Closterkeller

Poland’s renowned gothic five-piece Closterkeller are back with another serving of rich, expansive gothic pop. However it should be noted that Reghina is not a proper full-length release; with only seven tracks and three video clips, it is a teaser for an album yet to come. This mini-album contains two new songs ("Lunar” and "Neo”), three covers (Michael Jackson, Tears for Fears and A-Ha!), as well as two remixes. With the exception of "Mad World,” which treads close to the original (or at the very least as close as a gothic version can), the cover tracks are expertly reworked to suit Closterkeller’s genre and musical style, and practically stand alone as entirely new musical entities. Not that anyone would expect anything less from a band that’s been making music for over a decade and a half, and boasts an impressive 15-disc discography. The songs on Reghina are dense and well-constructed, the exceptional musicianship and vocal abilities of front-woman Anja Orthodox are both accentuated and bolstered by the mini-album’s clean production. There is no doubt that Closterkeller are musicians who take their art very seriously. The two remixes that end the disc are voyages into two different spectrums of the gothic music genre. The first embraces the fierce drums we’ve come to expect from industrial and the second results in a more dark wave techno-style offering. After listening to Reghina, it comes as no surprise that Closterkeller have sold over 800,000 records in their homeland. Limited only by their choice to record much of their material in their native tongue, Closterkeller are still a step above most of the regurgitated and derivative goth bands that have broken onto the scene in the last few years.