Album Review

The Birthday Massacre – Walking With Strangers

• 7th Nov 2007

Its always nice to know that you’ve got something in common with people, and evidently the thing I have in common with The Birthday Massacre is that we both loved the film Labyrinth when we were little. Obviously I’m not such a hardcore fan as they are though, because I never released an album that was based entirely on the concept of being an industrial synth version of the soundtrack – and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

Throughout this whole album I can’t help but imagine Bowie in lycra prancing about with Jim Henson puppets in a castle, and to be honest, this makes me ridiculously happy. Perhaps someone not so obsessed with the ‘Magic Dance’ and the like wouldn’t notice the similarity quite so much, but I’m sure they’d still hear the adolescent naivety that seems inherent in their sound, and they might even notice that though the singer’s voice penetrates the resonant bass and synths brilliantly with a piercing yet melancholy air, she does, unfortunately, sound like Victoria Beckham at times.

In fact, it seems that kids TV and film is a great inspiration for this band, as they have guitarists called Rainbow and Michael Falcore, obviously named after Zippy’s show and the big white flying dog from Neverending Story respectively. This more than explains their preoccupation with catchy repetitive tunes, rousing vocal lines and somewhat epic atmospherics, though it doesn’t quite explain why they’ve gone down the industrial route. But who am I to criticise when they manage to bring all these elements into such an unexpectedly good album? It may be gothic synth rock for the under 18s but hell, isn’t it nice to relive those hedonistic days now and again?