EP Review: Fakery by Elkapath
‘Fakery’ by Gloucester goth metalists Elkapath is the second single from The Twisted Jester EP. The band’s current tour includes a homecoming gig at The Dick Whittington on 4th October and ends in Dracula’s home (aka Whitby) on 1st November. A day sooner and it would have been the most apt goth gig setting in music history.
Talking of trick-or-treating…’Fakery’ is a tasty treat about trickery. It begins with a synth fade-in, which would be the perfect soundtrack to Dracula sweeping into a dinner party uninvited if synths had existed in the 1890s. Then thrashing guitars crash the party alongside a demented organ. In the manner of Morrissette, Carla Elkapath addresses a duplicitous fellow, though this one isn’t just a serial fibber – he’s got a ‘filthy piece of meat’ in his teeth ‘that’s been there all week’. We never find out if this is a remnant of human flesh, a strand of morning bacon, or simply a metaphor to convey his generally appalling character. Indeed, we can be certain he’s a rotter, as confirmed by the description ‘stupid d***’ and the assessment that he’s ‘full of s***’.
The chorus repeats that his fakery ‘runs deeper’ inside both ‘that big black hole’ and ‘that twisted soul’, though such dark condemnation is sung with more than a hint of cheer. There’s no death growl as on ‘Black Spiders’ from the band’s same-named 2021 debut album, nor are there the Evanescence-esque histrionics of the first single from the new EP, ‘Show Me’. Here, it’s as if the mendacious meat man is being waved away on a theme park ride called something like Plunge into Purgatory or, er, Bat into Hell.
If all this doesn’t sound thrilling enough, there’s a guitar solo that makes Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt sound like he’s still working towards his grade 5. And I haven’t even mentioned the other four songs on the EP. ‘Fight or Flight’ will make you feel like a Viking about to enter battle and ‘Sacrifice’ is the victory party. ‘No Bride’ is a triumphant flick of the Vs to, no doubt, another farce hole, while ‘Love Forgiveness’ is candles-in-the-air time and respite from the mosh. And mosh you will. Or, if like me, you’re getting on, you’ll give an extremely enthusiastic double thumbs-up…and possibly get a band tattoo afterwards.
By: Neil Laurenson