October is a right time for many new horrorpunk releases that come out as Samhain is closing in, so it was time for me to have a listen to the new Blood Shift record.
These guys come from Cleveland and they play a mixture of horrorpunk and death rock. There are 11 songs on this one and as I started listening I was awed by musicianship and versatility of this record. Songs like Let It Live are more straightforward catchy horrorpunk songs, but This Dead World is aggressive death rock song with even some doom vibes thrown in for good measure. Infecting Madness starts as a ballad with lots of atmosphere and turns into bass pumping and upbeat horrorpunk song with lots of superb harmonies. Calling is a song with melancholic chorus and reminds me on some of the later era Blitzkid and Gools´ work and I mean that in every possible loving way. Bleeding Secret is one of my personal favorites, so sad, so atmospheric and so loving in any possible way, mid tempo punk song with haunting melody. Forgotten Land serves as acoustic and spooky intermezzo between the second part of the album. As for the second part of the album, my favorite songs there are Illuminate The Night and Fire Of One, being somehow most memorable. This one is a great record, so go listen and get it.
Plot 13 are horrorpunk duo and this is their brand new release which contains 6 songs. This is a Haloween gift demo single which contains only cover songs done nicely. There are two Misfits songs(Halloween and I Turned Into A Martian), DieMonsterDie song(1000 Corpses Walk The Earth), Ramones song(Pet Sematary) and Murderdolls song(Summertime Suicide). The vocals are nice, quite beautiful for horrorpunk band, music is done decently and I would definitely like to hear the band´s original material very soon, because I have a feeling that these guys could really be great in our beloved genre. Everyone has to begin somewhere and this is quite a nice beginning, so support and listen, also write a word or two to the guys, I am sure they will appreciate it.
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.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 