We recently talked to Emilio Menze about his new project and the called Dark Ride in an interview.
Finally, the new debut e.p. is out now. Dark Ride is a spawn of Emilio Menze, who is known in the scene for his work in Stellar Corpses, Mister Monster, Plan 9. Emilio did vocals, guitars and bass for the recording and couple of friends helped with the rest. This record contains five songs with the opener Mistress Blade being kind of intro with ominous keyboard melody being wicked and reminding me of the opening sequences of some eighties horror movie. The music is not too fast, but it is very melodic horrorpunk with kinda melancholic atmosphere, like a vampire raised from the grave to create music about horror, death, love and darkness. Heresy is a song with some metallic influences in the guitar work and superb catchy chorus and Emilio´s voice is one of the best there is right now in the scene. My personal favorites are the last three songs, first being Infernally Yours which I played over and over again. Anti-Hero is a song for which there is a fantastic video by Adam Judd and this song is my absolute hit on the playlist since it came out. I listen to it at least once a day but rather three times. This song is perfect example how modern horrorpunk should sound, lyrically and musically. There is a nice electronic background prior to the last part of the song which fits perfectly into the song structure and chorus made for singing along. My Best Friend´s Exorcism is the last song on this record and I am awed by it. It has so pumping bass line almost reminding me of some oi punk song, but it is technical with impeccable guitar work and super backing vocals and I would really love to see this whole material played live somewhere. This is one of the best horrorpunk releases this year.
These five songs are in fact a sequel, follow up to the part 1 that was self released in 2018. The music of The Speakeasy is something to be reckoned with. I love the no bullshit, no holds barred old school mixture of nineties melodic hardcore punk/skatepunk with some pop punk influences thrown in the song structures. From the two fast more straightforward skatepunk songs Whisky Tigers and Sunday Blues with nice catchy hooks, melodic verses and harmonies on choruses just made to sing along with, to my favorite song on the record being Down In History, with such beautiful lyrics about loss and coping with it and carrying on when you can´t no more, topped with drama and melody, this song was on repeat for like ten times. Lord Knows is a bit different song from other material, being more rock song with metal influenced guitar riffs reminding me of Volbeat in a weird way. Requiem is another personal favorite of mine, I know, I know, I am depressed sad little fucker, but I love rough yet melodic vocals this band has, speed, melody and such fantastic lyrics this song has. This is an awesome record, I can´t wait for the full length and to see these guys once live playing on stage once this covid shit ends.
The Midnight Spookshow are hailing from Spain and they are soon releasing their debut e.p. So, it was an ideal chance to talk with these fiends about different topics.
HEY, THANKS FOR DOING AN INTERVIEW FOR KRAYKULLA. FIRST OF ALL, LET US TALK ABOUT THE MIDNIGHT SPOOKSHOW. DESCRIBE THE BAND A BIT FOR THE READERS WHO STILL DIDN´T LISTEN TO YOUR MUSIC. COULD YOU PRESENT THE BAND, THE MEMBERS AND YOUR MUSIC? WAS CALABRESE INFLUENCE FOR THE NAME OF THE BAND?
The band was formed only by two members, Evilead and Mark Berserk. We are also partners in a death metal band called BIZARRE, and we both share a great passion for punk and everything related to horror: movies, comics, books … So we decided to form a band in which we could express all that influences. THE MIDNIGHT SPOOKSHOW is a mix of horrorpunk, psychobilly, street punk, deathrock … The name comes from our brainstorming, but afterwards we realized that CALABRESE has a song with that title. It is a complete coincidence.
YOUR DEBUT E.P. IS COMING SOON AND YOU RELEASED A SINGLE ON YOUTUBE RECENTLY. TELL US HOW WAS THE RECORDING AND WRITING PROCESS? HOW MANY SONGS ARE GONNA BE ON THE RECORD? LYRICS INFLUENCES? IS THERE SOME CONCEPT STORY BEHIND IT OR ONLY PURE HORROR FUN?
We are a band that believes in the “Do It Yourself” way of life, therefore the entire process of recording, designing and producing the EP has been done by ourselves. The EP consists of four tracks and in lyrics you can find a bit of everything, although I could tell you that they all deal with the scariest thing of all: real life. The sneak peek single is about Burke & Hare, and how two famous body snatchers end up becoming murderers just for money. We also make references to the theories of Luigi Galvani and his experiments with cadavers or simply about murderers who kill by instinct or for the simple pleasure of doing so. Reality always surpasses fiction and is much more terrifying. We also like folklore and ancient human-made legends and superstitions.
ARE THEIR GOING TO BE PHYSICAL RELEASES OR ONLY DIGITAL VERSION OF THE RECORD? ARE YOU RELEASING IT YOURSELVES OR WITH SOME RECORD LABEL?
We don’t like digital formats at all, we are old school and passionate record collectors. Therefore we never considered the digital release. We have a label that supports us and has shown us all its support from the first moment: DEADLY DISTRIBUTION. The EP will be released on CD, although we do not discard other formats such as Cassette or 7″ vinyl for the future.
THE TALK OF THE DAY IS YOUR NEW SINGLE. CAN YOU TELL US THE STORY WHAT THIS SONG IS ABOUT?
As mentioned above, it is based on the story of the West Port murders. Committed by Burke & Hare and how they created a method of murder that today is known as Burking, which consists of strongly squeezing the victims’ chest until they suffocate. By chance they were arrested on the night of October 31, 1828 and a few centuries later that same night our single was released.
HAVE YOU PLAYED LIVE GIGS PRIOR TO THIS COVID SHIT? HOW WAS THE RESPONSE TO YOUR SHOW? IS THERE HORRORPUNK SCENE IN SPAIN? I KNOW THAT PSYCHOBILLY IS STRONG WITH THAT PINEDA FESTIVAL THERE.
Well, the whole process of creating both the band and the recording of the EP has been performed during the pandemic. The idea came up years before but until now we could not make it come true due to the commitments we have with our different projects. We do not conceive the band with idea to perform live, but who knows, we never say never. Unfortunately, in our country this is a style that does not have much notoriety and currently in our genre there are not many active bands cause’ the few that remained are lethargic. We do have the Pineda festival, but the vast majority of the audience is foreigners.
COULD YOU DESCRIBE HOW YOU CAME TO TOUCH WITH IT AND WITH UNDERGROUND SCENE IN GENERAL? CAN YOU STILL REMEMBER HOW YOU CAME TO LOVE HORROR? WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST MOVIE OR EXPERIENCE THAT MADE YOU LOVE THIS GENRE SO MUCH AND BECOME PART OF YOU 24/7? CAN YOU NAME YOUR TOP FIVE HORROR FLICKS?
Horror is something that has always fascinated us in all its entertainment formats. Concerning cinema, our first contact with horror would possibly be Hitchcock, followed by the mythical Hammer or Tales from the Crypt films. To select a top 5 of movies would be something very difficult to do, as this could vary depending on the day. Although we are big fans of the works by Clive Barker, Romero, Argento, Carpenter, Hooper …
WHAT IS SO BEAUTIFUL IN HORRORPUNK SCENE? I THINK IT IS THE DIVERSITY AND ALL THE DIFFERENT INFLUENCES THAT ALL OF US BRING IN WITH OURSELVES, ALSO IT IS A MUCH SMALLER SCENE AND MAYBE MORE TIGHT AND FRIENDLY?
Both of us have always been linked to the scene, international and national. Currently we manage Horrorpunks Spain site and thus we have contact with many bands. We come from other underground scenes like extreme metal, but it is true that the camaraderie in horrorpunk is impressive.
A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT I KNOW SAY THAT REAL HORRORPUNK SCENE DONT EXIST, THAT EVERY BAND IS JUST A MISFITS RIPOFF! WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON THAT? HOW COULD THEY BE PROVEN WRONG?
Well, possibly MISFITS, SAMHAIN or DANZIG, is the starting point for everyone, but today, we cannot conceive being simple imitators of anyone. There are hundreds of tribute bands to do so and many others that sound completely alike. In our case it is not our aim. We try to sound as personal as possible taking influences from everything we are passionate about within the genre and staying as far as possible from the typical clichés of the mentioned bands. Obviously we have influences, of course, but from very different bands from other styles.
LETS TALK HORROR. ANY PREFERENCES IN THE MANY SUBGENRES OF THE HORROR? MINE ARE SLASHER AND HAMMER HORROR BUT ALSO I AM A SUCKER FOR FOUND FOOTAGE!
We are big fans of Slasher, gore, scifi, B series, Giallo, classic monsters, German expressionism …
THANK YOU FOR NOW. PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO SAY ANYTHING YOU WANT IN THE END AND I DIDN´T ASK YOU. THIS IS YOUR FIRST INTERVIEW FOR SOME CROATIAN ZINE I THINK.
Thank you very much for this cool interview and your interest in the band. It has been a pleasure to answer. The only thing that we would add is to invite you to visit our page: https://www.facebook.com/spookshowhorrorpunk where we will update all our news.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 