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THE CREEPNIKS :
GRAVEYARD SHINDIG

The Catacombs of Paris, the Amityville house in New York, the Stull Cemetery in Kansas, and now the town of Elkhart Texas... These are among the most haunted, ghoul-filled places in the world. The first three are widely famous, and their stories known by all. Only a few fearful souls know of the fourth, but that is about to change... Elkhart now makes this list, as it is home to a force so evil, and so vile, that it has been called the "infernal tool of Satan", that force, is... The Creepniks! Ok, maybe that's a little over the top, but this band does have a kick-ass image, and a killer (literally) back-story. Anyway, what I first thought was just gonna be yet another horror-themed Surf record (which still would've been fine) has turned out to be a little bit more. You see, although this collection of musically inclined members of the undead do indeed play some creepy-ass Surf-Rock, they also add in heaping amounts of fetid Psychobilly, and a dash of o' maggot-encrusted Spaghetti-Western styled instrumentation. One might not think that these three distinct styles would sit so well shoulder to shoulder on the same disc (and often in the same song) but they do just that. We have four tracks that are strictly instrumentals, while the other five have been plagued by other worldly vocals, seemingly supplied from beyond the grave. A pet peeve of mine is that many bands of this ilk, who get on board with the whole horror thing, never really manage to sound creepy. They'll entitle their songs so they sound like a run-down of the videos for rent in the horror section of your local Blockbuster, but the tunes themselves never actually sound creepy in any way. The Creepniks however have taken up that challenge, and succeeded with flying colours! These songs actually sound spine-chilling at times. Hell, you almost expect to see a zombified Clint Eastwood trudging past your windows as you play this! Another element that separates these boys from the pack, is that most Surf bands keep it pretty up-tempo. The Creepniks on the other hand, choose to keep it mostly laidback, and eerily low-key. Great stuff, and a fine debut! Well, it's a debut, and it isn't, you see this was first offered up as a limited CD-R release. The artwork was different, and it was missing the live track "How Do You Sleep?". However the CD-R originally had six bonus cuts from other bands on GraveWax Records, so if you have that version, you still have something special. For more info on these grave robbing ghouls, check out thecreepniks.com.
RATING = 8 Surf-Rock / Psychobilly (Released 2005)

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