Siberian Mad Dogs
Psych (live) Digital EP
(Monkey Temple Production)
The seething and snaking "Slip Slip Slippin' In" and "Psych" were on the Dogs' Vodka and Kalashnikov, also issued in 2024. Poison-pen missives, offered now in versions more frequently than not in slo-mo venomousness, they typify the menace amassing formidability cut by cut. It's magnetic in its malfigurement. It's Psychobilly.
Hola Ghost
Lunar starkness stabs night's ebony shroud, illuminating cacodemon mariachis whose guitars of ghastliness mesmerize.
Video: "The End of the Road" (live
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Nekromantix
Three Decades of Darkle
(Cleopatra)
What distinguishes Cleopatra's steaming-from-oven reissue of their 2019 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD compendium will be instantly apparent to anyone with an eyeball in the center of their brain (to quote Lux): On offer is a two green-vinyl version, in addition to more orthodox formats. (This 30-year anniversary concert was filmed at California's Observatory Theater.) Kim thrashes his coffin-doghouse, as is his infamous wont, while allies Franciso Mesa (foamingly rabid guitar) and Brain mogul Rene D La Muerte (bashing skins beyond recognition) toil at his elbow. Soil-turning morbidness, plus humor dug only by those of bent disposition, ricochets to Saturn's haunted handies, Skelton Knaggs' Universal shooting stages, and climes in which grim ghouls ply deviltries.
Recommended: "Struck by a Wrecking Ball," "Night Nurse," "Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend," "Nekrostatic Extacy," "Gargoyles Over Copenhagen," "Subcultural Girl," "Brought Back to Life," "Horny in a Hearse," "Haunted Cathouse," "Who Killed the Cheerleader"
Video: trailer "Struck by a Wrecking Ball" "Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend" "Gargoyles Over Copenhagen" "Subcultural Girl" "Horny in a Hearse" (official video)
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De La Rocka
"The Vampire" single
(Self-issued)
The dapper ebony attire sported in accompanying video by six-string savage Panu De La Rocka and volatile affilates - including voice-of-menace Dax Dragster - is bitingly apt, given the scarifying nature of the minstrelsy revealed. Darkness from the nethermost zone infuses ghastly proclaimings, whilst direful passages rocket in tower block ear-shatter.
Hola Ghost
"The End of the Road" b/w "Iron Reich" 7" vinyl
(Svart Records / Hola Pete Records)
Bone-visaged leder Peter Sandorff knows an infernal agent need not break measured pace. Hence, "End of the Road's" enigmatic narrative gains from his chilling steadiness. The one-time Necromantix guitar menace executes passages and slicing punctuations with preciseness born from a career of taboo toils. Associated scoundrels Jeppe B. Jessen and Kristian Sandorff (Psycho Mariachis from a skewed, eerie dimension) build intensity - their formidability rivets - and spicy, sombreroed accompanists the Haunted Horns augment with poltergiest harmonies from ebony ether. Flip "Iron Reich" (a "lockdown" document) appeared in different form on a previous Hola Ghost waxing; here, it assumes acoustic constitution. And Sandorff's humanity-wrenched strains are emphasized all the more by starkness.
This 7" disc portends a full-length one due later in 2026. The single was initially available as either black & white swirl or clear/black smoke. But in a January Facebook note, Svart advised "All 7” versions are sold out from Svart’s webstore, even the test pressings! Ask your local well-equipped record store if they have a copy or grab one from the band."
Videos "The End of the Road" (live) "Iron Reich"
The Vampires of Kopenhagen
"Vampire World Domination" digital single
(Gothic Underground Records)
It's with ebony finality that this Goth/Psycho horror tale unfurls, its triumphance stately and bordering on maliciously majestic. Cloak swept to one side, it arches in Stoker-apocalypse fashion. The narrator, pasty-featured and trilling vixen at his elbow, issues morbid pronouncements in tones that signal Earth's conclusion is set in marble. Exactly how "daylight misbehaves" isn't explained, but it's doubtful any mortal would wonder, when all around crumbles and wickedness assumes the universal throne. As Criswell once intoned: "Future events such as this will affect you, in the future!"
Stormtroopers of Love
Go Go Graveyard
(Love Ghoul Records)
Fresh word holds that SOL are auditioning new voices, as Dr. Harder has stepped (amicably). (The outgoing lyric blaster is featured here.) Whoever is settled upon will have to bring unquenchable fires of uncanny origin; the Danes specialize in monstrous Psycho too distant from humanity to concern itself with any dystopic aftermath of universal storm.
Recommended: "Making Love in the Crematory," "Demon Lover," "All Bad," "Straitjacket Stomp," "Resurrection," "Don't Leave Me (in This Coffin)," "A Monster Like U," "Mutant Lover"
Videos: "Making Love in the Crematory" "All Bad" "Don't Leave Me (in This Coffin)" "Mutant Love"
Hola Ghost
Chupacabra, Hate & Fight
(Svart)
Their demolition presentation, skull-countenances, and chiaroscuro mariachis-from-the-marble-orchard aspect leave small doubt: Denmark-landed, netherworldly spawns Hola Ghost can and will tear to shards the mortal plane we're presently upon. Ambitions of normalcy are as nothing when this sombreroed Psychobilly invades.
Bandanas and bullet-belts grab eyes, true. But do not let arresting imagery distract from the music. Doomsday drums never rest. Barre chords charge. From the bass come jagged lines of savagery. The greasepainted-wraiths at hand devastate in powerful manners none but the truly skilled can pull off.
Recommended: "Chupacabra," "Mexico," "Soldadera" (live), "Hate," "To Love and Let Die," "Fight," "Funeral March"
Videos: "Chupacabra" "Mexico" (live) "Fight" "Funeral March"
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Anti Ritual
80 Years EP
(Indisciplinarian)
Were a phalanx of jackhammers to violently etch one's prefrontal cortex, their purified clangor cramming ears way past overflow, they still would not equal this. One speculates medical personnel would renounce their vows, were they to espy spotlighted yowler Marco's grated vocal chords. In the event someone ventures Punk isn't prone to rocket-raving episodes, ram "80 Years" straight down their gullet.
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