Album: Zola Jesus, Conatus (Souterrain Transmissions)

Zola Jesus is the recording alias of Russian-American singer Nika Roza Danilova, raised in Wisconsin and, at the age of 22, already on to her third album of neo-goth atmospherics.

Danilova eschews the G-word, of course, but the fact is that Conatus reverberates with echoes of largely gothic forebears such as Siouxsie, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks and Dead Can Dance, Danilova's commanding tones evoking nameless terrors over wonderful doom-laden synth-rock.