Glancing at the sullenly hued cover, one may feel intimidated to explore Sariah Bishop's new album, Mute Malevolence. With multi-colored streaked hair, black net clothing, and thick eyeliner, Bishop revives the goth appearance. The shadowed maroons and reds lit by candles, and dungeon-style stairs leading to dark crosses in the background on Bishop's album cover scream "princess of darkness," passion, and intensity. Crouched in front of a mirror is Sariah Bishop herself glancing up at her reflection with a demonic demeanor. However, Bishop's music contrasts these superficial elements. Although the instrumental elements are mysterious and melancholy, and song titles like "2000 Sins," "Dark Shades in December," "Anything," and "Lost Child" reflect solemnity and discuss ominous subjects, the lyrics are quite spiritual, not satanic. Bishop's deep, lusty and sometimes whispering voice is accompanied by electronic buzzes and beeps, semi-techno and hypnotic rhythms, dense echoing distortion, and rock guitars which dominate Mute Malevolence. Launching the album, "Rebel" surrounds the audiences with sounds of late night dance clubs. This atmosphere parallels the lyrics, "I've walked these streets of Hollywood. I've lived in the lime-light, did what I could." In "2000 Sins" Bishop sustains the electric metal sound with metronomic drums and altered guitars as she chants, makes confessions, and sings in an unexpected falsetto style about salvation and frightening images of death. "Still" transitions to a softer guitar driven piece, a cyclic arpeggio with electronic overlaying. "Dark Shades in December" and "Anything" return listeners to the prevailing electronica pulsations, this time with obvious vocal variations, heavy guitar reverberations, and metallic swishes. In a minor key melody, "Virtuous" proceeds with effective sound experimentation and resonance, and extreme distortion of all dimensions of the music. The final song, "Lost Child," is the least distorted song on the album, again revealing Bishop's metal influences. However, she does not lose her techno touch and retains the album's dance club aura. On Mute Malevolence, Sariah Bishop opens the doors to a style unique to today's music. She revives gothic darkness while taking advantage of modern computerized sounds and industrial rock to create and vocalize a metal-techno style that is all her own. A perfect description for Sariah Bishop's appearance and artistry, "Beauty in the darkness," as well as music and video clips, biographic information, news, photos, and contact information, can be found on her website www.sariahbishop.com.
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