It’s not unfair to say that rock, as a genre, has been slightly uninspired for the last couple of years. Even its brightest stars – Bring Me The Horizon, Twin Atlantic – have tempered their guile for radio play. So to see a British band forging their own hearse-driven path in a theatrical, grandiose way – last seen with My Chemical Romance’s ‘The Black Parade’ – is thrilling.
Meet Creeper’s debut album, ‘Eternity, In Your Arms’. ‘Black Rain’ opens with twinkly piano before a slathering of AFI-esque vocals amble up to provide perfect spookiness. ‘Poison Pens’ fuses a creepy chorus (“I feel like an angel for you, now I do the deeds that devils do”) with giant riffs. ‘I Chose To Live’ flits between earnest and dramatic with total ease. ‘Suzanne’ is all Meat Loaf vocals on top of West Coast pop-punk. Creeper’s influences (from punk legends Misfits to romantic psychobillies Tiger Army) are sewn together seamlessly.
Read More: Creeper – “We want to put that over-the-top flamboyance back into punk”
Every day is Halloween with Creeper, in the very best way. Parts of ‘Hiding With Boys’ resemble The Cure, and Will Gould often sounds like he’s crooning from inside a velvet-lined coffin. All that’s left is to don your jaunty capes and black eyeliner, because as they say on ‘Misery’: “Misery never goes out of style.”
By Anita Bhagwandas
