New single I Don’t Know is a return to form for a faded genre.

 

The gothic genre more or less petered out after the 80s. In fact, chances are that many people born in the 90s and beyond will define goth simply as someone dressed head-to-toe in dark clothing, with hair dripping black dye and skin pasty to simulate vampiric blood loss. Or, other clichés like that.

Well, Black Fly is keen to change that. The artist has been bringing back the synth-swirl adorned sound of goth and, with latest single I Don’t Know, has done a phenomenal job of resurrecting the long-thought-dead genre. Echo-laden and dour, the instrumentation and vocals push on unceasingly despite a pressing atmosphere of despair and emotion, but it does all this without sounding like a dirge. In reality, much of the song feels like a bittersweet eulogy and the sermon is delivered perfectly by Black Fly’s gritted-teeth vocal.

Interestingly, the expansive sound also reconstructs the concept of time in the single. Over the course of a three and a half minute long track, Black Fly manages to convey the emotion and grandeur of a six-minute-long anthem. It’s a fascinating manipulation of time that will serve well as the closing number of many festival sets.