Vintage deathrockers from New York City, NY, USA, The Naked and the Dead were cult figures in Gotham's small but fervent mid-1980s post-punk/proto-goth scene. The predominantly teenage quartet mixed pulsing, acrobatic basslines and waves of dark, piercing guitar, with tribal drum tattoos and sirenlike vocals. Constructing complex songs full of unusual time changes, they nonetheless avoided the dour and gloomy in favor of a kinetic, punkish intensity with its own brand of moody power.