Get ready to once again embrace the spine-tingling chills and thrills of the horror punk genre with the brand new compilation album “Horrorpunk’s Not Dead! Vol. 2.”
Featuring a whopping 50 tracks, including 22 exclusive never-before-heard or unreleased tunes, this album is a must-have for fans of the genre.
Released by We Are Horror Records, the album is available in both CD and digital formats via their website, making it easy to experience the macabre melodies and haunting lyrics wherever you go. Whether you’re a longtime fan of horror punk or just discovering the genre for the first time, “Horrorpunk’s Not Dead! Vol. 2” is sure to satisfy your craving for all things dark and spooky!
After the successful release of the amazing Horror Punk / Psychobilly / Death Rock compilation album “Horrorpunk’s Not Dead! Vol. 1” in October on We Are Horror Records, we have teamed up with the label once again, and a few of the bands involved to give you a solid update on the current state of the genre in 2023 and, as always, serve up a plethora of related bands and album recommendations to get you flooded with more under-the-radar acts worth checking out!
Our interview contributors today are: J (The Crimson Ghosts), Doc Horror (Zombina and the Skeletones), Johnny Zombie (Doomsdale High), Nate (Pretty With the Lights Out), Howard Von Noise (Coffin Carousel), Rev. Chad Wells / Scarika Watts (The Creepy Crawlers), Johan Hansson (Left Hand Black), and Kodie Krypt (Grave Corps).
The FULL tracklisting for “Vol. 2” will be revealed for the first time below!
Please share your take on the Current state of Horror Punk and Psychobilly in 2023. Give us your unique perspective on the evolution of the genre and how thriving it is nowadays.
J: Even after all these years I´d say it´s still alive and screaming! Here in Germany, it´s a small but very active scene that supports all the bands as well as possible… on a tour you can bet you will have people coming not to only one show but instead come to several cities to see the bands they love. I am not sure if I can talk about the evolution of the genre since I don´t think we can talk about “it was like that, and now it´s different”. In my opinion, there were no rules in the first place. Every band did it a bit differently… some went for a certain gothic vibe, some went for a billy/punk mixture and The Crimson Ghosts thought it would be great to have a blast beat or a doom passage or a disco beat or whatever I wanted to have in the next song. When it comes to thriving I´d say the scene is continuously growing in the underground but much more spread worldwide. This gives hope for coming tours outside Germany.
D. Horror: It really seemed to disappear during the 2010s, and I don’t know when it started coming back exactly but it’s great to see.
The state of horror punk right now reminds me of the 2001 “mp3.com” boom that brought us Blitzkid, Wednesday 13, Ghoultown (and of course, Zombina and the Skeletones).
I love that the bands coming out right now all have their interpretation of what horror punk can be, as there is always a danger of these overly specific sub-sub-genres falling into homogeny – but there genuinely seems to be individuality on display and that is a very positive thing.
Johnny Zombie: I’ve been involved in the horror punk scene for probably 7 years now, and it has been nice to see the scene growing and more people inspiring each other to create a more diverse range of stuff. The horror punk scene has always felt really encouraging and inclusive to me and it feels like we all want to see each other succeed, and that environment does a great job of allowing people to bring in various inspirations and try new things. I’m always excited to hear new bands popping up, and anytime someone sends me something on Instagram, I always try to listen and respond.
Nate: I have always believed there is so much untapped potential in the scene. The Misfits set a high bar, but there is a huge gap between their popularity, and what are considered successful horror punk bands. There is a broad, universal appeal to horror and Halloween, yet for a band to break to that next level of success or have a shirt sold at Hot Topic alongside The Misfits seems impossible. There is a whole world of great music here for people that do love the ‘fits and the culture, and they may not realize the genre even exists. Labels like We Are Horror Records are helping to expose similar artists and are building a community ready to welcome potential new fans!
Howard Von Noise: Horrorpunk in Australia pretty much doesn’t exist in 2023. Coffin Carousel is progressively moving away from our horror punk roots.
However, we are stuck on a prison island so horrorpunk is our medicine for the great southern isolated blues and will always have its moments with the band’s writing. It’s underground and niche, where it needs to be. If horrorpunk ever went mainstream it would be a miracle, and a sad day also.
Rev. Wells: I can’t speak for Psychobilly because I don’t follow that segment of the scene very closely these days but I think that the Horror Punk and Horror Rock scene is active and exciting in the same way it was back around 20 years ago. I was in The Jackalopes back then and there were so many great small labels doing comps and releases that defined the genre. I feel like that subsided for some time but now it’s back with legacy bands and players mixing with newcomers and creating a really strong scene.
Johan Hansson: The horrorpunk scene has gotten a boost in recent years which is great, we have several people who are passionate about the scene and work incredibly hard to lift small and big acts, Rod Usher (Thorsten Wilms) is absolutely fantastic and does a great job. It’s also great that there is an incredible amount of good music being released and that everyone can do it with simple means today. The US and Germany are the leaders in the genre, but there are more and more bands coming from outside these borders as well.
Kodie Krypt: I am continually blown away by the constant growth and interest in what was once considered such a niche scene. One of the things I like most about Horror Punk is that there isn’t a specific style musically in the same sense that there would be for most other genres. Instead, the theme of the content is the great unifier. The passion for all things spooky is what ties us together. I genuinely look forward to scoping out new releases from all of our contemporaries whenever they drop because I never know what journey awaits me.
Let’s talk about your contribution to the Vol. 2 compilation project. Please expand a bit on how you got involved and the particular track you contributed.
J: Dan and I have been in contact for some time now and he asked if The Crimson Ghosts would be interested in putting a song on the comp. Since we´re about to release our new album we are more than happy to give people a glimpse of what’s coming for them soon. In this case, it´s the song “On a succubic night” which is the opening track for our new album “Forevermore”. There is a certain alien from outer space named Nim Vind doing guest vocals and lead guitars which makes the song even more interesting – so crack open a beer and smash your head repeatedly against a wall while listening to this track.
D. Horror: I’d heard the Horror Punk’s Not Dead Radio show through Bill from Siblings Of Samhain, and was really happy to hear that it was in fact “not dead”, so I was glad to be contacted by Dan about Vol. 1. We contributed a track by me and Zombina’s ‘cover-versions-of-songs-from-horror-movies project’ Ghosts On Tape, with Rusty Apper on drums. Something we had put together as the house band for the “Farmageddon” scare attraction for the previous Halloween.
Vol. 2 will feature a ZATS track called “(All I Wanna Do Is) Decompose (With You)”. As the title suggests, it’s a ‘mushy’ love song… and a very old one. In fact, it was already at least 12 years old when we recorded it for our “In Sinistereo: Part I” EP back in 2015!
Zombie: There’s a lot of crossover between what we admire and the things that Dan at We Are Horror Records does, so inevitably our paths crossed through a mutual music friend. I had a song that was probably the 3rd or 4th song I had written for the band that didn’t flow with any of the albums I have planned, but as it’s a bit punkier, it seemed perfect for something like this.
Nate: I met Dan (We Are Horror Records) via his radio show Horrorpunk’s Not Dead first as a listener and fan then eventually as a featured artist! I signed on to release an EP, “Pumpkin Spice Formaldehyde”, and “The Best Revenge Is Living Hell” is one of the new tracks from that album.
The track is more of a personal song, versus being about any specific movie, which Pretty With The Lights Out (generally) tries to avoid. While tongue in cheek and obviously seemingly violent on the surface, the track actually personifies health issues and only once they’re dead, can you finally get on to the “living well”.
Howard VN: ‘March of The Dead’ is a chugging horror metal grove monster which meets an enchanting horror punk-styled chorus from the ‘American Psycho’ Misfits era sound. It’s not metal, and it’s not exactly horrorpunk in its entirety. But it’s a rad song that’s getting lots of positive live movement in front of the stage atm.
Rev. Wells: We’re super excited to be on volume 2. Our band formed just slightly too late for volume 1 so we were ecstatic to get offered a spot on 2. These comps are carrying on a legacy that started many years ago and are helping to inject something back into the scene that seems to have really started to snowball. The track that we submitted is called “Feed The Wolves” and I feel like it’s one of our most vicious songs yet. It’s the first song we’ve recorded since completing our EP Attack! for the label.
Johan: Left Hand Black and Dan (We Are Horror Records) have known each other for a while now and when the question arose to participate in the compilation album it was little wonder. It’s always fun with a collection like this so you can get an overview of all the bands. We have submitted the song “Holding Deaths Hand” because it is not on our latest album, only on “Horror Attack Worldwide, Vol. 3” released on Sick Taste Records.
Krypt: Dan from We Are Horror Records and I were nerding out over a shared love of the band W.A.S.P. one day (as normal people usually do). When he asked if we would be interested in contributing another track for the next compilation, I told him that we didn’t have anything with the new lineup ready to go, but he was welcome to anything in our back catalogue. We decided that “The Long Night” would be a great choice because that’s where our relationship began back in 2019 when he hit us up asking to include the song on a Horror Punk special he was doing for his radio show, “Into The Unknown Radio”.
Ok, so let’s dive into your band/project. Please give us a quick introduction to your band, and tell us about your current releases and plans for the coming months.
J: We are The Crimson Ghosts, started in 2001 as a Misfits cover band (hence the name) and released our first album “Leaving the tomb” in 2005. After that we released the albums “Carpe Mortem”, “Dead Eyes Can See”, “Generation Gore” and “Yet Not Human” and on May 13th our sixth album “Forevermore” will face the world of the living. We have plans for some selected club shows after that and will talk about a full tour later this year. But it´s way too early to talk details about it.
D. Horror: Zombina and the Skeletones started in Liverpool in 1999 as typical outsider teenagers with a thing for the Cramps and the Misfits. Now we’re weird old people with mental health issues. We hadn’t released anything new since “In Sinistereo: Part IV” 2016 but we were roused from our slumber last year when our old tour friends Blitzkid got in touch proposing a split single, where we’d cover each other’s songs – this became “Blitzkid + Zombina and the Skeletones Split Up!” released Valentine’s day of this year. It sold out within 20 minutes… Naturally, that’s given us a little confidence boost, and it’s actually motivated us to work on some new music, which is what we’re doing right now!
Zombie: Our band is Doomsdale High, from the lovely and screamic Doomsdale, Ohio, and we write romantic, teen angst, ’60s style ghoul group/boo-wop tombs. Thus far, we have 5 EPs planned all themed around a specific topic.
We released “Deep Cuts From Chop Class” last autumn; that one is focused on slasher movies and all the maniacs about town). The next release is focused more on the flies and ghouls, and aching in the space where your heart used to be.
Nate: Pretty With The Lights Out is technically a solo project. All studio work is written, performed, and recorded, and produced by me (Nate). In all bands I have been in I am always a guitarist, so this is my first time stepping into a frontman and vocalist role. However, since I am incapable of playing everything at once, I do hire musicians to perform live on stage. I have no ego and am quite private in general, so I present the package as a band, and any kind of social media post or communication does refer to Pretty as a group.
Our first EP “Pumpkin Spice Formaldehyde” was released on We Are Horror Records on March 10th, 2023. We have a summer single coming set in a certain summer camp that’s NOT Crystal Lake.
Howard VN: Coffin Carousel infuses horrorpunk with metal, sludge metal, doom and crust punk music styles. We have released three full-length LPs since 2017 along with a 2015 debut EP. We are currently working on new material for a forthcoming full-length LP. It will be a leap forward from our current sound, but will still have all the flavours mixed in of our first three full-length albums. Just on a more badass level.
Rev. Wells: The Creepy Crawlers is a new band with a legacy. We’re partially a sequel to the b-movie and horror-obsessed band The Jackalopes, which was a band I started in 1999 and we came up with bands like Blitzkid, Cancerslug, The Independents, Graves and so many other monsters of that era – some of which are still kicking and some who have fallen away.
I felt like I had more to say in the horror genre but due to bad blood in that band, I fell away from the scene around 2008 or 2010.
I never stopped listening to the genre but it was all nostalgia for me until recently when this resurgence of interest started happening and I found myself writing and recording stuff that I felt to be a continuation and a sort of reboot of what we were doing at the end of The Jackalopes.
Scarika Watson: The Rev. started cranking out these horror songs and before we known it we were signed to We Are Horror and had a 5 song EP out and a couple of fun music videos that are like little horror movies. We’re currently working on a sexy and violent new video for our song “Night of The Demons” We’ve recorded three or four new songs since the EP dropped, one of which is the brutal banger “Feed The Wolves” that will be on the Volume 2 comp.
We recently added a 4th member, Danny Grim who played for The Jackalopes in the early years and plays the drums on most of The Jackalope’s recordings that are on streaming services. We are working to build a 4D sort of immersive Rock And Roll Horror Show that will be half live show and half haunted attraction and Danny Grim puts us closer to that goal.
Johan: Left Hand Black is a band from Gothenburg that started in 2019 with members from another well-known horrorpunk band “The Dead Next Door”, Hans Hagström (Vocals and Guitar), Jonathan Jansson (Guitar), Johan Hansson (Bass), Anton Zachrisson (Drums). We all played together in several different bands before LHB. In 2020 we released our debut album “Left Hand Black” on Wolverine Records, and in 2022 we released the follow-up “Lower than Satan” on Sunny Bastard Records/Sick Taste Records plus a license release on Fono.
Right now we are launching our own beer as a local brewery is releasing “Scary APA” and we will release a special EP in the form of a 3-D comic book with 3-D glasses and lots of extras inside with the song “Let’s Scare Jessica To Death” and a Re-mix of “Devil In Miss Jones”, it will be released on our own label LHB Records. Then we will play a Big festival in Germany this summer with some great horror punk bands so stay tuned!
Krypt: We are Grave Corps from Cedar Falls, Iowa. The band started in 2007 and has been active in one form or another ever since. We come to horror by way of The Misfits, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Murderdolls, and W.A.S.P. We pride ourselves in having a pretty diverse catalogue of music, all while honouring the Grave Corps brand.
We’re also always fighting to bring an arena rock spectacle back from the dead with our live shows. Some recent personnel changes within the band saw our original singer of 15 years having to step out, and the amazing Traci Von Krypt came in to save the day. We’re currently in preproduction for the first all-original music that we will be releasing with the new lineup and will be hitting the studio in April. Other than that, we also have a bunch of cool shows in the works throughout 2023.
Can you recommend some more Horror Punk and Psychobilly acts, both bigger and up and coming, worth a check in 2023?
J: Oh yes! Check out Wolfskull (ex The Spook members), Mutant Reavers, Left hand black, Horror Vision, Graveyard Boys, Hellgreaser, Dirty Dead, and Deadite… I guess this list should fill a nice evening!
D. Horror: I’m really currently enjoying Coughin’ Vicars, from near us, and would wholeheartedly recommend their “Ritual Discipline” album to anyone, especially if you’re into Samhain or Rudimentary Peni. I’m also quite jealous of Won’t Stay Dead’s song title “Somebody Put A Cross On My Head (And It Burned)”… that’s just great. I wish we had thought of that one!
Johnny Zombie: Ohio has a lot of great horror punk/pop like Mummula, Emmy Lazarus & The Recently Deceased, and The Lycan Bite, but I mostly started this band because of my love for Mummula and Harley Poe. We also have a lot of love for Beach Creeper (amazing horror-surf stuff), Twin Temples (less horror punk, more pop), The Jasons/The Renfields, Horror Section, Zombina & the Skeletones, The Big Bad; too many to list.
Nate: Aside from stables Blitzkid, Calabrese, The Creepshow, and Nim Vind… some of my favourites include Dark Ride, Jess-o’-Lantern and Beneath The Cellar. I think Won’t Stay Dead are a group to watch and expect to see them get a lot of support in the scene! I also really dig Casket Culture. I think their vocalist is one of the best in horrorpunk, if not rock in general. He has a phenomenal tone. Finally, the upcoming EP from Dragnun featuring Tracy Byrd (Blitzkid), which I was hired to record guitars for, is probably the best collection of new horror punk songs I’ve heard in quite a while and I’m very excited for everyone to be able to hear it.
Howard VN: Bands with horror punk type of feels I am currently enjoying atm are Fredag Den 13:E, Ghostsmoker, Goat Sharman, Carcinoid, Ursut and Slayer.
Rev. Chad: I would pay attention to the legacy bands this year. Blitzkid playing Wacken is a good example of that but the new blood and the people that are tweaking the form are going to be exciting this year. I think Won’t Stay Dead and Houseghost are both bands that are paying homage to the genre but bringing in grunge, riot girl or post-rock and shoegaze to the mix. U think we’re going to see a lot more variety of influence bubbling up in the scene. I think we’ll see more metal and hardcore influence as well as more old-school pop and doo-wop influence. The Panic Broadcast and Robby Bloodshed will be carrying those torches even further. I love everything on We Are Horror Records but I’m really loving Tomb of Nick Cage, Los Morts and Voice of Doom. There’s just so much great stuff out right now. I think Zipperguts is fun and has a great amount of heart and passion.
Johan: We’ve been lucky enough to play with bands like The Other, B.Z.F.O.S, Hellgreaser and The Fright, so those guys obviously! The Crimson Ghosts are coming with a new album release in March, I believe …and there’s one band I’m a little bit stuck on and that’s Wont Stay Dead!
Krypt: I mean, there’s this little band from New Jersey you may have heard of that I really like… But for real, I mean it when I say there is so much great music coming out from all of the bands in the scene. I genuinely like almost everything that I hear. A couple of current standouts to me though are Von Boldt, Monster Wolf, Robby Bloodshed, Mourning Noise and The Creepy Crawlers. They’ve been getting a lot of spins from me as of late. Definitely check them out!
FULL album tracklisting:
** Previously Unreleased
Disc One
1. Intro
2. The Other – Demon Eyes
3. Tomb of Nick Cage – The Beyond **
4. Die Ghost – Hallows Eve **
5. Hellgreaser – Tragedy (Demo) **
6. Screaming Dead – Night Creatures
7. The Graveyard Boulevard – Science! Beware! **
8. ENERGY – The Witching Hour
9. Surfistas No Muertos – Crypt Surf Cult
10. Grave Corps – The Long Night
11. Damned by the Night – Red Death **
12. Doomsdale High – To the Metropol! **
13. The Returners – Flatline **
14. Rise From Your Grave – Where Darkness Sleeps **
15. The Spauldings – Creature of the Night
16. Johnny B. Morbid – Blast Off **
17. The Haunting – Slash/Slash
18. RatBatSpider – We Are The Horror
19. The Crimson Ghost – Lost in the Dark
20. The Deathtones – Live till We’re Dead **
21. Pandemonium Carnival – Love After Death
22. Americas Most Haunted – Sign of the Wolf
23. Thee Revenants – It’s Halloween **
24. The Writhers – The Greasy Strangler
25. The Texas Horrors – Grandpa’s Off His Rocker **
26. Rotunda – Dawn of the Dead
Disc Two
1. Intro
2. The Crimson Ghosts – On a Succubic Night
3. Left Hand Black – Holding Death’s Hand
4. Stormtroopers of Love – Wrecking On the Dance floor **
5. Mutant Reavers – The Terminators (1984) **
6. Zombina and the Skeletones – (All I Wanna Do is) Decompose (with You)
7. Beneath The Cellar – Flesh **
8. Skullfuck Maniacs – Resurrected **
9. Coffin Carousel – March of the Dead
10. Every Body Dies – Curse of the Demon **
11. Von Boldt – Cemetery Party **
12. Molly Fancher – Victim of Psycho
13. Pretty With the Lights Out – The Best Revenge is Living Hell
14. Drollery – La Rave De Los Muertos **
15. Graveyard Smash – Evil Ed
16. Hateseeker – Let’s Talk About Death
17. The Panic Broadcast – I, Monster **
18. A Living Hell – Nothing But a Memory
19. The Creepy Crawlers – Feed the Wolves **
20. Nefarious Creatures – One Bite
21. 84 Tapes – The Ritual **
22. Lesbian Bed Death – Bring Out Your Dead
23. Plague IX – EAT **
24. The Bloodthirsters – Ghouls **
25. Horror Inc – Creatures of the Night
26. Send More Paramedics – Human Capital
Horrorpunk’s Not Dead!, Vol. 2 is available on Bandcamp, and CD through We Are Horror Records. Available to stream everywhere on April 28th! Pre-Order here.
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