In his book, Robb argues that many artists contributed to goth like this “from the sidelines”, including The Rolling Stones (via ‘Paint It Black’), Pink Floyd (via Syd Barrett’s “early dark poems”) and David Bowie. Often dismissed as dour, hedonistic youths wearing black in graveyards, or more recently, Gen Z-ers doing make-up tutorials on TikTok without any appreciable knowledge of the art form, this book is timely indeed. The Cure said they definitely weren’t goth, but for many fans they of course absolutely were, and that inherent contradiction is fascinating,” Robb said.

The Art of Darkness: A History of Goth by John Robb The Art of Darkness: A History of Goth by John Robb

Gloriously knowledgeable and inclusive, rich with words like crystalline, lysergic, spectral, and stuffed with stories about the bands who changed your life as a teenager. Consisting of detailed interviews this is the part I found most interesting, mainly because a lot of it is totally new to me, partly because the bands listed were usually never feted by the music press of the day, which means the likes of Bauhaus, the Sisters of Mercy, Killing Joke and Kirk Brandon finally get their moment in the moonlight (nb; as a big Stranglers fans I am particularly impressed by fellow fan Robb showing how much if an influence they were: if you're stuck for a subject for your next book, I suggest you do a Stranglers bio.It’s a very artistic movement with its roots in great literature and architecture, from Edgar Allen Poe to the cathedrals of Gothenburg and beyond,” he said. Attention is given to the fact that Goths emerged away from London, then generally regarded as the epicentre for new musical movements.

John Robb - The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth John Robb - The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth

His full length debut on Daptone Records is equal parts raw feeling and elegance and exudes confidence and charm. In the post-punk period Generation Xerox saw music, clothes and culture come together to create one of the most enduring pop cultures of them all that still resonates to this day.Robb also clearly has his scene 'favourites' whilst goth gods such as FOTN get a grudging chapter close to the end of the book. The book is built mainly around the 80s post-punk Goth period featuring interviews with Andrew Eldritch, Killing Joke, Bauhaus, The Cult, The Banshees, The Damned, Einstürzende Neubauten, Johnny Marr, Trent Reznor, Adam Ant, Laibach, The Cure, Nick Cave and many others. A darker culture that began to coalesce around the holy trinity of the Doors, the Velvets and the Stooges in the late sixties before flirting with glam rock and then being amplified by punk and exploding as Goth and then splintering into electronic dance music, industrial, psychobilly and new Goth and then through dystopian Hollywood blockbusters, modern literature and throughout the modern world. In between The Art Of Darkness: The History Of Goth is a fascinating trawl through the history of Goth music. Goth has risen again with the likes of Billie Eilish and The 1975 – the emo kids who are the children of goth.

Goth: Three fascinating books explore a musical subculture

The book starts with the fall of Rome and ends with Instagram and Tik Tok influencers, taking diversions through Lord Byron, European folk tales, Indian sadhus, Gothic architecture, Romantic poets, philosophers and idealists before coalescing through the dark end of the Sixties’ youthquake, and then blooming like Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs Du Mal in the post-punk period. Out of the dark heartland of Leeds, in the aftermath of the Yorkshire Ripper, came the Sisters of Mercy. The author's style of writing might be suited to short articles but the word saladry and purple prose that persists for nearly 500 pages is exhausting.

With references as far back as the fall of Rome, Robb succinctly establishes a convincing two-fold overview of modern aesthetics, classical and gothic, as preamble to a grab-bag of pick-and-mix rock journalism centred on melancholic post-punk: Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Damned, Joy Division, The Cure, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, The Cult… the usual suspects, with some surprising editions I will leave to the reader to discover. And though Robb (unlike both King and McNeil) doesn't snap the future's neck, his whirlwind overview of a culture he clearly doesn't understand (much less address with anything more than a string of names) shows how little he actually cares.

John Robb on his massive new goth book: “It’s simple: no John Robb on his massive new goth book: “It’s simple: no

It is this idea that underpins the first part of The Art of Darkness and, while some fans may be wondering when the book will get to Bauhaus or The Banshees, it is illuminating to see how the mindset and even philosophy of Goth stretch back through the ages.When they’d get inside the venues, they’d show off these incredible outfits and styles that went hand-in-hand with the music. We remember Jerusalem, we remember The Mask of Anarchy, and future generations will hear Joy Division and know exactly what Manchester felt like at the end of the ‘70s, better than any historian could have recorded it. But like Schrödinger’s experimental cat, it is clear that Goth is currently both dead and very much alive. Whole chapters are devoted to the major players – Siouxsie, The Cure, Sisters, Bauhaus but the author’s knowledge is truly encyclopaedic – Vandals at the gates of Rome, Mary Shelley, Tim Burton and various couturiers all receive coverage alongside the likes of Gene Loves Jezebel and March Violets. Anyone who has encountered The Book of Kells cannot help but be impressed by the labyrinthine coils of the Celtic imagination.