Celebrating the return of former bassist Aaron Thorn, The Other have conjured up the soundtrack to your nightmares (or fantasies) – with familiar sounds to please their long-standing crowd of devoted fans, and just enough of a newer sound to keep them unique and championing the genre that holds them so highly.
Opening up like a shallow grave, first track ‘Mark Of The Devil’ oozes eerie vocals and fast, hard-hitting riffs and a catchy chorus to get your bones rattling. The unmistakeably haunting vocal styling of Rod Usher is draped and displayed to dark, sultry perfection on every song Haunted has to offer, backed by the nostalgic and traditional horror punk gang vocals. Tracks ‘We’re All Dead’, ‘Dead To You’ and ‘Creepy Crawling’ are what the horror scene has been craving. If it’s a ‘fun’ in ‘funeral’ party you want, you got it. A far cry from slower, more intense tracks that have a ‘Lovers Lane’ twist for the O.G (original ghouls) such as ‘On My Skin’ and a distinct goth twist in devilishly dark number ‘Fading Away’. There’s some real horror-billy for you with their newly released single ‘Turn It Louder’ with bluesy guitar and a hell-raising rock’n’roll chorus, with less of a gruesome lyric book than the rest.
It wouldn’t be German horror punk without a couple of tracks in their native tongue, to which we are gifted with ‘Absolution’ and ‘Was Und Zerstoert’ loosely translated to “Which Destroys Us” – a politically charged song, aptly written for this year it seems… is there a clairvoyant in the band? Who knows! What I do know, is that the gritty, underground punk vibe in both tracks is fluent and aggressive that definitely makes you want to raise a fist in the air.
‘1408_217’ is a mystery of a title, but a total chiller-thriller of a tune, if you’ve ever wanted to spend a night in a haunted house with an undead beau, this is the soundtrack to your fright night. Taking us to one of the most distinct songs would have to be ‘To Hell And Back’ in its beauty and glory, being a love song to rival most. ‘Vampire Girl’ – I was expecting a sneaky Misfits cover, and I was pleasantly surprised to be hit with a pit starter! Fast, freaky, frisky and f***ing awesome. Ending the album with ‘The Silence After The First Snow’ (nothing to do with the movie Dead Snow, much to my disappointment) is definitely the end-of-the-night pub tune, swaying with your pint and singing along to depart on a high. Is it weird that I would totally play this at Christmas?
All I can say is, get me back to Koln with these guys, a beer and a crowded pub full of horror punks. This album is frightfully fang-tastic.
HAUNTED is out for release on June 12th 2020 by Drakkar Entertainment.
4 STARS
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