Birthday Massacre - Eighties melodies and Burton-esque aesthetics

Behind the name The Birthday Massacre lies one of Canada's most melodic synth-rock bands. Over the years, these North American musicians have carved out their own niche built on engaging melodies, alternating between more innocent, childlike atmospheres and far darker ones. The band's members almost exclusively go by stage names (Chibi, Rainbow, Michael Falcore, Rhim, Owen, Nate Manor) and generally embrace an aesthetic that draws as much on the goth scene as on Tim Burton's films and countless fairy tales.

Their musical journey is steeped in retro spirit, drawing heavily on new wave bands and especially 80s synth-pop; on acts like Missing Persons, Depeche Mode, Roxette, Eurythmics, Visage, New Order. The Canadians grew up listening to Eighties pop and the kaleidoscope of moods found in wave music, and they constantly cite it as the main source of inspiration for their music. It's from here that they draw their radio-friendly attitude and most of their songs' melodies, always catchy but never lacking in sensitivity. What elevates the band's songs is, above all, an ever-alluring pop-oriented refinement, running through a palette of tones that ranges from upbeat to melancholic. They're also marked by a certain darkwave aftertaste, both in their dense atmospheres and in the band's overall stance, straddling gothic rock and synth-dark (The Cure above all, but also The Faint, London After Midnight, Clan of Xymox). The result is a rich collection of songs with irresistible melodies and evocative atmospheres.

But it would be a mistake to think of them as a wave revivalist band: The Birthday Massacre also draw inspiration from 80s and 90s industrial (Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Deadsy and Mindless Self Indulgence), from the crossover sound of Faith No More and Deftones, and from Curve (especially in terms of the rhythm section). The industrial influence is the dominant one, both in the synthesizer interplay, which never abandons the poppier, danceable melodies even in the more caustic moments, and in the use of the hulking, mechanical-sounding guitars that define the Canadians' sound. The result is so transfigured that, at the same time, individual connections to industrial-rock artists remain evident, even as the band sounds completely at odds with industrial music in terms of timbre and atmosphere.

In any case, The Birthday Massacre's guitars almost never take over. There are industrial-tinged riffs that form little hooks of their own, but more often they serve as support for the electronic melodies or as a wall of sound for the chorus to lean on. In doing so, they find a middle ground between the way various wave bands used guitar as a backdrop for voice and keyboards, and the approach of later industrial-rock bands. They nonetheless remain secondary to keyboards, synthesizer and vocals, especially in the second half of the band's career, when guitars are progressively scaled back in favor of electronics. It's the combination of the vocal side and the electronic side that serves as the linchpin of the band's songs, with their catchy melodies, enveloping blankets of keyboards, and the interplay of light and darkness conjured in their atmospheres. The band's name itself is meant to underline this duality: the apparent innocence of a birthday and the unsettling idea of a massacre are a metaphor for the union of two opposing aspects.

Over the years, The Birthday Massacre have also openly admired electronic bands of their own generation. For instance, the Swedish duo The Knife, the English acts Ladytron and IAMX, and the Japanese group Aural Vampire. Drawing on more modern combinations of electro-industrial and electro-pop, they've sought to bridge different decades.

By blending together these aspects of their music, the Canadian band has forged a recognizable sound with a personal touch, one that aims to keep the 80s alive in the new millennium.

Most of the songwriting is either done collectively or handled primarily by the two guitarists, Rainbow and Falcore. But the band's undisputed "star" is singer Chibi (stage name of Sara Elaine Taylor). Chibi has a singular stage presence: she does her makeup as a goth girl or takes the stage dressed as a Japanese schoolgirl, sports Sailor Moon tattoos, and asks fans not to bring her flowers but... wool socks. Onstage she lets loose and loves gruesome stories. In private, though, she's reserved, enjoys quiet, and is a vegetarian. She cares deeply about feminist issues and has often spoken out critically about sexism within the music business and various misadventures she's experienced. She also wrote a novel, "Boring Girls" (2012). She's a passionate reader, especially of fantasy literature (but also historical novels), which is a source of inspiration for her lyrics. As she says in interviews: "I like Frances Gordon, she takes fairy tales and then modernizes their concepts, like Sleeping Beauty, so she can tell the story of a girl in a coma for a month – and give a genuinely creepy, modern twist to old fairy tales".

A recurring thematic touchstone is Lewis Carroll, with his "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass". References crop up scattered throughout the songs, but also in the band's mascot, a rabbit. This image appears on every album cover, even if just as a pair of fake bunny ears worn as a headpiece. Together with the various combinations of pink, purple and fuchsia that recur throughout the band's material, it conjures images of magical, surreal, and slightly unsettling landscapes. The Birthday Massacre's aesthetic is one built on contrasts, always in keeping with the spirit of the band's name, but never without a touch of irony about everyday life.

The whole band is also a fan of Tim Burton's cinema, with its distinctive aesthetic touch: "When I saw 'Alice In Wonderland', I immediately thought it would be perfect for some of our songs, but as you know, the likes of Avril Lavigne and Wolfmother got there before us – which doesn't make much sense to me, but you know how it is these days, everything is driven by money. Money talks louder than creativity", explains Chibi, not without a hint of disappointment.

On the vocal side, Chibi models herself on female voices like riot grrrl Jessica Addams of Jack Off Jill, the shrill electro-rock excursions of Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons, and above all the charisma of Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde. She's also drawn to the eclecticism of male voices like that of Mike Patton of Faith No More, whom she adores. These last two singers are openly her greatest passions, and they've helped her cultivate a vocal expressiveness that's bright and lively, yet also capable of more introspective moments. On the early albums, Chibi often adopts high, delicate tones that give her a childlike, Alice-like quality. Then, over the course of her career, she gradually evolves toward fuller, more full-bodied tones. Unfortunately, on the most recent albums she's lost some of that freshness, but that hasn't stopped her from still stringing together plenty of irresistible songs.

Her lyrics are distinctive, and once again balanced between two opposing aspects. They often read like a teenage diary rich in allegory and fairy-tale references. Despite this, they always come across as deeply felt and let Chibi's emotions shine through, even if at times she falls back on certain clichés that dull their lyrical power.

The band's story begins in 1999, when Chibi and Rainbow meet at the Fanshawe College School of Fine Arts in London, Ontario, and decide to form a band called Imagica, taking the name from a famous fantasy novel by Clive Barker. Both work in graphic arts, and they discover they share many eclectic musical interests, loving Depeche Mode just as much as Type O Negative. After recruiting their first bandmates, they record a few demos, including the song that would become their signature track, titled "Birthday Massacre". Since there was already a band called Imagica, the Canadians changed their name to The Birthday Massacre and renamed their song "Happy Birthday". It ended up on their debut full-length, Nothing And Nowhere, in 2002.

The track is a classic example of an early work that shows just how much potential an artist has to develop while still sounding somewhat raw in its execution: there are successful alternations between walls of guitar noise and electronic melodies, a driving energy, a mix of live drums and drum machine, and innocent atmospheres paired with lyrics that delicately depict an episode of violence in the style of "A Clockwork Orange"; but the production still leaves room for improvement, with the guitars tending to smother everything else when they come to the fore, and the whispered vocal parts barely audible. The rest of the album maintains this duality, underpinned by a tendency toward noise that brings them close to electro-shoegazers Curve, alongside buzzing guitars supporting electropop melodies reminiscent of Theatre Of Tragedy's "Musique". Compared to that band, the result here is a touch less striking. Chibi, moreover, is still too one-note in her vocal lines compared to what she would later show. Still, the catchiness is all there, and there are plenty of ideas pushing to the surface – they just need to be sharpened and perhaps made a little less noisy – an attitude that gives the record a distinctive, intense touch, but which also dampens several otherwise epic tracks (like "The Dream").

In 2004 the lesson was fully absorbed, and the band recorded a long (half-hour) EP titled Violet, which shows greater confidence and command of their compositional tools. The arrangements are more colorful and sparkling, the guitars remain abrasive but less overbearing, the electronic flourishes are more varied, and the drum-machine parts are smarter. The production is still a bit murky but noticeably better than on the debut. Encouraged, the Canadians re-recorded some of the strongest tracks from their debut and, a few months later, reissued Violet, this time as a full LP, giving it greater weight. The result is a collection of songs that are nearly all potential melodic hits, and when they're not, it's because they're enveloping dark ballads instead. Both among the new songs (worth flagging are "Lovers End", "Holiday" and "Play Dead") and among the re-recorded ones ("Horror Show", "The Dream", "Video Kid" and the now-anthemic "Happy Birthday"), there's a lot of meat on the bone, and it's all very catchy. Every now and then the Canadians overreach a little: "Lovers End" sounds suspiciously close to Duran Duran's "Come Undone". That's a flaw that diminishes the scope of their music.

The group also suffers from financial troubles, and at the end of the album's self-managed promotional tour, serious friction arises with management that undermines the members' peace of mind.

After a couple of minor line-up changes that settle the band into its definitive form, validation arrives three years later with Walking With Strangers.

This is the album of compositional maturity. The songs are better crafted in their arrangements, built from the start with the idea of making them more compelling live. The sound is thus more alive and less synthetic, with no drum machine, and the guitars are less noisy and reverb-drenched. Credit is also due to the fact that the album was produced under the guidance of the seasoned David Ogilvie, a sage of the industrial scene and longtime collaborator of Skinny Puppy, Killing Joke and Marilyn Manson, among many others, who makes the production cleaner and more polished in its details and catchiness. It ranges from sweet power-pop ballads ("Unfamiliar") to an aggressive, almost metallic industrial-rock that is nonetheless fully melodic at heart ("Red Stars"). There's also a greater presence of influences from 2000s electropop groups ("Weekend") alongside the more nostalgic '80s-style episodes (the danceable "Science", the stirring "Remember Me"). Naturally, there's no shortage of tributes to the Cure (heavily quoted stylistically on "Movie", a full-blown homage that recalls "Plainsong"). It's also an album where the influence of Faith No More's "Angel Dust" is even more clearly noticeable (some melodies in the imposing "Goodnight", for instance, are very similar to "Midlife Crisis").

The album, in any case, is the Canadians' biggest success with critics and audiences alike. The band enters the US independent charts for the first time, though it remains far from the mainstream.

In 2008 the Ep Looking Glass is released, containing remixes and two unreleased industrial/synth-pop tracks (including a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells) that are melodic but not essential.

Show And Tell (2009) is the only official recording of a Birthday Massacre concert and the band's second Dvd (the first was built around the single "Blue"). Unaware that the label would be recording it, the band nonetheless holds up the show reasonably well.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it: Pins And Needles is released in 2010 and doesn't alter the band's style, beyond placing a bit more emphasis on '80s dance/synth-pop influences and bringing the guitar sound closer to Marilyn Manson, but it's still a work of careful dosing rather than revolution. The opener is "In the Dark", which shows off a very energetic, high-impact intent (at the crossroads of Faith No More, Type O Negative and Depeche Mode) and gives a bit more bite to the distortion reverbs in the chorus. The aching power-ballads with irresistible pop choruses are still very much present, above all the gorgeous "Always", already the second track, further embellished by funky basslines and an anthemic vocal melody, or the intriguing "Pale", which blends darkwave, industrial-rock and snippets of ultra-clean male vocals.

Pins and Needles mixes more dynamic, driving moments ("Control", which recalls a cross between Deathstars and Kraftwerk), danceable '80s-style sonic homages ("Shallow Grave", reminiscent of Europe, "Midnight", reminiscent of Sarah Brightman), distorted riffs (the title track, "Two Hearts"), romantic and evocative choruses (the beautiful "Sideways") and the inevitable stylistic nod to the Cure (the closing "Secret").

Overall, the atmospheres grow more muted, without straying from the band's usual bittersweet traits. Chibi is on top form during this period, delivering some of her most colorful performances, unfortunately let down by a less brilliant and at times rather muffled production. On the whole, this sits a notch below its predecessor, which remains the band's peak in terms of melodic inspiration and creativity, but not by much. Sales improve and the band enters the mainstream American and European charts, though still far from the top (152nd place in the United States, 96th in Germany).

In 2011 an Ep of unreleased tracks and remixes titled Imaginary Monsters is released. In the unreleased tracks, the synth-pop element dominates, but it's propped up by chunky guitars that veer toward alternative-metal ("Forever" and "Burn Away" recall Evanescence mixed with Depeche Mode, "Left Behind" sounds like a mix of Cure, Europe and Rammstein). The remixes lean toward Ebm/electro-industrial, featuring some well-known aggrotech names like Combichrist and future-pop acts like Assemblage 23, but they're negligible.

The new decade doesn't bode particularly well for Birthday Massacre, who seem to have entered a phase of creative stagnation. The band searches for inspiration by leaning even further into '80s electronics, mixing mainly dance-rock, synth-pop and industrial-rock with an increasingly nostalgic approach, and giving renewed room to the drum machine. Hide And Seek comes out in 2012, with more electronics and '80s atmospheres oozing from every pore. Unfortunately the result, while it has its interesting moments where the band's sincere dedication can be appreciated, partly disappoints expectations, coming across as the least convincing album so far: the songs start to sound too similar to one another and to other synth/dark acts that have emerged in recent years, but above all because the compelling hooks start to be missing. The record feels built on a handful of ideas that yield a few enjoyable moments amid many far more monotonous ones, and the melodic hits become sparser. The album's brevity, barely over half an hour, is symptomatic of this.

The more guitar-driven episodes are the aggressive "Down" and "Play With Fire", which nonetheless retain a link to the '80s and to fellow Canadian acts like Skinny Puppy. They are also quite possibly the most distinctive tracks, alongside the melancholy synth-rock of "In This Moment" and the Duran Duran-esque "Calling".

The most positive aspect of the record remains Chibi's voice, which gives personality to songs that would otherwise come across as more anonymous, though even she seems less sparkling than in the past. The support tour for Emilie Autumn is a success, but overall sales don't improve much.

To keep recording, the band now turns to a crowdfunding platform called PledgeMusic and, with the label's help, collects donations from fans pre-ordering the next album. Superstition continues along the same stylistic lines, trying to make them a bit noisier and more striking, with layers of keyboards forming the backbone of the songs. The record shows a band finding the inspiration needed to craft a handful of thoroughly enjoyable songs, convincing in their melodic interlocking. Among the most effective moments are, above all, the Ebm-pop mix of "Diaries", the electro-industrial of "Destroyer", the synth-pop of the fine title track, and the scorching "Surrender" (somewhere between Depeche Mode and Linkin Park). There's also other, flatter material, in which occasional melodic sparks emerge that could have been developed further, giving the impression of a band more at ease with itself. More than anything, whereas the band's reference points had previously been clearly evident yet still fused into a peculiar blend that the Canadians interpreted with great originality (save for the occasional Cure tribute track and the like), by now there's greater formal adherence to past conventions and less reinvention, gaining in attention to detail and cohesion but losing variety and originality. In terms of attitude and aims, Birthday Massacre thus bring to full completion their revival of '80s atmospheres and moods (with touches of '90s sounds). And on more than one occasion, the legacy of an album like Depeche Mode's "Black Celebration" — that is, the dark phase of the historic synth-pop group — clearly emerges among the more aggressive ideas. The band thus seems destined to occupy a personal niche, recognizable and skillfully handled, but this is also the limit of its output, which after 6 albums doesn't seem able to go any further.

In 2016 Imagica is released, an anthology containing demos predating 2002, when the band was still going by this name. The recording quality is terrible, but it's interesting to note the transformations that took place over the years. The dance track "Night Time" still sounds driving, while the original version of "Happy Birthday" holds up well against the better-produced versions (also because those retained some limitations in the arrangements). There are some similarities to Evanescence, who at the same time were writing demos in line with the North American alternative-rock/metal scene before finding their own path. There are also a few unreleased tracks: two covers, of Madonna and Faith No More, fun and catchy, and the dark, Manson-esque industrial-metal of "Dead" (spoiled by vocal filter choices that push Chibi into the background).

In 2017 their latest album came out, titled Under Your Spell, once again funded through PledgeMusic. The band's starting formula is well established by now; this time around we get a recap of the various approaches tackled over the years, showing more variety than the previous album. The production is drier and less monumental. The opener is entrusted to the goth-rock with electronic shadings of the initial, wonderful "One", one of the most evocative and polished tracks in the band's history. True to what one would expect mood-wise from the Canadians, its beauty lies in the evocative touches of the supporting guitars and in the dual role of the keyboards – carrying both the main melodies and the atmospheres.

The rest of the songs aren't on the same level, but there's no shortage of effective melodies and an appreciable increase in compositional variety. For instance, the pleasantly melancholic synth/dark ballad of the title track, enveloping and smoky, slightly held back by a somewhat flat chorus on the vocal front; or the anthemic, irresistibly driving "Hex" that casts its spell on the listener, or the dance/futurepop shades of the closing "Endless", which manages to be fun and evocative at once.

While "All Of Nothing" tries to shake things up with a dubstep tint to refresh the band's style, though it also gives the impression of needing to take off emotionally only to never quite do so, there are also more conventional tracks that wink at the more arabesque Depeche Mode ("Without You") and the darker Skinny Puppy ("No Tomorrow"), as if immediately returning to a familiar, safe path. Still, there's no shortage of the constant quest to merge sounds from different decades (with mixed results on "Counterpane", which tries to graft Rammstein-esque industrial riffs onto a track otherwise driven by pleasant keyboards somewhere between Bronski Beat and Eurythmics). 

Unfortunately, Chibi's vocal expressiveness has overall become less inspired and dynamic, and the lyrics this time around are for the most part rather uninviting, coming across mostly like pages from a post-adolescent diary centered on romantic disappointments; it's like blunting the band's sharpest edge. But the overall impression left by Under Your Spell is ultimately a positive one, thanks to a selection of lively, colorful songs that, while somewhat uneven, do include one wonderful track ("One").

In 2019 Chibi ran into health problems that forced her to undergo surgery. As a result, the ensuing tours and the release of the new album were pushed back by a few months.

In March 2020 Diamonds came out. As expected, there are no sonic surprises. The band, however, partly sets aside some of the darker aspects of their recent work in favor of a "warmer" and "dirtier" production, as well as songwriting that more closely recalls their early days in terms of the balance between instruments, atmospheres, timbre and the specific electronic textures deployed. There's a less melancholic, less aching attitude, a more "carefree" one (relatively speaking), and an overall sound that is, proportionally, more "conventional". While Under Your Spell had some terrific, colorful songs mixed in with more forgettable, if not outright uninspired, material, Diamonds by contrast stays consistently at a decent-or-better level on average, though with fewer flashes of brilliance and less variety of styles tackled. Chibi seems more at ease with her vocal lines, and generally favors soft, hushed, at times ethereal tones. As usual, the album runs a tight length (37 minutes), but unfortunately there's a sense that something is missing: namely a truly memorable track, the kind that previous albums always delivered. The album will surely be appreciated by the band's fans, who get yet another slice of the Canadians' output, but it could disappoint those hoping for new ideas, and it certainly doesn't revolutionize the band's discography. Birthday Massacre have carved out their own niche, carried forward as faithful and sincere craftsmen of '80s sounds, and the only question left is whether they're just going through the motions or still writing great songs with a magnetic edge.

In 2021, in the thick of the pandemic, the band recorded the stand-alone single The Neverending Story, a cover of the main theme from the film "The NeverEnding Story" by Limahl, a nostalgia operation (and something of a divertissement too) toward a decade the Canadians love so much that they don't just want to keep its memory alive, they act as if it never actually ended. Or rather, the band re-recorded it: a lower audio-quality cover already existed back in the early demo days.

In 2022 the new album Fascination came out: essentially identical to its predecessors, rehashing their long-established style, albeit with moods that are generally more hopeful. In terms of tone it's, as expected, passionate and atmospheric, always driven by keyboard trills laid over guitar distortion, supporting Chibi's velvety voice. Unfortunately there isn't much variety in the songwriting, and even in the choruses – which should be the most striking element – the Canadians seem to be running short on ideas. The overall flattening compared to the band's past, in terms of melodic palette (guitar melodies first and foremost, but unfortunately keyboard and vocal melodies too), leaves a faded aftertaste even behind songs that are, all things considered, honest and quite catchy in their own right.

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