Right, so, the other night Green Day were meant to play a gig at the Electric Ballroom in Camden – As an aside I’ve only been there once, I saw The Hold Steady play one of the great gigs – and it got cancelled (obviously the 200 odd quid they think they can charge to watch “Dookie” doesn’t stop you getting ill) and Southampton’s Creeper were playing over at Shepherd’s Bush. They went viral, for their note which said: “Creeper would also like to welcome back the fickle members of the London music industry elite.
“It’s so nice of you all to have submitted your (last minute) guestlist requests after Green Day cancelled down the road”.
That level of antagonism is the sort of thing I love and whilst, yes, I am not shy of a guestlist ticket, the day I don’t go to a gig because I am not on the list is the day this website shuts down.
The problem with running a music website is this: you get so fixated on what you’re reviewing you sometimes are unaware of ace stuff, and if no one sends you the new Creeper album, then you might not know it was out. You know, unless they get arsey with a load of London dicks (probably called Tarquin, with little wire glasses who went to Oxford).
I am from Birmingham mate, where we invented metal, so let’s go Creeper, what you got. And here’s the thing: “Sanguivore” is just about the most ambitious record of the year.
It starts with an epic. A genuine grandiose OTT thing, “Further Than Forever” Is Springsteen’s “Jungleland” meets, prog meets Meat Loaf. It’s what Q***n would be if they weren’t utter shit. It sees Will Gould sing that he’s “Jesus in a strip club giving head.” And if that might mean nothing, then it’s a concept album, this, following the love story of characters Mercy, a violent vampire who was turned at the age of 19, and Spook an old man whom she has control over. My thoughts on concept albums are simple: sound, but are the songs any good? And here the answer is no. They are exceptional.
“Cry To Heaven” is essentially power metal with a bit of an eeriness. Massive in sound, and if “Sacred Blasphemy” thunders in on the back of a riff from Ian Miils then it does so with a bit of Danzig or 69 Eyes goth glam in its heart.
“The Ballad Of Spook And Mercy” is as unsettling as anything Nick Cave did, ever (not including his right-wing rant the other week), and as a fine example of the contrasts here, “Lovers Led Astray” is heavy as you like, and the glorious romp of “Teenage Sacrifice” out cults The Cult, if you will.
“Chapel Gates” takes a little foray into punk rock, but even here, Creeper can’t resist subverting the format, and there’s an almost disco, pop air to “Black Heaven” but the chorus of “Die, die for me” might stop it getting on children’s telly and the synth adds a trademark weird flavour.
The last one is a piano ballad, “More Than Death”, their hearts will go on, or something, but it’s indicative of the type of widescreen, cinematic glory of this. Its astonishing scope means you could listen to it about a thousand times and hear different stuff.
See, just to prove there’s nothing fake about this site, here’s what I knew about Creeper before I heard this: They opened for Alice Cooper once but they were on so early I missed them because of work (I had paid for my ticket like I did at the Hold Steady gig I mentioned) and keyboard player Hannah Greenwood (she’s wonderful on this by the way) was on the recent Black Water County record. There’s a back catalogue and I am investigating it.
Their bio on Spotify simply says: Creeper Is A Cult. Cool, sign me up and let the brainwashing begin. “Sanguivore” is incredible.
Rating 10/10
