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Name: Oskar Terramortis
Country: Spain | Finland
City/ Location: In the woods, near to a lake
E-Mail: info@thisisgothicrock.com
Many people have been asking about my profile for the book, so here is a brief biography about my background related to gothic rock | post punk music. I'm not a person who labels himself as a "gothic rocker"; I think I'm one of those guys who are unlabelled. My musical background is too wide to be labelled only as goth music. I have enjoyed every single dark music genre since I was 10 years old. When I discovered Black Sabbath, when I was 6 years old, I think in that moment my life changed. Of course, many kids of my generation were into Kiss and other 70's bands. Then came the first real popular rock bands in music, the first records that I bought, and of course, I'm honest, goth was very far from my taste of music 20-25 years ago. My first touch to gothic music was when death and doom metal bands, even black metal bands, became more "goth". But at that time I remember perfectly the war between the music labels: too gothic for metalheads, and too metal for goths. I was in the middle of that war; I liked both sides. I also remember how the radical people attacked me because of that. Bands such as Paradise Lost, Cemetary, Tiamat, My Dying Bride, Moonspell, Sentenced, Crematory, Samael and Type O Negative changed and opened a new vision of music for me. Heavier bands were becoming more goth, and gothic bands were becoming more heavier, for example, you can see it clearly in The Sisters of Mercy album Vision Thing or Carl McCoy of Fields of the Nephilim making extreme music with Nefilim. Times in music were changing. Death metal and black metal became more trendy than any other music style, while goth was becoming more underground, and I just decided to feed my hunger for music by going and jumping into this underground worlds of gothic rock. I still remember the first time I listeed to Dreadful Shadows.
It was on a metal compilation CD back in 1997, and I thought "I have to listen to more bands like this", I was very surprised. Of course, I already knew classic bands from the 80's, but I though this new gothic rock school was pretty interesting, and I started to discover more and more bands: Garden of Delight, Dreadful Shadows, Dronning Maud Land, Nosferatu and Bay Laurel inspired me for a long time. It was back in 1998 in a cult place in Madrid called Phobia (probably the first Fields of the Nephilim tribute pub). I learned to DJ and met many bands of the 90's thanks to my friend Dj Billyphobia. One year later I was DJing in the same place, DJing hours and hours of many great bands from 80's and 90's. I couldn't believe I was a resident DJ of probably one of the best cult pubs in Spain since the "Brujas" closed. Phobia was like the temple of gothic rock in Madrid. Also, our sessions were more open minded because we played the extreme bands that changed into more gothic styles. The new millennium started and the gothic rock from the 90's started to change into more alternative gothic, and the big names of the 90's were splitting up, for example Love Like Blood. I really think the first band I listened to in the new millennium that really kept the gothic rock spirit was the Norwegian band Elusive. More bands started to follow the path of some kind of new school. The gothic rock and post punk bands were really underground, and it was very difficult to find their music, at least in Spain.
Back in 2005 I decided to leave the Phobia club because I disagreed about the new policies regarding DJing. Real gothic rock and post punk were almost buried, and all the places in Madrid started to play Rammstein, Marilyn Manson and HIM, giving a wrong idea about gothic rock and post punk to the new generation. Meanwhile gothic rock and post punk split into two paths: bands became more and more underground, or bands changed into a more commercial, mainstream style. Only a few bands kept their own paths, and some bands from the old school decided to return: Fields of the Nephilim with a new record; NFD was the big brand new band to follow; Garden of Delight in their new era; Sisters of Mercy touring; The Mission coming back and going again. It was 2009-2010 when I said, wait a minute, something is happening here and no one is talking about it. We are living a third wave. Then it just happened: an explosion of new bands and newcomers. Everyone wants to be a part of this new wave, the old bands don't want to miss this third wave, so many bands started to reform; it was like a now or never. It seems the scene is healthy after EBM and electroindustrial hit the clubs and crashed the gothic rock places. In 2011 I decided to return to the media after a long time in silence, creating 2 radio shows: This is Gothic Rock that was aired on Deathrock Radio in Tampa Bay, Florida, and one moth later Necromanteion on the famous Cathedral 13 radio. A few months later after staring the radio shows I said to myself: I'm receiving a lot of material from new bands, why not make a compilation of all the bands, the new millennium. That's how the idea for the book was first created: I made a call to the bands to be part of this project and the answer was unbelievable. Also, I started to know bands that I had never heard of, and they were new bands. And here we are. The book will likely be finished next autumn, but the page of This is Gothic Rock is working like a media, helping the bands a little bit. I'm very thankful for the support of so many people around the world, record labels and band members. Thank you for helpipng me to write part of the music history of gothic rock, post punk and alternative goth rock.
Oskar Terramortis
