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How do you observe the very best album of your decade-long profession? The one which pulled the whole lot collectively in impressively fearless style? When ‘the whole lot’ means goth rock drama, horror-punk opera and Jim Steinman-esque epics about doomed vampire lovers?
For Creeper, the query is wholly rhetorical. You do it yet again, clearly. Halloween sees the arrival of Sanguivore II – when else? – however actually, it could be a disservice to name it the Reload to Sanguivore’s Load. Largely as a result of it’s even higher. The hooks are heavier, the peaks are increased, and the pacing is picture-perfect.
As soon as once more, the Southampton sextet labored with Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Rammstein, The Cult, Opeth), clearly a producer with a knack for capturing darkish and theatrical rock. Creeper have stated that this can be a thematic sequel through which a vampire band rampages throughout America amid the Satanic panic of the eighties. Patricia Morrison’s spoken intro on A Shadow Stirs tells it one other approach: ‘Rock music is a sexy vampire and tonight it’s feasting upon you’.
As ever, none of this half-baked lore and/or buffoonery works with no host of supreme songs to again it up, and boy, Sanguivore II has ’em. That leads us into Mistress Of Dying, which rumbles together with metallic pomp earlier than a bone-rattling, prime Megadeth breakdown, opening the gates for a sequence of epic guitar harmonies.
As a lead single, Headstones is a no brainer – assume Motörhead’s Burner cosplaying as Creeper. A briskly good three minutes of exploding guitars, double kick drums, rapturous gang vocals and, in fact, handclaps. ‘Give up your soul to the sins of the satan’s caress,’ William von Ghould barks. The place can we join, mate?
Blood Magick (It’s A Ritual) feels like Belinda Carlisle post-unholy makeover. As wonderful razor-edged guitars scythe by nearly the whole lot, Hannah Greenwood’s hovering vocals – the place the hook owes a lot to Heaven Is A Place On Earth – are the proper counterpoint to Ghould’s deliciously droll baritone.
Brooding and irresistible, Prey For The Night time is kind of probably the very best music Meat Loaf by no means wrote. On Razor Wire, decapitation has by no means sounded sexier, because of its smoky piano and raunchy saxophone bursts. Because the spellbinding Pavor Nocturnus closes, it’s clear that Creeper have dropped the efficiency of their lives. Sanguivore II is a type of uncommon and treasured rock information: immediately bewitching however oozing with moments to feast on time after time.
