Modern Illusion is relatively young record label in the scene but they deliver superb releases. This time they delivered demo by hardcore band from San Diego, California called Bent Blue.
This demo contains five songs. While listening to the songs, it brought back two feelings in me. First, it reminded me of the early nineties when we started in the scene as young and idealistic kids, loving the early nineties hardcore sound and mourning a little for not being a bit older to experience old school youth crew feeling and vibe of the late eighties. Well the music of this band sound just like that. Like early nineties hardcore with some groove, smart songwriting, interesting solutions in parts of the songs, yet also being fast old school hardcore with melody, anthemic riffs and nice vocals. Of all the songs, my favorites are They Ask Why and Influence Me. This is a great demo, can´t wait for the full length.
Jamey Rottencorpse and The Rising Dead are no strangers to the pages of this zine and horrorpunk scene. Hailing from Bremen, Germany, these guys are playing modern metallic version of horrorpunk yet remaining true to the old school horrorpunk roots with lots of melody, singalong parts, harmonies and catchy guitar parts.
Now, with the help of awesome Undead Artists they released brand new e.p. The record contains four songs and what immediately falls to ear is beautiful eerie rendition of Edgar Allan Poe´s poem A Dream Within A Dream with haunting voice and screaming Hell behind all sounds. The Day I Died is a horrorpunk song with metal influences in guitar work and drumming, with awesome chorus making your skin crawl with the feelings only this music can provide. My personal favorite on this record is Flesh And Lust which I listened for many times in a row and I can totally relate to the song, beautiful melodies and vocal lines, along with guitar work. But, the real hit on this record is horror cover of Somewhere Under The Graveyard which would definitely play in my version of Wizard of Oz. This is superb record. Love it all the way!
Dickie Devil and the Deviants are from Pennsylvania and they call their music Munstercore. There are four songs on this new e.p. and the music is somewhere between garage rock, surf, horror punk and rockabilly, of course with horror lyrics and this e.p. varies from song to song. The Undead Wanna Rock n Roll is a more of a classic rock n roll song old school vibe with zombies dancing all around in their rotten clothes and flesh falling off their bodies on the floor. Creatures Pet has more rockabilly sounding guitar and beat while my personal favorite is Queen of Monster High being the most melodic and punk rock sounding song just made for you to sing along and bury your prom date to. Da Humans Run Run is also nice punk rock song and those two mentioned are my favorites. This is a great little record, for all you fiendettes and fiends, go get this one.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 