Toronto's Masochistic Religion have cast their ominous shadow over the alternative gothic scene for over a decade. Formed in the late 80s by Mitchell D. Krol and Malissa X as an outlet for both their musical and sexual tastes, the band has progessed through several line-up and stylistic/thematic changes, but Krol's dark apocalyptic vision has always remained the same. Their intensely focused performances are a forum for experimentation that have been heard by enthusiastic audiences from Toronto to Montreal, New York to Mexico, and on tour throughout Europe always to rave reviews. Masochistic Religion's line up at Convergence IV included Krol, Mopa Dean, Paul Rickards and Wane Cowen.

Masochistic Religion website

A cranky and jaded former goth/industrial DJ, Greg Clow is now better known for spinning electronic & experimental sounds on his weekly radio show, Feedback Monitor (CIUT 89.5 FM, Toronto). He is also half of Stained Productions, a multimedia partnership that partakes in zine publishing, web design (including this very site!), live concert promotion and more. For his Friday night set, Greg blew all the dust off of his crackly vinyl to present the best in old skool gawth, cheezy EZ-listening favorites, and 80s anti-hits, while on Sunday, he made a quick about face and opened the industrial lounge with a set of dark 'n' scary ambience.

Based in scenic Pittsburgh, PA, Michael Salo (aka DJ Elmo) does his best to provide Pitt.goths with entertainment of various sorts. He hosts a radio show entitled Fire Dances, spins at the weekly goth-industrial club night Ceremony as part of The Night Shift collective, and is on the editorial staff of the online & paper zine Haven. Michael is originally from Minneapolis and has an affinity for The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.

Faith and The Muse are a rarity in these times. A duo, composed of the legendary William Faith (formerly of Christian Death, Shadow Project & Mephisto Walz), and the mythical Monica Richards (formerly of Strange Boutique), they have managed to gain the attention of an impossibly vast assortment of music fans, ranging from Gothic, Darkwave and Industrial to Celtic, Classical and Ethereal/Ambient. 1994's Elyria and 1996's Annwyn, Beneath the Waves have come to be considered highly-influential, classic albums by many, and the band's live shows have come to be described as an experience unlike any other. Faith and The Muse is a total experience in art, theatre and music - catharsis at all levels. Their performance at C4 was one of only two North American appearances in 1998.

Faith & The Muse website

Toronto's Rhea's Obsession have received national acclaim in live performance, film soundtrack work, and studio projects. They were chosen by the Toronto Star as the local band who "defined the darkwave scene" for 1997, and their debut album Initiation has received awesome reviews in both the US and Canada and arrrived at #1 on several annual college radio charts. Their music has been described as "Dead Can Dance with a chainsaw through the middle of it" - using a hybrid of electric and traditional acoustic instrumentation, the product is the perfect marriage of the aggressive and ethereal. With Sue's operatically trained voice, Jim's background in the punk & hardcore scene, and their influences of Indian, Arabic and middle eastern sounds, it's the perfect music for any pagan ritual...

Rhea's Obsession website

The Changelings are an Atlanta based Ethereal ensemble with a sound both innovative and timeless. Influenced by Baroque and Romantic composers such as Bach and Pagannini as well as Middle Eastern and tribal music, they blend East and West into indescribably beautiful soundscapes. Their songs range from traditional Hebrew prayer chants to intricately crafted violin and harpsichord driven waltzes to pounding dance club mixes of trance inducing ragas. Their unique chemistry and intoxicating sound creates an atmosphere that is both mysterious and sensual.

The Changelings website

A Chicago based band with five members, including two female vocalists, My Scarlet Life write and perform trippy/dancy/hypnotic music, full of samples & sensuality. According to one critic, MSL weave "an irresistable, intoxicating aural spell... if the Dali Lama and the Marquis de Sade met for dinner at The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, or Timothy Leary and Morticia Addams vacationed at the Pleasure Dome Xanadu, MSL would be the live soundtrack of choice."

My Scarlet Life website

DJ MARYLACE

DJ Marylace, nee Todd Zino, has a varied history in the fledging Philadelphia scene. Having founded the local net.goth mailing list and web pages, he has managed to survive two radio stations and four short-lived club events (one of which he co-promoted). He now spins frequently in his new home of New York City. On other horizons, he DJed the highly successful Danse Macabre Festival in Boston in the summer of 1997. In addition to sustaining a tricky balance of early gothic/industrial classics with the best in newer darkwave, he is one of the pioneers in the largely uncharted realms of ethereal, dark experimental, and experimental breakbeats as a setting for menacing club atmospherics.

Danella Hocevar (guitars/bass/vocals) and Christopher Perry (guitars/bass/programming) formed An April March in 1989 to express their artistic musings. In 1992, they released Impatiens, thier debut album on their own Cartwheel Recordings label, and teamed up with drummer Michael Klug. A friendship with Boston-based band and kindred spirits The Curtain Society led to AAM signing to Washington, DC's well-regarded Bedazzled Records, where they have released two EPs and two full-length albums of their unique brand of moody, beautiful & ethereal pop.

Lady Bathory is a peppy old fossil from Boston, MA, with a peculiar fondness for single-malt Scotch whisky & very large shoes. She is currently one-half of the production team that provides Boston with its only 18+ goth night, Ceremony, and she spins weekly at the city's longest-running goth night, Curses at ManRay. Lady B's previous transgressions include a stint as touring keyboardist for Cleopatra's electro-satan disco-daddies, Electric Hellfire Club, and resident DJ for GothPat's monthly gloom-n-glam grog-fest, Death Rattle in Chicago. Lady B's couture creations were featured in the Convergence 2 fashion show, and hardcore nomadic festgoers may fuzzily recall that she was a featured DJ at Danse Macabre Festival, held Labour Day weekend of 1997 in Boston.

It all started one dark and stormy night in 1986. Imagine a small dank dry ice filled club in Soho, London, and an 18 year old gothling determined to play good music. Having no idea how to DJ and with a $500 rental fee to cover he progressively got more and more drunk whilst madly spinning music. As the night came to a close the now exhausted Lord Pale played his last song only to discover that he'd broken even on the rental and people were coming back next week. Thus it was written. 12 years and many a club gig later, he now owns Toronto's Savage Garden, a nightclub dedicated to playing goth and industrial, where he also spins every Saturday. More of a graver than he was in '86 but still dedicated to getting pie eyed on a regular basis.

DJ Antithesis is host of the successful radio show, Storming The Base of the Alien Foe (CKMS-FM 100.3, Waterloo, Ontario), that centers on the lesser known, yet monstrous, underground industrial and electronic music scene. He spreads across the scope of music, drawing from all the surrounding forms: gothic, ethereal, ambient, trance, techno, synthpop, experimental noise and Walt Disney soundtracks. He also hosts and DJs Waterloo's only existing industrial club nights, Turn Of The Tide at Club Renaissance, and Seeing Straight Through at The Boss; writes for and helps produce the industrial/gothic/electronic music zine, Effigy; contributes to other magazines including DAMn!, Outburn, Chart, and Interface; and works with Mimicry Distribution, the only Canadian music distributor strictly dedicated to the gothic and industrial genres.

Tapestry, hailing from the cold, rainy hell of Portland, Oregon, is a bit of an amateur in the realm of large events. Normally preferring to be a sort of "behind the scenes" man, he has volunteered a large deal of his time, money, and energy to the fledgling Gothic/Industrial scene in Portland, and is now feeling cocky enough to step out and do a little more. Currently spending most of his time in the scene assisting at the Paris Theatre nightclub with DJ's Adam and Apocalypse, he is also assembling a massive interactive Gothic/ Industrial website that covers the history and progression of the two subcultures, setting up a small online zine, and setting up bands to play in Portland, most recently booking Seraphim Shock. His tastes run more to Goth and Darkwave, but his love of industrial is enough that he's still glad to pull out those records & CDs and show a few naysayers just what he's capable of.