There’s a Faith No More cover on this collection of demos from The Birthday Massacre’s past. Overcome with nostalgia I tried to duet with Chibi using my best Mike Patton impression but I soon gave up and just started to nod my head instead. The Birthday Massacre have always been tasteful and this memory box is solid proof.
Imagica is the name of the album and the original name of the band. But these demos reflect more than just their roots, offering versions of songs that have become like familiar and comforting memories, these demos hold the kind of magic that comes with the exuberance of youth. Or maybe a disillusionment built on the same grounds.
By having realism behind their saccharine keyboards and moe vocals, with the familiar synths that modulate their pitch like tears in the shower, ever waiting for the prevalent and triumphant seizure of power by those heavy gothic guitars The Birthday Massacre are a band that should never change. These eleven demos may be unrefined but they hold the key to their success in retro format with that old-skool sound engineering to get your geek on. A recurring theme within the bands novelty that validates the garage production more so.
These tasteful and tantalising blend of new wave, industrial and goth tracks are confident appropriations of what would later become the full-on no-more-tears The Birthday Massacre. As Imagica may have helped to realize the genre of synth-wave the pop-gothic touch of The Birthday Massacre defined them as a unique group. This album let’s us peer down the rabbit hole into those years of toil and innovation. Proving that The Birthday Massacre are the real thing and that Imagica was/is epic.
8/10
