Creeper

Eternity, In Your Arms

Written by: TL on 23/04/2017 15:31:48

My Chemical Romance is dead. Long live the new My Chemical Romance. That's what you sit back wanting to exclaim after spending 36 minutes in company with Southampton hotshots Creeper on their debut album "Eternity, In Your Arms". The comic book-y goth 'n' punk style the band has emerged with is similar enough to be unmistakable, yet different enough to be completely their own, and both the album and the promotional effort surrounding this band conveys an unashamed, yet unpretentious, ambition to take on the world as soon as possible.

At its core "Eternity, In Your Arms" is a collection of mainly punk-rock tunes. As much is determined by the primarily rampant, at times even hardcore-punk-ish tempo. In that sense, it's not too unusual, what makes it special is that, like a Meat Loaf song, it is an overblown piece of charmingly cheesy fiction. A man-child's dark fantasy, where relatable ordinary teenage romance is transported to the high stakes of gothic drama and bleeding heart vengefulness.

As they were for My Chem, Misfits seem an obvious source of inspiration, no doubt figuring prominently in the sextet's cabinet of influences, yet their modern interpretation shares many similarities with both MCR, AFI and Alkaline Trio. Will Gould's vocals in front bear clear traces of both the small-voiced delivery of a Matt Skiba and the all-the-air-in-his-lungs-deploying bellowing of a Meat Loaf or Glenn Danzig, and their zig-zagging from bittersweet emo moods to complete, bonkers theatre, are both ridiculous and exhilarating.

Where else will you find lyrics like "I wrote down a list of coroners, their names, their office phone numbers, to pronounce dead the thing we had" or "Suzanne! I wanna die holding hands! Running from this world's demands! All those radio bands, never made me feel!", or - even better - "Wrap your heart in chain mail, we all die just to feel alive!" These are delivered on highlight worthy tracks like "Suzanne", "Room 309" and the stupidly infectious change of pace ballad "Misery", all in such OTT fashion that it can't but bring a smile to your face.

To be real, the bread and butter tracks of the album are actually not all that different from each other, as Creeper seem to rely heavily on break-neck punk-rock tempo, which is something that could bear to have some variety introduced to it to improve the band's songwriting moving forward. But the lyrical details and the dramatic stylings, with violin, piano and choir, more than make the fairy tale compelling enough to merit repeat visits. It might be hard to imagine if you're just reading about the band for the first time here because indeed, much of Creeper's music seems written from the point of view of a quite self-righteous, vengeful freak of a romantic teenager. But maybe there's enough of that in everyone's past for it to seem relatable, and Gould and his mates walk a fine line in portraying more charmingly than vulgarly. There's just enough of a dash of awareness and maturity, for instance when he sings in album closer "I Choose To Live", "Young enough to still have a heart, old enough to fall apart".

So do treat the escapist within to at least a half hour or ten in the company of these guys, and do root for them to break through as thoroughly as they aim to because here's a band it feels like it would be beyond fun to follow on records to come.

8

Download: Suzanne, Misery, Room 309, Black Rain
For The Fans Of: My Chemical Romance, AFI, Crooks, Alkaline Trio
Listen: facebook.com/creepercult

Release date 24.03.2017
Roadrunner Records

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