Red neon lights filtered through artificial fog seem to pulse with drum machine rhythms as the smell of propylene glycol, sweat, and leather fill your senses. Glimpses of leather and fishnet adorned limbs, black hair, and eyeliner cross your sightlines as your head moves to synthesizers while your feet shuffle across a concrete floor, gritty with the detritus from a hundred Doc Martens and platform leather shoes. You feel in the moment, but whatever drugs and alcohol you’ve consumed are amplifying that deception while a familiar feeling creeps up into the night club. It strikes you like a leather cat o’ nine tails across your backside. You are horny.
Yet, amidst all of this raved-up goth excess, you start to feel that the excitement pulsing through your head and loins is amiss, as if a veneer of what you are supposed to be feeling has taken hold of everyone around you. The DJ finishes their set, and tabs are closing at the bar. Surely, there must be an afterparty, somewhere to keep this mélange of emotions and the buzz going, and if you find such a place, the sweet releases you were hoping for never happen. The veneer has been sanded into a dull matte black with the true nature of all of this peaking through. All of these people seem like they are cosplaying, their closets filled with business casual attire, their dancefloor promiscuity replaced by a shocking amount of prudishness, and the spectacle wears off.
If this has ever happened to you, or something similar, like finding yourself in a Satanic sex room only to learn that the soundtrack includes something as predictable as “Closer” or “Personal Jesus”, Poland’s SAINT VENGEUR has just the album for your compensation. Sex And Repression In Higher Society fully embraces the label of witch house while merging darkwave and black metal inspired industrial. To further complicate matters, SAINT VENGEUR, a solo project formerly known as simply Vengeur by Herman Pańkow, is also a mixture of poetry and neo-noir photography shared on the artist’s social media.
The title itself could spawn an essay, presumably borrowing from Los Angeles punk legends X‘s song title “Sex And Dying In High Society” as much as the title of a 1927 book called Sex And Repression In Savage Society by Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski which served as a critique of Freud‘s Oedipal Complex by citing a matriarchal tribe in Papua New Guinea. Either way, an examination of authoritarian repression of sexual knowledge, taboos, and relationships is always welcomed in our heteronormative and monogamy focused Western world.
If all of this sounds disarmingly heavy, but you want to dance to some killer goth club shit, don’t worry. The vocals are kind of sung-spoken and buried into the mix with processors and reverb. Pańkow’s lyrics/poetry while interesting in their own right, are only a part of the compositional whole. The songs on Sex And Repression In Higher Society are full of retro synth wave. Take the intro to “Farewell At Dawn” which toes the line between John Carpenter and Vangelis before blast beats and a low rumbling bass weave their way into the mix. The ending almost has a funk impression with the bass tone before transitioning into “Manache” which (witch?) features Dillinger Escape Plan twists, melodic piano, female vocal samples. The onslaught of varied sounds masks lyrics like, ‘as the pale moon descends on you/menstruate on my face/discharge your fountain of youth/virgin tide of crimson grace/strikes before daybreak deluge.’
Kinda gross, but there is more depth to SAINT VENGEUR‘s lyrics than erotic descriptions that make me question my own repression. He examines themes of drug abuse, loneliness, guilt, and more. On “Symphony of the Night” (Castlevania-ass synths and title, anyone?) SAINT VENGEUR reminds us that, ‘words are worth nothing/words are blunt swords/words broken weapons/blood muscle spilling lies.’ All the while the synths and piano melodies drive a midnight revery into the darkest of night clubs. “Affection Paradigm” is another great club banger that I will have to work into an upcoming DJ night, full of pulsing dynamics and gritty bass synth. Get your bondage gear out for a dance party, shit’s gonna get weird.
Sex And Repression In Higher Society maintains an frenetic pace throughout its 35-minute runtime. Blast beat drum machines, horror movie synths, elegant piano, and so much more make this a thrilling listen if you are a child of the night or want to spice up your day job’s fluorescent lights with tunes that will scare the hell out of your co-workers. The compositions may repeat sounds, but are continuously engaging, haunting, horny, scary, complex, and profound. SAINT VENGEUR lays an all out assault on your ears with a unique take on witch house that promises even more ambitious music to come.
