Bowie's history needs no introduction, and he won't get one here, but with the popularity of the almighty dollar, or tribute I should say, what we're looking for is something expansive, a little less ordinary and something wholly unique. I think with this new release, they've hit the nail right on the coffin. No, Bowie was never this huge Gothic creation or underground cult hero for very long, though in his earliest moments he was an anti-fashion, a spike in the heart of mainstream and someone who today's Goth-oddities could look back proudly on, even if only for his "Ziggy Stardust" moments of glory.

Not surprisingly, those exploits of his "tainted" past are on full display here, if only in those rare moments when the flickering lights manage to overcome the otherwise darkening effects of a haunting brood bent on laying their UN-holiest of foundations to what otherwise was a credible encounter! Truthfully, this is an odd compilation, and a tribute to an even odder persona, who has undergone more transformations throughout a lifetime of performing that they could release six more tributes to him and still never fully reveal themselves.

Many of the artists, if not all, are of Western European origin, and many have already solidified quite a niche for themselves as singular performers. There's a flood of static electricity that scratches and claws its way through the speakers and all is as it should be - dark, mundane at times, fiery, but usually subtle. This is Bowie (are you ready?) like you've never heard him before!

Highlights here, and it'll take a few listens, include Dreadful Shadows doing "Outside," Burning Gates doing "Time Will Crawl," Fields of the Nephilim on "Moonchild," which earns top honors here because first, I love the song, and second, I love F.O.T.M. Then there's Sepulcrum Mentis and they're freaky version of "Scary Monsters," a gothic masterpiece if ever there was one.

Strangely enough, one of the few songs that actually sounds like Bowie comes in at the halfway point with Cream VIII doing "Big Brother" and Exedra with "Be My Wife!" This is even looking past a horrific version of "Blue Jean," which absolutely doesn't fi, and yet something tells me this Gallery of Fear thing has a lot more talent than what lies beneath this rock!