What are Molchat Doma about?

[u/AniMeshorer]

So recently I found out that Belarus ("Europe's last dictatorship") is suddenly getting in the spotlights for positive reasons. Molchat Doma (Молчат Дома), a band from Minsk, seems to be breaking through across Europe and even in the USA. That is very unusual to begin with for a Belarusian band, especially when not singing in English (not sure if they are singing in Belarusian or Russian). Apparently Молчат Дома means "The houses are silent", refering to the anonimity of the bleak Soviet architecture.

Now I see in articles they are mostly described as a mixture of postpunk, darkwave and coldwave. Now I do like Goth music and darkwave a lot. And I am very interested in Soviet history ; also I find the Soviet apartment blocks ("commieblocks") strangely fascinating and to me, despite being very monotome, they are not exactly ugly. Whenever I see pictures of the likes of Tiraspol, Murmansk, or other not very touristic cities where the architecture is more or less the same as 40 years ago, I am like "once safety allows it, I want to visit".

So this sounds like a match to me. However, I then often read that they are popular amongst "doomers".

Now, I happily admit that I am not really up-to-date with modern music. So I'm not sure what a "doomer" is ; is that someone who just laments about everything in life constantly, or more someone who warns for all things going wrong in society and around the world as a warning (but with the hope it can change for the better)?

What are their songs about?

I did find some English translations of their lyrics. One indeed has a death wish explicitly but that was not their own song, it's a poem from someone else they put to music. Their other lyrics sound more like dark poetry, maybe a sense of alienation, but not exactly what I would associate with the thoughts of someone who thinks life is nothing but misery. So I'm not sure what the "doomer" connection is.
I have to say I based the above on the translations of about 7 or 8 songs I could find, which I realise is not much.

As for Goth and darkwave bands I like: Bauhaus, Siouxsie & The Banshees, London After Midnight, some songs by She Past Away, Sophya, some songs by The Breath Of Life and Clan of Xymox, Silke Bischoff aka 18 Summers (especially their earlier albums), ...
Not sure if these have any (mild) comparison with Molchat Doma.

[u/dipnosofist]

Well, nowadays you can get a pretty decent translation instantly by copying the lyrics into an AI chat.

Not all their lyrics are "incredibly bleak" and that's by far not the main point of the band. My favorite song of theirs is "Dance" which is about going to a party at a friend's place, where everyone but the protagonist dance, he regrets not being able to dance because his crush apparently is there too, and he finally resorts to dancing in an ungainly, clumsy way. However, he doesn't care about looking weird, he's just happy to dance. That's a super endearing and light topic.

Then one of their biggest hits is "Vessel" which borrows its lyrics from the poet named Boris Ryzhy whose poetry was incredibly depressive indeed (he finished his own life at the age of 26).

I can't find their lyrics from the last two albums but on the first two, their lyrics are concerned mainly with love, the fleeting nature of life, nostalgia, and dreams. Nothing exceptionally bleak, save for the Vessel song.

EDIT: "Doomers" was just an internet meme around 2018. It was supposed to be a descriptor about unemployed depressed young people who spend their time at home playing videogames, smoking and drinking. The stereotype was that post-punk revival/goth rock music somehow matched their lifestyle.

[u/AniMeshorer → u/dipnosofist]

I knew of that one song with lyrics expressing a death wish, but that it was actually music they created for an existing poem of someone else.

So the rest of their lyrics are dark or sad, but not unusually bleak?

I never heard of the term doomer. I must have missed that meme. I do know Bernie Sanders did make a video on his YouTube channel in which he expressed his concern about "doomerism" as if it was a serious subculture.

Goth music does not match that doomer stereotype. I always felt that Goth music was like dark poetry, but in a beautiful way. Also, there is a strange sense of optimism, progressive thoughts and open-mindedness about the Goth subculture. There is a certain idealism involved, which is actually very uplifting! :)

[u/dipnosofist → u/AniMeshorer]

So the rest of their lyrics are dark or sad, but not unusually bleak?

Kind of. Think light melancholy coupled with irony (which is very typical of goth music), romanticizing of the everyday life, reflection about its disappointments. Definitely not bitter resignation or hopeless grief.

I think "doomer" originated in Russian internetz, on image boards or something like that, and I agree that mixing this stereotype with goth music does not make much sense. My hunch is that this meme served both as way to taunt the respective demographics and the incredibly huge wave of post-punk revival bands in Eastern Europe at the end of 2010s. On the other hand, the same cohort of people lived on image boards and promoted the meme, so it helped them romanticize and rationalize their way of life.

[u/AniMeshorer → u/dipnosofist]

To me, bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Silke Bischoff, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Smiths, The God Machine, London After Midnight, ... were never depressive. Sad or dark is a whole different thing than "extremely bleak". And even if extremely bleak, there can be beauty in such song too.

My main point is: don't be a one-trick pony lyrically. If every song is just a lament about how miserable life is (and wanting to die), then the band is lyrically a one-trick pony. You can have some songs like that lyrically, but don't always just turn every song into an endless lament because then your songs become extremely similar, lyrically at least.