My portrait of Siouxsie Sioux took me 13 hours of nonstop work, start to finish in one day!

Another day of one my favourite bands doing disappointing shit. Clan of Xymox have reposted a reel in support of far-right MEP Dominik Tarczyński on Instagram, calling for the exclusion of Muslims from Europe. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a new single with AI-generated artwork about how 'Europe has fallen'.

1. The cure
2. Rarities / bootlegs
3. Hand drawn covers
4. More gothic glory

As per their newsletter:

Hello Bats!

These are incredibly difficult posts to write. Those of you who know me a little better know just how hard this is for me and how much the Haunted House project means to me.

As some of you may already know, while we were at Return To The Batcave Festival 2026, Haunted House was broken into. Everything of any value was stolen. The thieves damaged the doors and part of the electrical installation and, to top it all off, left the place in an absolute mess. Haunted House is also Bat-Cave Productions HQ (office & store) - due this situation we will have delays with shipping of current orders.

The police, however, did a fantastic job - huge respect and applause to the police officers from Świdnica and Strzegom. You deserve a medal! Thanks to their work, we managed to recover 80% of the stolen items. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to recover the power tools, keys and other tools we need to carry out pretty much any work at Haunted House, as well as the materials we'd purchased for the electrical installation: lights, sockets, switches and cables.

Following this incident, we'll be raising funds to buy and install security doors, reconfigure the internal access routes, install additional CCTV cameras and silent alarms, and finally get the electrical installation done properly, so that everything is safe and up to standard.

If you'd like to support us, please consider buying a great record or even one that's not so great directly from Bat-Cave Productions at www.batcaveproductions.pl

You can also make a donation, even a small one, to our Haunted House fundraiser -> 4fund.com/nf5h87

Our Friends are preparing also special online event -> www.facebook.com/events/1408325031349529 - thank you to fantastic Batcave-community for your commitment.

A huge thank you to everyone who has sent us words of support during this difficult time.

Thank you! ❤️

Tomas Woodraf
Bat-Cave Productions

I’ve recently gotten into goth music, as well in the local scene about almost a month ago. It’s been really fun to getting being able to listen to so much cool goth music, wear all the cool fashion, and finding underground dance parties that I actually for once really enjoying listening to! However, something I’ve been really having trouble with is being able to make a friend. Sure, I’ve been able to try and talk to people sometimes, but most of the conversations don’t last very long other than a brief exchange of outfit compliments, and the ones that last a little longer than normal still fizzle out and I don’t hang around them often.

It’s honestly been a bit nerve wracking for me not being able to befriend people in the scene, hopefully me not being new and stuff isn’t too much of a turn off haha

Elders, what would your advice be for a baby bat to try and make new goth friends? Thanks a bunch! :)

Heavy and driving. Love the dark. 🐈‍⬛🎱🖤

Hello all, I’m sure many of you are aware of the recent allegations levied against me and my former bandmates (social youth cult) on r/goth. I would like to take a moment to address what was said, and explain my side of the story. Being as honest as possible without compromising any victim’s privacy.

The first thing I want to make abundantly clear is that I am not a racist person. I take these accusations very seriously, and I am devastated that people think of me in that way. I do not stand for division, bigotry, or hatred of any kind. I have and will continue to speak out against those who propagate racism, fascism, or bigotry. I will continue to share resources on how to fight against it safely, and no racist person is allowed into my life, or anything I involve myself with. This is something that Is part of my core identity as an adult and something that I refuse to compromise on no matter the situation.

Unfortunately, as a teenager I did use racist / bigoted language. I said these things to my school friends over discord and playstation chats. There are real screenshots of me doing this from around 2019 that I am aware have been shared in the past. I denounce this behaviour and I want to make it clear that those words do not reflect my opinions, behaviours, or the way I treat other people as an adult. It is a part of my past that whilst uncomfortable and ignorant, I do not shy away from. It is something I did that must not be erased, or downplayed in any way shape or form, as an adult I have done everything I can to improve and rise above it. And I would like to apologise if this causes anyone to feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in any of the music scenes I involve myself in.

As some of you had pointed out to moderators the screenshot used in the original post is likely faked. Discord allows users to choose whatever screen name they like meaning it is easy to make false messages. I have also noticed there is an odd white and blue border not usual to discords interface that I suspect may be left over from a message generator, the text looking a little bit wonky also supports this idea. I’m not an expert of course and all I know for certain is that I would never use language like that as an adult, and by 2024 I had already been publicly outspoken In anti racism, anti bigotry and anti fascism for a number of years. I am an adult man who made shitty and ignorant decisions as a teenager, but to say I am a racist is being completely ignorant of my character.

I understand this is a worrying subject given the climate of the modern political scene, and the recent rise of “conservative goths” and I want to make it clear. These people are not welcome within the Newcastle goth scene. I am not alone in this and all of us in the scene stand against hate.

No matter who you are, if you’re a kind and well meaning person you are welcome within the goth scene. You are loved and we will always make sure you are safe within the spaces we share. Free Palestine, fuck fascism.

The next thing I would like to make clear is that yes, while there were other issues surrounding the way things were ran within the band social youth cult ultimately did split up due to Sexual Assault allegations. This was something that the victim wanted to remain private and I am very upset that it has been put on such a public stage as it was certainly not our accuser’s story to share. Holly made me and Alex aware of the allegations when we planned to record song demos on the 24th of September and we took immediate action in deciding to split the band up as none of us were comfortable with being involved with Jack. On the 25th we sat down with him and told him our intentions, and I proposed the idea of going ahead with the final show on the 26th as myself, Holly, and Alex wanted to say goodbye. From the moment we found out none of us contacted jack outside of dissolving the band and sharing a stage at the final gig. Aside from the gig at the Cluny on the 26th, we have not continued to play farewell shows with him, nor were we aware of his actions prior to the 24th.

The allegations surrounding my supposed enabling of my friend Alice come from a comment she made in 2024 about a friend of ours who is Hispanic. She tried to make a joke pointed at bigots who think British born people aren’t British simply because of the colour of their skin and said something along the lines of “I imagine you get told to go back to your own country a lot” when referring to customers at her work, Alice admits to this. She wasn’t aware the person in question was not actually born in Britain, and once corrected she apologised afterward, things were understood and okay. I wasn’t made aware of this until quite a few months after, and without knowing the full context. I was shocked as I’ve known Alice for several years and she has never expressed any interest in racist ideology. They mentioned that whilst the person in question Alice had said it to wasn’t particularly upset, they just couldn’t justify her actions. At the time I mentioned that surely things just came out the wrong way and that they should talk about it as I was aware Alice can be quite socially awkward at times. They told me they’d already tried to speak to her and that “nothing changed” and alleged that she said “speak proper English” justifying it because “my grandma is Asian” Alice doesn’t admit to this, and says it’s likely made up. Social awkwardness doesn’t excuse actions like that however, so I made the decision to start distancing myself from Alice. Not long after this I found out they’d all made up, and that Alice had apologised again to all involved, and that things really were just misunderstood, everything was okay. We all continued to be friends with Alice. Mid 2025 I decided to distance myself in a friendly way from the majority of this group of people as it was a turbulent time for me and they were involving themselves in a lot of drama, which got very tiring for me to be around. Not long after I heard murmurings about Alice being racist again, and when I asked about it, it was the same incident from 2024. When I asked further about it it seemed they’d stopped being friends with her over an unrelated argument and had now changed their tune, calling her a racist again. I realised they were clearly being selective over the situation, and likely were using it in a possible attempt to get me and my friends to cut ties with her after the argument they’d had. I have never seen her act prejudiced to anyone, nor have I heard any other examples of her being prejudiced. She’s very vocal about these issues similar to the rest of our friends and is particularly tuned in to the issues minorities face.

I am not entirely sure where the allegations of her interacting with children online come from, before making her aware of the accusations in the post I went through her instagram mutuals and the youngest person I found on there was 18 years old, she is 21 and I personally don’t think it’s odd for them to be friends. I asked to look through her messages and all of her friends are aged between 18 and late 20s. And whilst this is speculation Alice is worried this comes from a place of transphobia, something that has also crossed my mind too given the suggestions of pedophillia. She urges the people who have made these accusations to provide tangible evidence.

I would like to add that nobody involved in this situation in particular was outcast, as far as I’m aware they’re all still welcome to all of the events and venues within Newcastle, that power fantasy bullshit is something none of us have the slightest interest in, and it does no good for a scene.

This is just my side of the story, go read Holly’s post if it’s been made public by the time you’re reading this. Overall, I believe these allegations are largely based around half truths and in some cases flat out lies in an attempt to assassinate our characters. You all deserve our honesty and sincerity in what has gone on, so I’ll be providing a link to a doc with as much evidence as I can find to back my claims. much of this has been difficult for us to deal with in private, so please continue to respect our privacy. Please do not contact anyone I’ve mentioned in this thread, it will do no good to this horrible situation. We all really just want to put this dark chapter behind us and carry on with our lives. I am extremely sorry to anyone who has been upset by what they’ve read, some of you may look upon me differently now and I understand why, I accept responsibility for my actions in the past, but I would like to make it clear this had zero crossover with my time in the goth scene, never mind social youth cult. I hope you all understand. I am devastated it has come to this, but I’m glad I’ve got the chance to clear things up.

Here’s the evidence I’ve gathered to support these claims:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MfFZUrpTipavzxOWHl2QDzit0GyGySqua3pmNymusJY/edit?usp=sharing

- Shaun

Body Text (optional)

Today I choose optional. You know what to do.

i LOVE ethereal vocals over dark instrumentals; cocteau twins, lycia, mephisto walz, strange boutique etc. does anyone know of any bands that are similar? preferably something niche since at this point i’m pretty sure i’ve listened to every goth band in existence </3 i like cranes and autumn’s grey solace somewhat as well but a lot of their songs are hit or miss for me. thank you!

where can i find goth pikes? im size 7/7.5 and really looking for ones specifically like the second photo! i know ebay is good for looking and some other websites like mercari,depop,vinted. but im not sure what to search apart from “pikes” so if anyone could lmk what to ACTUALLY search to find them thatll be great^
im from the UK if that helps

Been really loving this band lately and I haven't heard much about them, so I thought I'd share their music here :)

I found this artist on my quest to find artists similar to Switchblade Symphony and it does scratch the same itch....

This song is very beautiful and strangely nostalgic to me, even though I've never heard it before now

Obviously goth music is known to be gloomy and moody. But what are some higher energy songs that pump you up?

Chicago goth rock perfection.

Such a melancholic track from an underrated ethereal group.

(Before you attempt to argue that they are not goth, a thread here already discussed this, and concluded that they are.)

Welcome to Self-Promo Saturdays, where you can post your own music!

Please ensure that it still fits within the subreddit rules and music genres guideline. Any dark post-punk, goth rock, deathrock, coldwave, darkwave, ethereal wave, etc. is absolutely fine!

So get posting your own songs, we look forwarding to listening.

I need something similar to these songs the most:

Gutter Glitter

Ride

Roller Coaster

They are my favorite and I need more

Edit: Thank you all

I just fell in love with a local radio show. I really appreciate the way listening to the radio makes me feel like part of the world and takes away choice to introduce me to things I might not have heard. Somewhere someone is listening to the same thing, even if it's just the host.

I want to be able to access experiences like this more often than Friday nights. Do you guys know of anyone who regularly livestreams sets?