Artemisia

I'm still wondering as to why the gothic label is so shunned. Bands like Nightwish and Moonspell have publicly denied the label, even though their music has distinctly gothic elements.

Brilliant! Very talented guys

Linkin Park are nostalgic for me. They remind me of high school days and the emotions I felt back then. I certainly couldn't listen to them now, I find their new material rather dull. Chester also can't do the vocals he once did after his surgery. His voice is pretty stuffed. Two words: Justin. Bieber. And here's a humorous little video:

As an avid fan of gothic metal, I have wondered about the future of this particular genre. As we know, gothic metal had its heyday in the 90s and early 2000s with bands like Nightwish, Tristania, Within Temptation and Theatre of Tragedy. As a result, the gothic metal sound became synonymous with female fronted bands using operatic or soprano vocals and heavy symphonic elements. As more and more of these bands appeared, it became a cliche and the genre was criticised for its lack of diversity. However, there are plenty of gothic metal bands that never used the operatic/beauty and the beast vocals. The forerunners of the gothic metal genre: My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Anathema, Tiamat, Moonspell...all male fronted and definitely a far cry from the female fronted bands that became included with the genre. But I digress. It seems a lot of bands wanted to shirk off the label of "gothic" entirely, as though it were a bad label. I understand the goth and metal subcultures are vastly different, especially concerning music, but this crossover created some beautiful music and amazing bands...what is so bad about being labelled "gothic?" Even on this forum, I have noticed that this particular sub forum is probably the least active of all. Is the gothic metal genre going to die out or become assimilated into other genres, simply because there is a stigma attached to the title?

Babymetal are just the worst. My housemates regularly torment me with them

I use music to get up and going in the mornings. I suffer from bouts of depression which make getting out of bed and doing simple tasks like getting dressed and eating breakfast difficult. Putting on some good music gets me going and into the swing of things.My car must be well stocked with CDs, and I like to play music while I'm cooking or doing housework, again because it seems to motivate me to move.

Will give them a listen, as I am also from South Africa. Living in Johannesburg at the moment. Are they doing live shows?

He did a song with Within Temptation if I'm not mistaken...interesting transition

I want to travel Scandinavia, especially Denmark (my family are from there), Iceland, Norway and Finland...I hope one day I will have the money to be able to do it. I would also love to go to China and Japan. Japan in particular...I am quite fascinated with their culture.

There is nothing sexier than a man hugging a cat

2 cats and 1 doge...also have one "cyber-adopted" cat in a haven, I donate money every month to them for the upkeep of the kitty. Hoping to expand my animal family but funding and living space restrictions are in the way :-/

I enjoy anime, though I'm very fussy about what I choose to watch as yes, a very vast majority of it is utter rubbish. But I have watched some excellent anime, Death Note and Elfen Lied being the two best ones I have seen.

Sombre Romantic wasn't *that* great an album in any case, I vastly prefer Elegant and Dying and the Requiem albums. Still waiting patiently for Pianissimo.

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal by Draconian.

I had a pretty brutal dream of some man following me and harassing me. I tried to call the police but they refused to believe me. He started overturning things in my house and taunting me. I tried to fight him but he was too strong. Somehow I managed to subdue him and started smashing his head into the tiles. My mother appeared with a gun and shot him in the face. The rest of the dream (which was quite lengthy) consisted of me scrubbing blood and muck off the walls and wondering where to dispose of the body.