Ill Bill/Ghoul EP (2018)

I have not kept up with the horror rap or 'horrorcore' subgenre of hip hop since the concept was introduced to me by groups like Flatlinerz or the Gravediggaz back in the 90s, so artists like Necro or Ill Bill have been entirely off my radar, until I saw this amusing idea for a split between the latter and Creepsylvania's death/thrash champions Ghoul. It's not the sort of team up you experience every day, and the hope for me was that the two acts would integrate one another's styles and make this splattery looking collectible a memorable trip to gory excess and some streetwise badassery, but the fact is that couldn't be further from the truth...this is just two entirely different groups doing their own thing with little regard for how it matches up as a product with the other, and the result is all too lopsided and obviously not in the favor of the rapper...

Ill Bill's track (featuring 'Goretex', and really, every fucking hip hop track these days has to be a 'feature' of some sort) is basically a mix of El-P sounding lyrical flow with beats and atmosphere that sounds a lot like the Wu-Tang Clan. It starts out with a pretty cool sample, and the production also seems like it'll be decent, but after about a moment it loses its luster and the rhyming just feels repetitive. It does sort of give off a horror in tha hood vibe with the synthesizers and effects, but the lyrics don't really hone in on the subject all that much and so one wonders why nobody told him to make it a little scarier. On the other hand, Ghoul's contribution, "Splatterthrash 2: Thrash Damage", is quite an excellent and explosive tune with a lot of energy behind it, a good sense for melody and I'd run it up against any single song on their most recent album Dungeon Bastards. Gang shouts, thrashing, jerking rhythms and the tune utterly beats the rap into a bloody pulp and it's not even funny. You'd might as well thrown a Boyz II Men track on the A-side and it would have the same effect. 

Really, to make this work you'd have needed a pretty sinister sounding rap artist with a heavier cut, and maybe even some samples from Ghoul riffs or whatever. I appreciate that the two acts are friends or just mutual admirers and wanted to show their love for horror and splatter but it just feels like a gimmick. If this was a 7" with two great new Ghoul tracks I would have liked it infinitely more, but as it stands I can really only award most of the points here to the Creepsylvanians and hope that they'll toss this tune on the next full-length as a bonus track so most people can experience it in a superior environment.

Verdict: Fail [4.5/10]

http://www.creepsylvania.com/
https://illbill.bandcamp.com/

Ghoul - Dungeon Bastards (2016)

It would be remiss of me to discuss Dungeon Bastards without first mentioning what fun packaging the CD comes with. Not only is the rear cover a mock-up of an old Dungeons & Dragons module, but the center of the fold-out is also a ridiculous roll & move board game complete with rules and everything, simultaneously helping flesh out some of the worldbuilding for their whole Creepsylvania schtick. The lyrics within are accompanied by an adventure narrative which ties the whole thing together as a concept album for all their Ghoulunatics to enjoy. As silly as it all might seem, few bands put such effort together for a product that can be appreciated well beyond just its listening capacity, and top that all off with some great comic-like artwork by Mark Richards of Heavy Hand Illustrations, and what is arguably the best of the band's album productions to date, and you've got the band's strongest attempt yet at breaking through into the wider metal audience...

On the other hand, despite all Ghoul has going for them this time, the songs themselves aren't quite so memorable as the packaging, or at least they don't start off the lineup of tracks here on the strongest of footing. This is still the same grab-bag of grind, thrash and death metal they've been serving up since the beginning of their mystery project, and it's more exciting than Transmission Zero before it, but the riffs don't always land with me, not because they're badly written or unfit, but just because a lot of the note patterns are just familiar to myself or others who have explored these sub-genres before. They still punch pretty hard thanks to the excellent, level production values that provide equal impact for the drums, guitars, and multiple vocal styles, but it isn't until "Dungeon Bastards" itself, or their fan anthem "Ghoulunatics" that I'm running into some riffs that really stick out to me, both well balanced attacks of their grinding guitars, fast-paced percussive battery, gang shouts and some really nice little metal leads, especially in the latter. I feel like these would have been better to kick off the whole album rather than "Bringer of War", not that it's bad but just suffers from some of the blander riff selections.

Thankfully, on the whole, the Ghoul personality shines through the whole affair, with the interchange of carnal rasps, thuggish gutturals and even some rhyming spoken bits that remind me a little of stuff like GWAR's manager in how they interplay with the rest of the chaos. The musicianship is on point, especially in how they balance out their tempo shifting and the pace of the album overall, and if you're down with this sort of 'funhouse' spin on the Carcass styles circa 1989-1993, or Ghoul's own sister acts Exhumed and Impaled, or Exodus or Vio-lence style thrashing on Fabulous Disaster or Eternal Nightmare and beyond, this is structurally on par with just about any of that. But apart from the actual mix of the album, with its wonderfully chunky guitars and effortlessly consistent rhythm section, there aren't really as many new ideas within the music itself as there are for the cover artwork. Superficially this exceeds its predecessors on all fronts, but it's the trifecta of We Came for the Dead, Maniaxe and Splatterthrash where they hit their peak charm, so I'm still more likely to pull those out of the cauldron whenever I need my fix of these four hooded freaks. Having said that, you can still have a blast with Dungeon Bastards cruising around with your bros on Halloween night, ganja and silly string in hand, aiming to misbehave.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (taking names, then stomping asses)

http://www.creepsylvania.com/

Ghoul - Splatterthrash (2006)

While Ghoul might have ramped up the silliness of their project with the cartoon collage cover art on Splatterthrash, their third full-length, the music was anything but. And that's honestly one of the things I so admire about the West Coast creeps, how they marry such an amusing, goofy gimmick with a seriously excellent riff set and dynamic songwriting which never really got dull through the majority of their career to date. I know there's a massive backlash we always see against 'joke bands', but I'm not sure this one even qualifies for that category since they put more effort into what they're doing than a large portion of the serious bands. But sure, Ghoul is a band you have fun to, laughing at their Creepsylvanian lyrical concepts and send-ups to the horror/exploitation genre."

Like its predecessors, Splatterthrash serves up a lot of influences, but it's mainly a mesh of crossover thrash and the more melodic death/thrash direction groups like Carcass were taking as they evolved a little further away from the grind roots. Certainly you can still hear a grinding pulse behind even this material, but a lot of the tunes go directly for mid-paced mosh-pit service ala "Mutant Mutilator" and "Merde!", which definitely have an Exodus thing going if those Bay Area legends had used a dueling guttural/snarl vocal styles which is also a throwback to Carcass. In other tracks you hear more of a punk or d-beat momentum made crisper by the more palm muted picking styles. In either case, it's the riffs that really steal the show on this album, they're endless catchy, especially the heavy usage of melodies throughout the tracks that almost give the album a more serious tone than you feel it should have, thanks to the atmosphere they automatically spark in the horror-nerd's brain. The way the album opens with "Into the Catacombs" is extremely memorable, with the creeping little guitars picked behind the acoustics and eerie harmonies.

But the other influence I haven't brought up yet is their continued commitment to surf rock elements, occasionally implemented as little bits of cleaner guitars over heavier tunes, or in an outright surf rock extravaganza like "Psychoplasm", which crafts morbid Dick Dale-like guitar lines and then adds all manner of rockabilly or spooky Western style chords in with samples of evil laughter. A lesser band might choke up the flow of their albums with such a stunt, but this isn't the first time Ghoul has pulled it off successfully and it's yet another reason they always stand out. I'd say the lion's share of the material on this album does stick pretty close to the thrashing, though, with riffs that give you the similar feel of a "Toxic Waltz" or S.O.D. tune but wound up with slightly more complex little melodic threads that are meant to spook up the tunes a little so they stay more in line with the band's perpetual Halloween theme. They also make a judicious use of gang shouts which should help keep all your pizza thrashing buds in step (as if they already don't love this band).

The production here is all boxy, organic guitars for the rhythm tracks, with the leads and melodies processed just enough to give them an otherworldly atmosphere. The clean or reverbed surf guitars fit in smoothly, while some of the samples and effects are hit or miss, for example the mechanical vocal filter in "Rise, Killbot, Rise!!!" doesn't sound so great against the music. Bass is good and chunky like a bunch of half-chewed apples bobbing in the party punch, and the drums sound nice and snappy on the high end to help balance off against those thicker guitars. All in all I wouldn't say it's the best mix on a Ghoul record, but its more than functional, and if this band scratches your itch you'll be having too much fun with Splatterthrash to really give a damn. The lyrics are also night and day, for instance the title track is your typical self-flagellating band anthem whereas "As Your Casket Closes" is more elaborate with its imagery. Some of the band's novelty might have worn off here, and I still have a slight preference towards We Came for the Dead!!! and Maniaxe, but this album makes for a fine conclusion to the aesthetic pseudo-trilogy that marked the band's earlier years.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.creepsylvania.com/

Ghoul - We Came for the Dead!!! (2002)

By no means a parody, We Came for the Dead!!! is like a mischievous little brother for Carcass's Heartwork, a chunky and abusive riff-fest which honors its overt British influence by stamping on an incredibly hammy and entertaining shock rock concept. Some will no doubt scoff at this band's underlying 'Creepsylvanian' theme of morbid, hooded serial killers steeped in campy Halloween horror and cult cinema, much like there are basement boggarts who will whine over Finntroll or GWAR  or any other costumed gimmick act (who back their image with appropriate music) while they fidget with the sticks/rulers wedged firmly into their rectums. Personally, I think this shit is amusing, and whereas the music and lyrics might resemble a good number of their Razorback kin, or the Californian act Exhumed, the fact that they've put so much effort into the cheap, consistent image of plaids, chainsaws and stage gimmicks, and created their 'own' horror story, rather than just endlessly cycle cult film samples as intros and lyrical inspirations, really earns a blood-smeared stamp of approval.

This was the group's first full-length after the Ghoul's Night Out demo (2001), and includes most of that material and a bunch of newer originals. While they weren't the first band necessarily to dive into this horror kitsch, or even the first on Razorback, they wound as arguably the band's biggest success story during that critical period in the early 'oughts when the label was emerging as an underground feast of imagery and 90s styled extremity, in stark opposition to the tech oriented Florida/NY styled brutality so popular elsewhere in the States. For good reason: We Came for the Dead!!! is not only chock full o'guts and riffs, written almost on the level of groups like Impaled and Exhumed (who some of these 'anonymous' characters have been involved with), but it sounds fantastic, and to think this is likely their 'rawest' full-length. Loud, crunchy guitars belt out hybrids of death and thrash/hardcore progressions, with a lot of muscle to the mid-paced chug, and plenty of airy, creepy leads to distract the listener from the rhythmic matrix. Drums have a lot of clap and splash to them, supportive of the guitars, and the bass does little other than pummel away the same notes that the guitars are usually spewing forth, but all in all it sounds really bright and entertaining when slathered in the mix of growls, snarls and sewer-ghoul which combined sound like an update of Symphonies of Sickness (albeit with a higher ratio of those lower, garbled gutturals).

We Came for the Dead!!! doesn't take as many liberties as its successor Maniaxe, which is a more varied album. You won't hear undead surfer tunes, just a steady barrage of organ-churning, aggressive riffs over blasted beats or thrash/rock rhythms. These are not complex compositions, but sort of cashing in on the whole retro thrash flavor while offering prostrate fellatio to Carcass, Impetigo and Repulsion. If broken down into individual riff patterns, there's nothing necessarily astounding or truly sticking to the ear, but when placed alongside the charismatic vocals and the occasional atmospheric bits, like the atonal organ ambiance that inaugurates "From Death to Dust", or the great Vincent Price sample that comes out of nowhere, it all wraps together into this mummified map of amusement. Occasionally the lyrics are self-referential to the characters the musicians have created, but usually they're about drinking the body fluids of rotting corpses, robbing graveyards and...collecting lots of cool dead stuff to decorate their crypts in Creepsylvania. It's aesthetically a hodgepodge of the Munsters, the Hammer Horror back-log, B-rate 80s slashers and a bit of Chris Barnes/Cannibal Corpse influence.

I have to say, as satisfied as I was that they got the guitars right in the intro, the additional cover of "Skull Beneath the Skin" from Megadeth's debut is probably my least favorite track here. They've done well to make it 'their own', but the riff progressions just don't match up with the Ghoulish frolicking of the originals, and so it seems a little tacked on. Otherwise, this is spot fucking on, with songs like "Tomb After Tomb", "Coffins and Curious" and the title track numbering among my faves in their catalog. I wouldn't go so far as to say this is a match for something like Exhumed's Slaughtercult, which is for me the album I rather wish Carcass would have written (before or after) Heartwork, but it's a loving spin on the tradition which does manage to best most of the other sound-a-likes. If you're into General Surgery, Carcass, Regurgitation, Impetigo, Autopsy, Blood Freak, or Impaled and you're not averse to the guys playing dress-up here, then this is well worth owning, and in my estimation nearly on par with its more quirky and unusual successor. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that these Ghoul two records, along with the debuts from Hooded Menace and Rogga's Revolting, comprise the very best I've heard from Razorback.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (and the dead we will take)

http://www.creepsylvania.com/

Ghoul - Transmission Zero (2011)

Ghoul are one of those gimmick bands that beg the question: can a joke be told one too many times? Like GWAR before them, they tramp around the country in wild costumes that pay tribute to the horror and gore camp of the 80s, and tie their characters' persona directly into the themes of the lyrics. But don't let my use of the word 'gimmick' dissuade you into thinking I have a problem with this sort of approach: it can be a positive or negative. When done right, with music written at the same level as the image and theatrics, a band can survive for decades using the same schtick. Look at an Alice Cooper, or KISS. And fortunately for the Californian alter egos of Digestor, Fermentor, Cremator and Dissector, they generally bring the music to back up their slasher/exploitation/horror film antics.

Half the band hails from Impaled, and so it's no surprise that the construction of many riffs on this album shares that same clinical Carcass inspiration, with a dash of late 80s Exodus to fuel the thrashing foundation most of the sound is built upon. This is felt very early in the four minute instrumental "The Lunatic Hour", which honestly felt a bit dry for its lack of lyrics, even if it does muster up one horror-worthy riff that would make Deceased fans weep joy. I realize it was a pretty common practice in the 80s for a thrash band to open up a record with such a track, but I just don't feel that it worked quite so well here. That said, it fuels up the band for "Off With Their Head", which uses gang shouts and glazes of descending melody to dress a pretty typical base of thrash and old school death metal rhythms while the vocals gnarl and growl above the fray. Sad to say that I enjoyed the lead sequence more than the remainder of the song, but it's not bad.

Alas, this is the way I felt about so many songs here. "Destructor" has the one ascending melody at around 1 minute and then the later lead bridge which are both more dynamically appealing than the garden variety chop of the thrash rhythms. The stock, mid-paced riffing of "Brain Jerk" and the title track also did very little for me. "Morning of the Mezmetron", which is an 8+ minute jaunt into slower, doom-laden terrain is meant as more of a story narrative to the concept of the overall album, but despite it's use of atmospherics I felt it was a bit of a slog. However, I must say that all is not lost here. Once Ghoul picks up the pace a bit, as with "The Mark of Voodoo" or "Blood Feast", the album seems so much more exciting, and the more clinical mortuary slab architecture of the guitars is far more interesting. A few of the later, mid-paced tracks like the finale "Metallicus Ex Mortis" are also better than their predecessors in the play list, and the obligatory rockabilly/surf thrash piece "Death in the Swamp" is also mildly entertaining.

Ultimately, I enjoyed enough of the album to spin through it a few times, but it's clearly not a match for any of its three predecessors, which were more intense, engaging and vibrant. The concept here does feel like it's losing a bit of steam, and the self-referential character narratives in the lyrics don't feel as fun to read through. The production is adequately clear, with a boxy, ruddy guitar tone to deliver the rhythms and a nice slice of effects on the leads, but I felt that it was a bit more barren and sterile than the earlier records. Most importantly, this just doesn't compare on a riff for riff basis with We Came for the Dead!!! or Maniaxe, but rather feels like just more of the same. That's alright if that's what you're looking for, but personally I found it a bit disappointing. Transmission Zero is a decent broadcast, but the next time Creepsylvania opens its gargoyle gates, I'm hoping for a less rusted chainsaw straight to my nethers.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (a broken hulk on a carnival stage)

http://www.creepsylvania.com/

Ghoul - Maniaxe (2003)

Two parts Bay Area thrash/crossover worship. One part mid-period Carcass worship. One part tongue-in-cheek horror flick. Everyday is Halloween. That is the concept behind Ghoul, the bastard stepchild of California's clever Carcass copies Impaled. On their sophomore splatter Maniaxe, this concept has been finely chiseled like an icepick to the eye of a zombie.

The album opens with "Pleasant Screams/Forbidden Crypts", a spooky soundtrack intro which morphs into a thrashing instrumental, and then one of the more rousing tracks on the album. The vocals here are 100% Carcass, you've got your brutal grunts alternating with a Jeff Walker snarl, all courtesy of Cremator and Digestor. In fact the vocals aren't all that different from their parent band Impaled. The riffs are excellent here, as they are in the following slew of tunes, "Maggot Hatchery" and the excellent "Sewer Chewer". "Ghoul Hunter" is one of their narrative tracks, erupting into thrash, with the character of the ghoul hunter giving his Van Helsing-like, yet more humorous narrative as he is trying to track down the band. More great thrashers dominate the latter half of the album, such as "Mechanized Death" and "Numbskull". But what really rounds off the experience is the memorable spooky-surf tune "The End", and a 'cover' of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World".

Production is on par with what you'd expect of these gentlemen from their other work. A good, punchy sound to the riffs. Surprisingly this album was done with a drum machine and you can hardly notice, it's mixed in very well and never sounds too mechanical. This isn't a perfect album, the goofy nature of the lyrics and narration are apparent as soon as you see the cover art. A few of the tunes are a little less exciting than the rest, but for the most part this is great violent fun for thrashers, gore fiends and horror metal buffs. And it's the perfect time of year to break it out.

I came to shred faces
And shred them I will
With archaic chords
That possess you to kill

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

http://www.creepsylvania.com/