Recently I admitted I am a fan of more conservative horrorpunk. It might come as no surprise that I am enthralled with bands like Misfits, Calabrese, The Other and The Crimson Ghosts. So here we are, five years after their previous album Yet Not Human I can share my impressions of their sixth album Forevermore.
For the uninitiated, The Crimson Ghosts have been around twenty years now. In that time they have released six albums and a couple of splits. The first five albums are chock full of high quality horrorpunk. Every album has at least a couple of instant hits. This German band's trademark is strong vocals (with a lot of harmony between the lead singer Vlad and the backing vocals by guitar player Jackal) over a metallic punk sound. I find the exact sound hard to describe. It starts out with Famous Monsters era Misfits, but it is a bit more metallic than that. Where a band like The Other added more and more mid tempo power metal into their mix, The Crimson Ghosts really sound like a punk band with metal aspirations. The main question here of course is: is Forevermore worth the five year wait?
It took me a while to formulate an answer that felt correct. Where previous albums had a certain immediacy, this album is more a grower. After the first spin I felt a wee bit disappointed. This record has all the ingredients I expect from the band: a really strong production, heavy guitars, strong vocals, a lot of “whohoho”-ing going on. What made me doubt though? Perhaps my hopes were too high? Over the next weeks I spent more time with the record and it started to reveal its dark secrets. This is not exactly a progressive album, but there is something about the songwriting that asked a bit more of me than their previous releases.
The record starts off strong with “On A Succubic Night”. The song is fast and kind of catchy with strong vocal harmonies and a kind of creepy sounding “they’re after you!”. Next up is a ballad “Of A Guilty Man (IV)”. It starts off with strong new wave vibes; very bass driven. I veered up from my chair: did they mention something about a prom queen? If you follow this band you might get what the “IV” at the end of the song title hints at. Yes, this is the fourth part of a story that started on their debut! Those songs are very strong and this fourth part is no different. Also: I am a sucker for telling a big story over multiple songs and albums. The piano later on in the song is a nice addition to the sound.
I am not going to discuss every individual song, but do want to highlight a couple more songs. “Devil In The White City”, “The Legend Of Walking Sam” and “Enshrined In Silence” are the closest thing to the instant hits the band can write. The latter has a very cool and strong fake ending. This gives the refrain extra pop. The first has the strongest sing-a-long vibe. So if you catch someone with headphones on singing something that sounds like “I am born with the devil in meeeeeeee!!” it could well be me.
Worth mentioning is the guestlist on the album. This band has made some friends along the way and it shows on this album. If you listen closely you can find Nim Vind (Nim Vind), Argyle Goolsby (Argyle Goolsby and Blitzkid) and TB Monstrosity (Blitzkid), Slaughterlamb (Hellgreaser) and Pete 9 (Ex The Spook, Wolfskull).
All in all I do think the band has shown interesting growth. My initial disappointment has vanished. This album is less catchy than previous albums, but once it clicks it has a high replay value.
