The Crimson Ghosts

Dead Eyes Can See

Written by: PP on 25/06/2008 18:57:56

The horror punk genres seems to have received a face lift ever since AFI released their latest album, and now more and more bands are seeking to get to the moneys by singing about zombies, horror movies and vampires above fast punk riffs and gang shouts. Germany\'s The Crimson Ghosts is the latest band attempting to keep the flag of horror punk flying high with their newest album \"Dead Eyes Can See\" without ever coming across as anything more than a clone band.

\"Dead Eyes Can See\" is opened by its title track, a haunting, apocalyptic instrumental track that really serves no other purpose than being a superficial attempt in frightening the listener into the tone and mood of the album. You hear it once, and its Halloween-borrowed melody is cool, but you hear it twice, and you just wanna skip it to get straight to \"Invade!\", a full blast punk rock assault with the classic rumbling bass lines and three chord guitars. Here\'s where I\'ll give the band some credit: they\'re freaking good at writing breakneck punk riffs that absolutely demand you to bang your head / start circle pits at live shows. And what\'s a good horror punk track without the classic \"woohoo-ooh\" gang shouts on the background? You can never go wrong with those, as the album highlight \"Bloodred\" also demonstrates. More songs like this, and \"Dead Eyes Can See\" could be one of the best punk releases this year.

\"Nightbreed\" is another album highlight, featuring guest appearances from Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space, The Other, The Spook and Blitzkid, all prominent names in the horror punk scene. Whatever that means in this genre. All the songs songs mentioned so far showcase The Crimson Ghosts\' ability to write catchy hooks and infectious choruses just like their much bigger exemplars.

But here\'s where the album goes wrong. You can only use the woohoo gang shout chorus a limited amount of times before the entire album becomes a one big woohoo. The clean vocals start repeating themselves, and you start expecting the gang shout in every chorus, effectively erasing its surprise element completely. If you can live with that, then \"Dead Eyes Can See\" can be quite enjoyable indeed. If not, well, it\'ll end up sounding like all the other AFI clones that only changed a bit in vocals/elsewhere to try to differ them from the crowd. I\'m not even going to mention the ridiculous lyrics (\"I rip the brains out (rip the brains out).. I 812\") because for some reason the tag \"horror punk\" makes bands immune to lyrical criticism. Actually scrap that, who in the right mind really wants to listen to songs about zombies (unless they\'re funny like The Wonder Years)?

6

Download: Bloodred
For the fans of: old AFI, Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space
Listen: Myspace

Release date 14.04.2008
Cargo Records
Provided by Target ApS

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