We’ve partnered with some of our favorite websites to bring you each scene’s best upcoming bands, diving beneath the surface to give you a glimpse of tomorrow. In this monthly check-in with our friends at Post-punk.com, we get the scoop on names like RIKI, Nuovo Testamento, and much more.

Without fail, whenever I find myself at a goth club, just trying to relax and listen to music, someone who knows I am a music journalist approaches me and asks, “Who is hot right now?” “What’s the next big thing?” “What should I be listening to?”

So now you are in luck! I am going to metaphorically lean in, way too close, just like that infamous punisher at a party, and tell you about four artists I think you should be listening to right now.

Kidding aside, there is no better time than now to be listening to goth music. As in, music that goths listen to. Hate to break it to you, but goth isn’t really a genre; rather, it is a subculture of misfits listening to dark and gloomy music born from the creative ethos of post-punk and new wave. It’s music that isn’t afraid of experimentation that treads up to the very margins of human emotion, from euphoria to bitter anguish. As William Blake once said, “Excess of Sorrow Laughs, Excess of Joy Division.” Or something like that.