play here definitely shaped my taste in goth music. Some people are Cleopatra fans, others Metropolis fans, others Projekt fans. I was a Nightbreed fan! And I still am.

When I first started actively looking for Suspiria’s music on CD I started with compilations. Suspiria were featured on a lot of Nightbreed compilations and I even found a different version of The Swine on a weird compilation called Princess Gothica.

Eventually I managed to find all five Suspiria releases. Of the five Suspiria releases there is an EP, two full length albums and two compilations. The vinyl record is a short compilation too.

I am not going to go into the specifics about the band apart from the line up being Matt Lucian on vocals and Mark Tansley making the music and they were active from 1993 to 1998. If you must know more they are on wikipedia. I will talk a little about each CD in order of release.

Tragedy EP was released in 1993 by Nightbreed. It was a very strong first release with club hits Allegedly, Dancefloor Tragedy and Assassin Soul within its five song offering. Interestingly enough the version of You Bleed Me on this one is a remix where the original isn’t released until a later release.

The Great And Secret Show is Suspiria’s first full length album released in 1995 by Nightbreed. There are ten tracks though in reality only six new ones and one of those is a cover of Depeche Mode’s Behind The Wheel. The original version of You Bleed Me is on this plus remixes of Allegedly, Dancefloor Tragedy, A Sinner Sins and Assassin Soul. For me this was my least favourite release.

Drama is the second full length album and in my opinion their best. It was released in 1997 by Nightbreed. A twelve song album packed with new tracks including club bangers The Swine and Awfully Sinister. Glitter, Suitable and Treacher Song are also great.

Primitive Attentions is the first of the compilations released in 1997 by Cleopatra. Not a lot to say here except it is most of Tragedy EP and The Great And Secret Show combined as a single release. It is missing Zephyr and the remix of You Bleed Me but it does have some different remixes of other tracks. Of all the CDs this is generally the easiest one to find now. Given it covers music from the first two releases that is a good thing.

Dancefloor Tragedy : The Best Of Suspiria is the second compilation and it is exactly what the label says - a best of compilation. It was released in 1998 by Cleopatra. It contains a collection of 15 tracks including a cover of Yazoo’s Goodbye 70s and a couple of remixes.

There were only 1000 copies made of Allegedly… and each is signed and hand numbered by the band. It is the one and only vinyl record release from Nightbreed. I can’t tell you when it was released but given it was from Nightbreed and the tracks on it I’m going to guess around 1997. The main track of note from the four on it is the extended mix of (Now We See) The Swine but I guess at the time this was the only release with the cover of Goodbye 70s on it too.

What happened after?

After Suspiria broke up Matt Lucian left the music industry. A pity as his vocal style was pretty unique.

Mark Tansley went on to form Intra Venus and later when he moved to Australia he teamed up with Cliff Ennis (from Subterfuge and Ikon) for the music project Razorfade. I recommend checking both of these out as that Suspiria sound is still there. There are plenty of clips on youtube.

Suggested Tracks

This one I want played at my funeral! Because “…now we see the swine upon the altar!”

Well... I did name an article after it

Because it is so good!

Amazing bass line, great vocals, classic track.

I mentioned it enough so I might as well include it

You can find more videos and articles for the Project Goth Playlist Tag here

I shall close out with something I found when searching for the tracks on youtube. I found a great cover of Allegedly, Dancefloor Tragedy by She Past Away!