By Jonny Bakes
Horror punk always seems to be a genre that promotes a strong reaction in people. For some reason there are plenty of people out there who will turn up their noses at the very hint of the genre, yet others absolutely adore it. Me? Well, I’ve always had a soft spot since I stumbled across Wednesday 13 in my early teens, so when some Finnish horror punk dropped into ÜRHQ, I decided to indulge myself and give it a try. And that’s how I found myself getting all messy with ‘Splatterpunk’.
‘Splatterpunk’ is the brainchild of a bunch of crazy Fins known as Scarecrow who have been churning out metal/punk crossover since the early 2000s, but I’ll admit it’s the first time I’ve heard of them! Boasting a whole bunch of EPs and a number of full-length albums, they’ve certainly been pretty busy over the years, but for ‘Splatterpunk’ the band wanted to play something particularly fast and tight, and the result is the concept album I have before me.
The overall sound sits on that border between thrash metal and punk that results in something that is significantly heavier and faster than other horror punk that you may be used to. Bizarrely the closest band I can think of that resembles the sound would be Footprints in the Custard who, while a bit of an UR favourite, are a little on the obscure side… So instead, imagine if you were to take Municipal Waste and throw them in a meat grinder with Wednesday 13, form the resulting mush into a 12” disc and stick it on the record player, you’d probably get something that sounded a little bit like ‘Splatterpunk’. It achieves what it set out to be and is genuinely fast and tight, the drumming is absolutely relentless and maintains a breakneck speed throughout the album which is accompanied by shredding guitars with simple chord progressions. The lyrics are, unsurprisingly, steeped in horror influences with plenty mentions of zombies (hell, there’s four tracks called ZMB) and the vocal delivery is generally pretty harsh although there are odd moments that feel very Misfits influenced too.
‘ZMB4’ is one such song, which includes a very healthy dose of “woah-oh” in the chorus to give you the right vibe. At two minutes long, it’s par for the course for this album, but with the sheer ferocious speed and energy, there’s about ten minutes’ worth of notes crammed into the short time span. It’s almost exhausting listening to as you get aurally assaulted by thunderous drums and speedy riffing accompanied by venomous vocals spitting out the verses. But the chorus, now that is frustratingly catchy and something that feels like it’s taken from that early era of horror punk and is something that I found myself humming over and over again. I’m still not sure I can remember the words though, although I’m pretty sure it has something to do with zombies eating brains…
All in all, ‘Splatterpunk’ was a pretty fun ride with its 16 tracks over 30 minutes. The tracks are short, for sure, but Scarecrow still packs a fair bit of energy into each one. If you’ve already switched off at the mention of horror punk then, yeah, this album isn’t going to tickle your tastebuds at all. But if you love walking with zombies or digging up bones then ‘Splatterpunk’ is well worth a listen. While I’m not sure I can see Scarecrow pulling out a UK headline tour any time, I think they would be a very solid opener for the likes of Wednesday 13, but they’d also be pretty fun in a dingy backstreet pub too. In fact, that might suit their vibe even better than being in a nice shiny venue!
- ‘Splatterpunk’ is out now.
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