October has started and Samhain/Halloween is close, so what better way to start festivities than with horrorpunk. The Crimson Ghost are from Bergamo, Italy and have been active for ten years now. They are not to be mixed with better known The Crimson Ghosts from Germany due to name similarity. Anyway, Curtains of Fear is their second album and it contains eight songs of horrorpunk with girl on vocals who sings quite great and has very strong yet melodic voice. The music is not your typical Misfits/Blitzkid clone, no this album is varied in style ranging from more straightforward old school horrorpunk with Werewolf in Blood, but also more bizarre haunting groove of Lost in the Dark, my personal favorite The Curse of Mummy which was previously released as e.p. prior to this album and wisely chosen as single. But, what surprised me the most is a horror ballad Devils In The Dark which is a metal power ballad with almost thrash metal parts thrown in there for good measure. So, if you like your horrorpunk more varied, melodic yet metalized then this one is for you. It is a small scene, yet quite tight and support it.
UK Ska-Punk stalwarts Faintest Idea have released a brand new single ‘Nose Dive’ taken from their forthcoming album, which will be release early 2023. Nose Dive is stream everywhere now – https://linktr.ee/faintestidea
Lyrically the song addresses trying to balance being politically active while having to hold down a full time job to keep your head above the water. Questioning whether you’re doing enough politically but also having no time to do any more.
Dani, Faintest Idea’s vocalist and bassist, says “it’s taken us a fair amount of time to finish this album in part due to us wanting to make sure we threw everything we had into it and making sure we made it all sound as big as possible. This was massively helped by the whole thing being mastered by the legendary Alan Douches (Against Me!, Bad Brains, Slackers)”.
Nose Dive features guest vocals from the one and only Riskee from ‘Riskee & the Ridicule’ and incredible keys provided by Rikk Richardson from ‘The JB Conspiracy’.
With Faintest Idea’s album just around the corner they will be loads more announcements soon. But in the mean time catch them on tour with The Slackers next week;
26/9 – Hare & Hounds – Birmingham 27/9 – Retro – Manchester 28/9 – Parish – Huddersfield 29/9 – Kanteena – Lancaster 30/9 – Underworld – London 1/10 – Brudennel Social Club – Leeds 2/10 – Think Tank – Newcastle 3/10 – The Exchange – Bristol Faintest Idea take the bouncing beat of 2 Tone Ska and smash it over the head with fast, angry UK Punk. Hailing from the East Anglian region of Britain the rabble rousing political lyrics are shouted over layers of catchy brass lines and heavy boot stomping beats. Playing anywhere and everywhere from squats to bars to festival main stages and drawing inspiration from bands such as The Specials, The Filaments & Operation Ivy this is angry political commentary that you can shout along to while stomping your feet.
Jerkswitch are from Canada and are no strangers to the pages of this zine. They were already featured with couple of great singles and now it is time for full length to grace the pages of this zine. Well, this one contains 9 songs. Jerkswitch play emotional melodic punk rock with a bit raw and dirty yet melodic guitar work, great choruses and backing vocals, but the songs are not your fast skate punk. No, this is more like PUP, The Flatliners and similar bands with also some ska punk influences in song structures. Lyrics are every day life, emotions and something I can relate to, like excellent Running From Myself, Killing Machines or King Of Shit. This is a good album by good band.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 