headfirst into hell
“It’s a psychobilly freakout!” – REVEREND HORTON HEAT
Far be it for me to definitively declare when psychobilly got its proper
start. The Cramps? The Meteors? Fair to say though, that Nekromantix have been around long enough to be considered old school. Formed in Denmark in 1989, the band, led by bassist Kim Nekroman, was a big part of the Eu- ropean psychobilly wave. And since relocating to LA and signing to Tim Armstrong’s Hellcat Records around a decade ago, the trio has done much to keep the genre alive in North America. This also means they’re veteran enough to have generated some haters. The new Nekromantix album, What
Happens in Hell Stays in Hell, arrived this summer with the awesomely titled debut single “Bats in my Pants.” It’s a high- speed chase of a number, all fast guitars and cheeky lyrics about girls, girls, girls, with an original spin. Totally fun. So what’s with the Mr. ALL CAPS on YouTube screaming about their “fuck- ing roots” and calling the new material shit? Well, it comes with the territory these days. Even Nekroman knows that. “Well, psychobilly is a complicated discussion now, with the inter-
net,” he says. “You know how it is with subcultures. They can be very, very bitchy.” Which doesn’t mean the band shies away from the psy- chobilly tag. Nekroman confirms that to him it’s more than music, it’s a lifestyle. And so the new album has all the classic hallmarks, like monster love (the surftastic “Bela Lu- gosi’s Star”) and living dead girls (the Katy Perry-spoofing “I Kissed a Ghoul”). But then there’s the rock blast of “Demon- speed” and the downright thoughtful title
track, too. Nekromantix may still embrace the retro, but they are not living in the past. “I love psychobilly because it’s about experimenting,” says Nekroman. “It’s
what makes it different from rockabilly, which always was super nostalgic. But in a way the scene has now be- come what it was rebelling against. And I guess it happens because people
age and psychobilly is connected to their youth, so they turn into their parents and don’t under- stand new blood and new inspi- rations and influences. But me, I want to keep my mind very open.”
LIISA LADOUCEUR RM 4
THE BLOOD SPATTERED GUIDE CAN BE HEARD WEEKLY ON
RUEMORGUERADIO.COM 6 A U D I O D R O M E
VOMITOMA Coagulated Dialysis of Partially
METAL
Disintegrated Viscerosolids VAGINAL APOCALYPSE PRODUCTIONS Vomitoma is a one-man goregrind, um, band from Maryland, though the music sounds more like it’s from the bottom of someone’s septic tank. That might come off as an insult, but I’m sure Vom- itoma would take it as a compliment. After all, his label describes him as “a bulldozer that runs on hard drugs plow- ing through a blockade of rotting ca- davers in a sewer tunnel littered with medical waste and toxic sludge.” Rooted in early Carcass and General Surgery, with tracks such as “Spewing Pus from Empty Eyesockets” and my personal fave, “Cockroach Swarmed Afterbirth Frothing from the Depths of a Half-Burnt Womb,” Vomitoma isn’t even writing music, let alone innovative music. If a fraction of the effort put into finding new ways to make people barf was put into musicianship, this might sound more interesting than someone running a broken garbage disposal over a drum machine. Part of the appeal of gore metal has always been in creating a listenable equivalent to the most hi- lariously repulsive set pieces imagina- ble. I’m guessing Vomitoma forgot the first part. AVL DOA
the “Rumpelstiltskin”-inspired “Wumpel- stilz” or the album’s cartoonish cover art. Musical diversity is always welcome, but the mostly plodding, melodic clamour here is in dire need of some connective tissue. Of course, English-speaking lis- teners won’t entirely pick up on the im- balance, but Ratzinger could have easily addressed this gaping chasm by not plucking his scares from opposite ends of the horror spectrum. TT 000
Formed in Philadelphia in 1988, the band released a handful of demos and singles, building a reputation on the live circuit before disbanding in the early ’90s. Fifteen years later, original members Chris Gamble (bass and vo- cals) and Alex Bouks (guitar) resur- rected the band, and with the aid of Incantation members John McEntee (guitar) and Jim Roe (drums), finally released a proper album, Mortal Re- pulsion, in 2009. This follow-up, pro- duced and recorded by Roe at his home studio with metal journeyman VJS replacing McEntee, is a thor- oughly modern amalgam of pure old- school death metal styles. It’s all here – from the proto-black metal in the opening title track, to the grind of “Footpaths in the Vortex,” to the thrash inflections of “Totems of the Vulture” and the downright evil riffs of “Shroud of Hyena.” Cohesive, unaf- fected and unrelentingly authentic. GM 0000
DENIAL FIEND Horror Holocaust
METAL
GOREAPHOBIA Apocalyptic Necromancy
METAL
DARK DESCENT You don’t get much more under- ground or cult than Goreaphobia.
IBEX MOON Florida’s Denial Fiend seemingly had it made with its 2007 debut They Rise. Featuring the inimitably charismatic death vocals of former Massacre front- man Kam Lee, the album is a glorious celebration of drive-in horror and blood-drenched slashers. Then, in 2008, the band members parted ways with Lee, replacing him with the se- verely inferior Blaine Cook from splat- tercore stalwarts The Accused. Cook is a grating doppelgänger of Agnostic Front’s Roger Miret here, an annoying presence whose maniacal-yet-tedious snarl effectively sinks the band’s thrashy blend of horror-obsessed death and freewheeling punk before it even sets sail. Shame, really, because this album is even more deftly per- formed and produced than its prede- cessor, with tracks such as “Afterparty Massacre,” “Flesh Feast” and “Stuck Pig/Bleeding Out” combining churning mosh riffs, crunchy breaks and tasty double-kick speed. If Lee was to return or Cook was replaced with a less ob- noxious counterpart, we could be talkin’ big things here. For now, con- sider this a missed opportunity. GP 00
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