Name: Thomas Thyssen
Country: Germany
City/ Location: Berlin
E-Mail: thomas@gothic-magazine.de
Biography:
I've been working as an editor, dj and promoter for 20 years already. The most well-known baby, that I've created alongside my dear brother Ralf, is the infamous "Pagan Love Songs" party which not only has its compilation series (on Alice In.../Dark Dimensions), but was also the event where tons of US bands celebrated their first ever European exclusive live debuts like for e.g. Cinema Strange, The Deep Eynde, Antiworld, Diva Destruction etc.
Besides my regular job as a press promotion manager for Universal Music, the world's biggest label, I'm also the head editor of the very well-known Gothic Magazine which has been available at newsstands everywhere in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for more than two decades. Additionally I'm also responsible for the annual "Darkness Before Dawn"-2CD-compilations (on UpSolution/Indigo) which mostly features underground Goth Rock-, Post Punk- and Minimal Wave-acts. For more than five years I've already been living, loving and working in Berlin. Over here I'm regularly djing alongside my best bud, Ian P. Christ, of Death#Disco-fame, who's also running his own booking agency, Hidden Treasure Music. Together we've promoted tons of shows, like for e.g. the European and/or German debut shows of fantastic bands like Blacklist, Ulterior, Dream Affair, but also gigs for legendary acts like U.K. Decay, ChameleonsVox, Anne-Marie Hurst (Ex-Skeletal Family, Ex-Ghost Dance) and more. I was also responsible for "When We Were Young", the official Old School aftershow events at the world famous Wave Gotik Treffen from 2005 to 2008. After that I gladly handed the booking duties over to my pal Ian.
Besides my regular job as a press promotion manager for Universal Music, the world's biggest label, I'm also the head editor of the very well-known Gothic Magazine which has been available at newsstands everywhere in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for more than two decades. Additionally I'm also responsible for the annual "Darkness Before Dawn"-2CD-compilations (on UpSolution/Indigo) which mostly features underground Goth Rock-, Post Punk- and Minimal Wave-acts. For more than five years I've already been living, loving and working in Berlin. Over here I'm regularly djing alongside my best bud, Ian P. Christ, of Death#Disco-fame, who's also running his own booking agency, Hidden Treasure Music. Together we've promoted tons of shows, like for e.g. the European and/or German debut shows of fantastic bands like Blacklist, Ulterior, Dream Affair, but also gigs for legendary acts like U.K. Decay, ChameleonsVox, Anne-Marie Hurst (Ex-Skeletal Family, Ex-Ghost Dance) and more. I was also responsible for "When We Were Young", the official Old School aftershow events at the world famous Wave Gotik Treffen from 2005 to 2008. After that I gladly handed the booking duties over to my pal Ian.
From the second wave to the third wave
To be perfectly honest, there aren't that many acts from the new millennium that were able to thrill me like the founding fathers of our beloved genre or even their successors in the 90's. What is severely lacking nowadays is originality and new visions and ideas. I'm still trying to give each and every new release a proper listen, but it's mostly single tracks that thrill me not entire albums. There are lots and lots of really interesting bands that shouldn't be considered Gothic Rock although their overall sound is often times highly influenced by the late 70's/early 80's Post Punk- and Goth-icons. On the other hand, there are bands who not only derive their own sound and ideas from old icons, but also from innovators from different genre. The utterly fantastic Ulterior come to mind whose sound is a mixture of early 90's Sisters, early Suicide, Guns'n'Roses and Motörhead. Sounds weird? No, it doesn't. Give them a listen. "Wild In Wildlife" is for sure one of the very best albums to be released in the 21st century yet. The genre itself has to prevent itself from being too stagnant as stagnancy is the death of all creativity. And since we, i.e. the readers of and contributors to this book, love a healthy dose of Goth Rock, we wouldn't want that to happen, wouldn't we?
15 records of the new millennium
In no particular order:
ULTERIOR - Wild In Wildlife
BLACKLIST - Midnight Of The Century
KILLING JOKE - MMXII
INTERPOL - Turn On The Bright Lights
KILLING JOKE - MMXII
INTERPOL - Turn On The Bright Lights
MISERYLAB - Void Of Life
FAITH AND THE MUSE - The Burning Season
GROOVING IN GREEN - Post-Traumatic Stress
SOLEMN NOVENA - Kiss The Girls
THE SOFT MOON - The Soft Moon
O. CHILDREN - O. Children
PASSION PLAY - Dreaming Spikes
PINK TURNS BLUE - Ghost
FRANK THE BAPTIST - Different Degrees Of Empty
THE BLACK ANGELS - Directions To See A Ghost
DREAM AFFAIR - Endless Days
Favorite 15 records of all time
In no particular order:
THE SISTERS OF MERCY - Vision Thing
THE CHAMELEONS - Script Of The Bridge
FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM - Elizium
CHRISTIAN DEATH - Catastrophe Ballet
JOY DIVISION - Closer
BAUHAUS - In The Flat Field
THE SOUND - From The Lion's Mouth
ULTERIOR - Wild In Wildlife
BLACKLIST - Midnight Of The Century
LOVE LIKE BLOOD - An Irony Of Fate
THE WAKE - Masked
ROSETTA STONE - An Eye For The Main Chance
CORPUS DELICTI - Sylphes
SECRET DISCOVERY - Into The Void
THE MERRY THOUGHTS - Millenium Done I: Empire Songs
