You don’t need to go any earlier than the first Ramones record to see how interlinked punk and horror have been from the start: you can find it in ‘Chainsaw,’ a punk tribute to the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ but as well in ‘I Don’t Want To Go Down to The Basement.’ There was something automatic about how punk rock and horror go hand-in-hand.
diemonsterdie carries on that tradition. Ten years of being in the horror punk business, this Salt Lake City, UT band has put out some catchy and killer spooky punk. Fronted by horror master Zero Delorean and backed up by drummer Meatwhistle, the two original members still going with the band, they’re joined by Stikki Nixx on bass. In 2010, diemonsterdie released a new record recently, Fall To Your Knees.
Fall To Your Knees is a great album that really is a good place for any horror punk to get into diemonsterdie. It really showcases the attitude of the band, this cool arrogance that comes when you adopt a vehicle for your true persona. Zero said in the interview that his mask allows him to express how he really feels inside. Not unusually for a performer to do, but it’s good to always know that even in 2010, a bit of costume and fake blood can help someone find out who they really want to be.
‘Lucky Number 666’ and ‘Midnight Run to Houston’ easily conveys the monster of rock influence the band takes from the likes of Alice Cooper, Motorhead and Gwar. ‘The Dead Shall Inherit the Earth,’ ‘From Screaming Graves We Rise’ cover the horror genre while songs like ‘Deep Space Isolation Psychosis’ and ‘Lyka The Russian Space Dog Will Have Her Revenge” shows off the band’s sci-fi chops.
Some of my favorite songs from other albums include ‘Human Heads in Funeral Jars’ from A Great And Terrible Loss and ‘Black Death Sheds Its Skin,’ the latter shows off both Zero’s singing at a way to convey control, sex and horror all at once. Hard to do when you’re singing from the perspective of a reanimated skeleton, but the band does it.
They could just be a regular horror band in the middle of Mormon country but diemonsterdie has taken it upon themselves to unite the horror punks across the world at worldhorrornetwork.com, a site keeping track of horror punk news and offering reviews. The band also puts out a couple podcasts – the DiaboCast hosted by Shane Diablo, but also Zero Hour Podcast (from Zero himself, which you can find at his MySpace page.
Head over to diemonsterdie.com and get yourself some free music. Recommend DMD to two friends and you’ll get a free download of their album ‘Only The Dead Will Survive,’ featuring such songs like ‘October Slowly Dying’ and ‘One Night at Devils Rock.’
