Dark Wave

Primary Stylistic Influences:

• Goth Rock, Post-Punk, Synth-Pop, Electronic Music

Secondary Stylistic Influences:

• Dream Pop, Ambient, Industrial, occasionally Techno, Trance, Classical Music and/or World Music

Dark Wave is to Synth-Pop what Goth Rock is to New Wave; This is Your Premise on Goth. In essence, Dark Wave is Goth's brooding angst, but on synthesizers rather than guitars.

Dark Wave is related to, but is not a subgenre of Industrial. Whilst both genres are electronic, Dark Wave is generally softer. Naturally there is some overlap; some Dark Wave artists will often put an EBM or Futurepop style song on their album to broaden its dance floor appeal. Industrial artists can also be heavily inspired by Dark Wave; creating some utterly harrowing works of pure Angst / Wangst in the process. More folk-influenced acts typically overlap with neofolk, while mixing the genre with classical typically results in neoclassical; depending on the type of folk used, neofolk and neoclassical very well may overlap.

Generally, however, it is fair to characterize Dark Wave as Gothic New Wave Music or Synth-Pop. Synthesizers will be the predominant instrument, although guitars can be used in moderation.

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Examples of Dark Wave acts include:

• AAIMON (Crossed with heavy influence from the Witch House genre)
• ADULT. (Crossed with Detroit techno and old-school EBM)
• AFI: Starting with Crash Love, have been moving in this direction before fully embracing it with Burials, albeit with more orchestral than electronic elements.
• Ash Code
• ASP
• Ataraxia
• Attrition
• Autumn
• Aural Vampire
• Austra (Crosses over with Dream Pop)
• Bella Morte
  • The Rain Within (Crosses over with Synthwave)
• Belmez Faces
• Bestial Mouths
• The Birthday Massacre (Crossed with Industrial Metal. Definitely one of the more YMMV entries on this list)
• Black Tape For A Blue Girl
• Blaqk Audio
• Blutengel
• Boy Harsher
• The Break-Up
  • Blakk Glass
  • The Labrynth
• Butterfly Messiah
• The Cassandra Complex
• Celldweller
• Charli XCX (Older material)
• Chiasm
• The Church: Early work especially. The album Starfish was a Trope Codifier for the softer side of the genre which evolved into Dream Pop.
• Clan of Xymox
• The Cruxshadows
• Collide
• Cold Cave
• Coldkill (Collaboration between Rexx Arkana of FGFC 820 and Eric Eldredge of Interface)
• †††
• Das Ich
• Day Twelve
  • Mari Kattman
  • Helix (Creator Couple project of Mari Kattman and Tom Shear of Assemblage 23)
• Dead Astronauts
• Death in June
• Deine Lakaien
• Delerium (Side project of the industrial group Front Line Assembly)
• Depeche Mode: Both one of the Trope Codifiers and one of the most successful in the mainstream.
  • A Broken Frame (1982)
  • Construction Time Again (1983)
  • Some Great Reward (1984)
  • Black Celebration (1986)
  • Music for the Masses (1987)
  • Violator (1990)
  • Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993)
  • Ultra (1997)
  • Playing the Angel (2005)
  • Hourglass (2007; Dave solo)
• Diary of Dreams
• Die Form
• Diorama
• Diva Destruction
• Drab Majesty
• Editors
• Efterklang
• Ego Likeness (Crosses over into Industrial)
• Emilie Autumn (Just one of many genres she dabbles in)
• Faith Assembly
• Fockewolf (Also Industrial)
• The Frozen Autumn
• Hannah Fury
• Future Perfect (Also Futurepop)
• Lisa Gerrard
• Girls Under Glass
• Glove
• Goethes Erben
• Grimes (Also Alternative Dance and Dream Pop)
• Have a Nice Life
• Hexheart (Side project by Jasyn Bangert of God Module)
• His Name Is Alive (first two albums are ethereal wave mixed with Dream Pop)
• The Human League (First two albums, before their shift to New Wave pop disco)
  • Reproduction (1979)
  • Travelogue (1980)
• Hungry Lucy
• Illusion of Light
• In Death it Ends
• In Strict Confidence (Also Industrial)
• ionnalee
• Iris (US) (Now-disbanded duo comprised of Reagan Jones and Andrew Sega)
  • Hallowed Hearts (Founded by Alex Virlios and Andy Sega in the wake of Iris's dissolution)
• Irrlicht
• Johnny Hollow
• Joy Division (particularly their synthesizer-driven songs such as "Isolation" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart"; also overlaps with Post-Punk)
  • Unknown Pleasures (1979)
  • Closer (1980)
  • Substance (Joy Division Album) (1988)
• Kid Moxie
• Kirlian Camera
• The Knife
• L'Ame Immortelle
• Lacrimosa
• The Last Dance
• Lebanon Hanover (also Goth Rock)
• Light Asylum
• Linea Aspera
  • Keluar
  • Zanias
• London After Midnight (Crosses over with Goth Rock)
• Lorelei Dreaming
• Love is Colder Than Death
• Love Spirals Downwards
• Lycia (Also Dream Pop)
• The Machine in the Garden
• Malaria!
• Malice Mizer
• Midnight Resistance
• Midnight Syndicate
• Minuit Machine
  • Hante.
• Molchat Doma
• Mortiis (mixed with Synth-Pop on The Smell of Rain)
• MS MR
• New Order (also overlaps with Post-Punk and Alternative Dance)
  • Movement (1981)
  • Power, Corruption & Lies (1983)
  • Low-Life (1985)
  • Brotherhood (1986)
  • Substance (New Order Album) (1987)
  • Technique (1989)
  • Republic (1993)
  • Get Ready (2001)
  • Music Complete (2015)
• Nox Arcana
• Gary Numan (Especially his later works)
• Opera Multi Steel
• Pink Industry
• Perturbator (mixed with Synthwave)
• Pretentious, Moi?
• Propaganda
• Project Pitchfork (Crosses over into electro-industrial, and later aggrotech).
• Psyche
• Psychic Guilt
• Real Life (Originally straight New Wave/Synthpop, but shifted in the Darker and Edgier direction starting in the late '80s)
• Reapers (Their self-titled song is based on the antagonists of the Mass Effect series)
• Riki
• Schwarz Stein
• Seabound
• Seeming
• She Past Away (also Goth Rock and Post-Punk)
• She Wants Revenge
• Sine City
• Skin (Swans side project. Mixed with neofolk)
• The Soft Moon
• Sopor Æternus & the Ensemble of Shadows
• Suicidal Romance
• Switchblade Symphony (Primarily on their first album; later albums combine this with a Trip Hop sound)
• Tears for Fears (in their earliest material; later albums are progressive pop)
  • 1983 - The Hurting
• Yousei Teikoku
• Thou Shalt Not
• Trentemøller (From Lost onwards)
• Trisomie 21
• TR/ST
• Twin Tribes (also Post-Punk)
• Until BEN
• Vandal Moon (crossed with Synthwave)
• Vernian Process (Sometimes crossed with Steampunk)
• Void Vision
• Wolfsheim
• Xeno & Oaklander
  • Martial Canterel
• Xibling (Also Dance-Punk and Industrial)
• X-O-Planet
• Zen Mother (also Progressive Rock and Noise Rock)

Tropes Common In Dark Wave:

• Darker and Edgier: Than Alternative Dance or Synth-Pop, which it is often closely related to.
• Dream Pop: A lot of overlap between the two genres. The so-called "Ethereal Wave" subgenre (Lycia, Love Spirals Downwards, Love Is Colder Than Death, etc.) can pretty much be called "Gothic Dream Pop," in fact.
• Echoing Acoustics: Much like in Goth Rock and Dream Pop, this is quite common. Especially when the band in question is Dream Pop-influenced.
• Genre Mashup: A lot of this happens, since the genre has a varied set of influences and a somewhat vague definition (for example, non-electronic artists such as Rasputina and Voltaire are sometimes even classed as Darkwave due to their lyrical themes and promotional aesthetics!).
• Goth: Along with Goth Rock and Industrial, this is the main thing they listen to.
• Goth Rock: A genre it was influenced by and sometimes overlaps with. The genre as a whole can basically be described as Goth Rock plus Synth-Pop.
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to a lot of Industrial, Dark Wave can seem friendly and accessible- it's not nearly as noisy or aggressive.
• Silly Love Songs: Straight love songs are more common in this genre than in Goth Rock or Industrial, oddly enough. Still nowhere near ubiquitous, though.
• Synth-Pop: There are a lot of Dark Wave artists that count as both, mixing the atmospherics of dark wave with the catchy song structures of synth pop. A good way to think of this genre is as the gothed up version of synth pop, in fact.

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