Horror Punk Meets Devo and starts a fight with Rockabilly
A. Cianciola | Inland Empire, CA USA | 01/20/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Dead Vampires take all the ideals of horror punk and twist them into a bizarre cacophony of sounds that seem so familiar but with pleasantly strange surprises that are unlike anything you ever heard. The first thing you are going to notice about this band is the freakishly wild synthesizers working with the heavy guitars. Doc's vocals are like a deep bellowing vampiric horror rock Billy Idol. There is a lot going on with this album and the best way I can think to describe the Dead Vampires is as 80's horror hard rock Devo with surf and rockabilly style.
"Coffin Rocket" starts this album off with some thick start and stop guitar with creepy synthesizer entwined between the heavy riffing, then this song kicks into high gear with buzz saw guitars and allows Doc to just wail over the music. The vocals here a deep bellow with a snarling punk growl. Awesome Cramps style guitar break with swirling synth and dark whispering vocals. "City of Vampires" has a distinct 80's hard rock swagger but rather then glitz and glam this track has a goth freak out feel. I think this is the kind of song that would happen if you tied Billy Idol up, dressed him like Dave Vanian (The Damned, come on you know that, right?) and made him watch Bela Lugosi movies all day before going to the studio. "Dead End Drive-In" takes on traditional rockabilly sound. The guitars have a snaking crystal sounding ring to them during the verse and take on harder psycho punk drive to them during the chorus. The synth sounds fantastic here and gives this a little bit of weirdness and a psychedelic 60's feel. Beautiful vocals here that croon, growl and break with all the appropriate emotion. "Ghoul U Want" is a Devo cover that keeps the tone of the original but horrors it out for all the monsters kids out there. Killer song choice and an appropriate mixture of their styles and influences. "Dead and Blue" closes this album with a slow 50's rock n roll styled love song with romantic lyrics like "She holds me down and beats me till my blood turns into tears...." Lovely song that ponders if your true love will still love you after you are beaten to death.
Dead Vampires have a unique sound that combines the familiar with the strange. They have all the elements of horror punk but sound little like anyone else associated with the genre. Great lyrics that are tongue and cheek dark and amusing but never trite or clichéd. The Day After Halloween is probably one of the wildest and weirdest releases on the scene and is certainly one that should be sought out. Say you are driving somewhere with two friends. You want to hear horror punk, one friend wants 80s, one wants rockabilly, just what do you do? Throw this Dead Vampires album on the stereo. Not only will you enjoy it but you won't have to worry about one of your friends choking you while you drive for making them listen to something they don't want to hear.
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Track Listings (11) - Disc #1