Remember video nasties, rubber monsters and glorious below-par B-movie acting from the 1980s? Well Irish-based punk/horror/rock band Lugosi is here to remind us all just how fantastically cheesy and tongue-in-cheek that forgotten era was.
Formed in 2016, and influenced by the unholy quadrilogy of beer, books, movies and music, they embarked on a mission to make heavy music informed by horror and science fiction, infused with a singular humour and delivered with groove and style.
Best described as a sonic Ed Wood movie transmitted through rock and roll, Lugosi has created a cartoon catalogue of monsters and myths, aliens, witches, vampires, secret societies and much, much more.
Stylistically, the band have been influenced by Danzig, The Misfits, Clutch, and Black Sabbath, and apparently a smattering of Django Rheinhardt thrown in for good measure!
After a couple of years of honing their live performances and exploring the dusty back shelves of the local public library, the band recorded and launched their debut album Rise from the Grave in 2019. This album consisted of 8 tracks, with four of them released as singles, supported by videos and shows across the island of Ireland.
2020 arrived and brought Lugosi’s interior horror movie reality to the general public in the form of a global pandemic. Continuing their strange obsession with the number 8, and recorded in short spurts between various lockdowns, their second album Video Nasty is an 8-track trip to the corner video store. Covering strange and diverse unhallowed ground lyrically, the album is due for release on the 12th March.
Lugosi plan on supporting the album with several singles and videos. ‘They Came From Outer Space’ dropped in January (still available here), and they’ve just brought out ‘Soylent Green’ as follow-up.
You can watch the videos to both of them right here at RAMzine.
The band recently announced a US distribution deal with Ruined Vibes Records, home to Nick Oliveri (Queens Of The Stone Age, Mondo Generator), and label boss, Jason Hall, commented on the band’s forthcoming release:
“Hailing from Dublin, horror rockers, Lugosi’s sophomore album Video Nasty will be proudly distributed in the USA by Ruined Vibes, which is a boutique vinyl label based in the heart of desert rock in the California desert, specifically Sky Valley”.
You can pre-order Video Nasty via this link.
