Selected Scenes From the End of the World
Los Angeles goths London After Midnight open this, their debut CD, with a provocative sample from one of Hitler's speeches. Whether it's meant to shock or educate or both, it's one of the few moments of drama on this otherwise fairly straightforward disc of glam-manqué death rock. Singer Sean Brennan possesses a vocal timbre somewhere between that of Peter Murphy and Axl Rose, used to pretty good effect on sultry rockers like "Spider and the Fly" and "Sacrifice." The rest of the band supports him adequately, but the disc is marred by thin production values that probably should have been fixed for this reissue. Fans will appreciate this document of the band's early days, but newcomers should check out the more recentPsycho Magnetfor a better sense of what LAM are capable of.--Steve Landau