Tag Archives: horror punk

(review) Blitzkid – Modern Hel

Finally new Blitzkid full length album after many, many moons. For those of you who don’t know, Blitzkid are American horror punk legends and they are one of my favorite bands, so don’t be angry if I get a bit emotional in this post. There are 13 songs on this banger, so let’s go to the tracks one by one:

-The Thirteenth Guest – fast hardcore punk song with catchy melody and nice atmospheric part in the middle of the song, very good.

-Ghosts Walk – fast paced typical Blitzkid song with enchanting melody evoking gothic ghost story and feeling about being stalked by the ghost.

-Cujo – based on Stephen King’s story about rabid dog, this one is a banger, dual vocals of Tracy and Goolsby have such beautiful harmonies and interwine like not a lot other bands do. Fast paced punk rock song with a message that every dog has it’s day hehe.

-Bloodlines – one of my favorites, mid tempo song reminding me of Lady In The Lake, beautiful melody and chorus, delivering music that only Blitzkid can do. I listened to this one couple of times in a row. Story about cursed bloodline, silver bullet and told from the first person, superb.

-Warning Shadows – this one was chosen as single announcing the album. Fast hardcore punk song with infectous melody and chorus that make you sing it whole day long, or at least whistle it. Check out the video too.

-Toxic Avenger – story of one of my favorite Troma characters, up tempo song with enough punk sharpness, yet enough melody and vocal lines that make your horror soul happy.

-Carnevil – another of my favorites, superb chorus and I also listened to this one couple of times in a row, to check it out once again. Melancholic guitar melody, singalong parts, this one is a keeper.

-The Unhallowed Art – another mid tempo punk rock song, with melody that made goosebumps on my skin, I would like to hear this one live, cause I am sure everyone would sing along to the chorus, nice guitar solo and Tracy’s work on this one. Reminding me of best Blitzkid songs.

-Behind The Rows – is it inspired by Children Of The Corn story by Stephen King? I am not sure, but it is an excellent song, almost love horror punk song, being gentle, melodic and up tempo punk song at the same time reminding me why I love this genre so much.

-Nailbiter – mid tempo punk song with somehow haunting melody that lingers in your mind long after you listened to it. Reminds a lot of songs from the Apparitional album.

-Beast Or Man? – another single chosen prior to the release of the album and for me THE BEST song on this album and one of the best songs Blitzkid ever made, I just can’t stop listening to this gross but at the same time sad story about The Elephant Man. You should also check out great video made for this song.

-Demonica – not to be mixed with Dwarves song of the same title. This one is another favorite on this album. It is a Blitzkid ballad, kinda doo wop rhythm of this song mixed with beautiful melody and lyrics, just made to dance with your corpse bride. Gentle and spooky, just like it needs to be.

-Under The Stairs – fast up tempo punk song that finishes the album in best possible way, such great one, I listened to this one also couple of times in a row. I think it is inspired by Wes Craven’s movie and it is lyrically anguished yet spooky story.

So, there it is. My most anticipated record of the year. I love every single second of it. Welcome back Blitzkid, can’t wait to hear some of the songs live, I am sure they will be a banger.

(review) Parlangua – ‘The Return Of…’

Hailing from Birmingham, Alabama, I think Parlangua is a one man project/band. According to their page, it started as stoner rock project but evolved towards more gruesome and macabre side of things, meaning horror! This one contains ten songs and it sounds dirty, rawer and swampy, you can almost feel the moist and swamp coming off the guitar work and thundering greasy rhythm section. Vocals are more shouted and barking than singing but fit with music like this band/project is playing. There is occasional melody rearing its ugly head here and there through all the ugliness of the punk rock. If I must describe the music of Parangua, it would be a mixture of raw horror punk, death rock with some goth influences and garage punk, that would be my description of the combination Parangua plays. As I said, lyrically they delve more into horror side of things with songs like ‘Predator’, ‘Are You Afraid Of The Dark?’, ‘Dead Ringer’ and ‘Necromantic’ standing out. I love my horror punk more melodic and more catchy, but this one is alright for being a soundtrack for some Rob Zombie-like horror movie.

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(review) Clod Maple – ‘Hellebore (Demo)’

Clod Maple is one man band from Florence, Italy. This record contains seven songs that were written, recorded, mixed and mastered in his bedroom in Florence. This one actually got to be pretty good one. I love Italian language, I love Italian melodies and their scene, so Clod Maple did fine for me. The music on this record can be described as pop punk with goth rock, horror punk influences, also I can hear some neoclassical in some songs like for example in great opener ‘Lift Me Up’. Vocals are nice voice, neither too mellow or snotty, nor too deep and I love how the color of the voice and harmonies fit to the songs. I love faster side of the songs, like ‘Seafoam’ and I can swear I hear some double bass drumming on that one, maybe it is only me. This demo is diverse, there is also an acoustic instrumental here called ‘Sorcerer’s Foot’. Lyrics deal from personal to horror goth influenced themes and my personal highlights are songs like ‘Vampire Girl’ and ‘My Friend Night’. This is a good melodic little demo and a nice effort for a one man band.

Bandcamp