EP Review: THE POISONED HEARTS - Eternal Hunger

01. The Ancient One
02. Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division Cover)
03. When Dawn is Coming
04. Alice (Sisters of Mercy cover)
05. Deadline

The Poisoned Hearts are a Goth band from Poland and this is their first EP. Don't be put off by the dodgy artwork that looks like it has been taken from a Scooby-Doo Halloween Special. Eternal Hunger is definitely worth a listen.

The EP features three original songs and two covers. The original songs show a lot of promise. The Ancient Ones, When Dawn Is Coming, and Deadline are all  classic Goth, with their baritone vocals, jangly guitars soaked in effects, and pulsating bass lines over a drum machine. It's reminiscent of early Sisters of Mercy, Rosetta Stone and Christian Death, which is always a good thing in my books. If I had to choose a favourite from the three, I'd go for The Ancient Ones as it's catchy and sets the tone for the Eternal Hunger nicely.

Whilst recording covers is often a cool thing to do when a band is established, emerging artists recording versions of much loved classics is often a bad idea. The general public is a merciless creature and won't care that these recordings will have been made on a tight budget, they'll simply compare them to the originals on face value. Both songs are actually very good renditions, and make it clear who The Poisoned Hearts' target audience is, but they don't give the listener any reason to choose listening to these versions over the originals at any time, other than out of initial curiosity. Having said that, I'm sure these covers will go down very well in a live setting.

The Poisoned Hearts are clearly a very competent band when it comes to re-creating that classic Goth sound, and there will always be an audience for that kind of music. Eternal Hunger is a strong start, and I'm sure they could evolve into a much bigger name on the worldwide Goth scene.