With mere weeks to go before the August 8 release of the much-anticipated The Black Album, Toronto’s Vampire Beach Babes’ singular contribution to the collection, a dramatic reworking of David Bowie’s “Blackstar,” is  released today as both a startling single and a captivating video.

The Grammy Award winning title track of Bowie’s final album, 2016’s Blackstar, “Blackstar” also made history as the longest song (at that time) to enter the Billboard Top 100 – just three seconds short of 10 minutes, it would retain that title for the next three years before being edged out by Tool’s “Fear Inoculum” (10.21).

Vampire Beach Babes all but halve the length of Bowie’s original, but lose nothing of its dark mystery and haunted vision, propelling the song’s innate surreality across effervescent electronic rhythms, and lashings of gothic atmospherics. – a magical mood that percolates through to the accompanying video, itself dramatically built around scenes from Cleopatra Entertainment’s forthcoming horror movie Fear Cabin – “to give us some teen-summertime-horror-thriller-chills,” as Vampire Beach Babes frontman Baron Marcus puts it. “A true diabolus-ex-machina for summer vacation indeed!”

SINGLE: https://orcd.co/vampirebeachbabes_blackstar

Many of the original Bowie album’s reviews pinpointed “Blackstar” as the best track on the record… Pitchfork even described it as “”closer to the cocaine-fueled fantasias of 1976’s Station to Station than almost anything [Bowie’s] done since”. And Baron Marcus agrees.“So here I was with an epic quest – record a Vampire Beach Babes cover of David Bowie’s song ‘Blackstar’ for Cleopatra Records… THAT epic song for THAT epic record label – and here I am just a humble Vampire Beach Babe.

“Mind you, I’ve always seen the Vampire Beach Babes as a true vampire of pop music; 30 years on and ‘Gothic Surf-a-rama’ can still be heard haunting the finest of playlists. So, who else could risk facing the ‘thin white Duke’ other than myself, Baron Marcus.

“And this, his dying song.

“I needed to treat this song with the sacred respect it deserved (an almost overwhelming consideration), and at the same time make this into a gothic-surf dark-electronic club banger!

“Would this be sacrilege or homage?

“I knew the magic would lie in both taking this dead-seriously, and also having fun with it. And so I did.

“So what you are hearing is exactly that – Bowie’s concerned arched eyebrow, breaking to a gentle mirthful nod. I specifically produced the track to be open enough for remixes – a foundation of reflections to come. Enjoy.”

Vampire Beach Babes’ “Blackstar”  could easily grasp the same  “best in show” mantel on The Black Album, as Bowie’s did on his record.  But the competition is certainly ferocious. From the haunted first wave goth of The Danse Society to the industrial punch of Aesthetic Perfection, PLUS new offerings from Rosetta Stone (“Devil Woman”) and Corpus Delicti (a mind-melting “Dancing In The Dark”), this compilation is cohesive yet varied, a love letter to darkness in its many forms!

All the classics are here: Los Bravos’ mid-1960s hit “Black Is Black,” as seen through the minimalistic eyes of The KVB; Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath” given a fresh lick of darkness by Belarusian post-punks Nürnberg; the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” redecorated by Darkways; Deep Purple’s “Black Night” taken home by Rotersand.

Other highlights include Priest’s thunderous take on Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” Then Comes Silence’s alchemical recasting of “I Put A Spell On You,” Buzz Kull’s shadow-shaping reimagining of the Human League’s “Darkness”; and there’s even room for some traditional Americana, as Kirlian Camera revisit “The House of the Rising Sun” and Bloody Dead and Sexy get to work on “Black Betty.”

Don’t you dare refer to it as an exercise in nostalgia, though, or even black-clad novelty.  Drawing from more than a century’s worth of classic songwriting, The Black Album is a vital reawakening of the post-punk, deathrock sound that has lingered in the margins of the shadows for years, now rising to claim center stage!

• CD: https://cleorecs.com/products/the-black-album-cd
• VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/ products/the-black-album- black-vinyl-lp
• DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/theblackalbum

Track List:

1. Black Is Black – The KVB
2. Into The Night – Forever Grey
3. Black Sabbath – Nürnberg
4. Fade To Black – Aesthetic Perfection
5. Paint It Black – Darkways
6. Black Hole Sun – Priest
7. Welcome To The Black Parade – Vampires Everywhere!
8. Devil Woman – Rosetta Stone
9. Darkness – Buzz Kull
10. Dancing In The Dark – Corpus Delicti
11. Black Night – Rotersand [CD ONLY]
12. House Of The Rising Sun – Kirlian Camera [CD ONLY]
13. I Put A Spell On You – Then Comes Silence [CD ONLY]
14. Black Roses (HiFi Remix) – IKON [CD ONLY]
15. Black Betty – Bloody Dead And Sexy [CD ONLY]
16. Dark Horse – The Danse Society [CD ONLY]
17. Blackstar – Vampire Beach Babes [CD ONLY]
18. Every Day Is Halloween (Leæther Strip Remix) – Ministry [CD ONLY]