Written By Kevin McSweeney
Ghoulstars The Dark Overlords of the Universe Review Turn Horror Punk Into a B-Movie Bloodbath
Ghoulstars The Dark Overlords of the Universe review debut full-length album may be one of the most entertaining horror-punk-meets-metal releases to crawl out of the underground this year.
They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky. They’re altogether punky, the Dark Overlords of The Universe.
They’re also about to bestow upon their Earth-dwelling underlings the abrasive but amusing ambrosia that is their debut album, courtesy of the divine Season of Mist label.
May 15th will be an auspicious occasion then, so we’d better introduce you to these Misfits/WhiteZombie-inspired fear-inducing fellows from Finland known as The Ghoulstars.
As it transpires, Said Dark Universal Overlords are something of a supergroup, being composed of… Actually, I’m feeling lazy, so I’m just going to quote directly from the press release:
Despite their ghostly appearance, The Ghoulstars are a collection of real talent. Axeman Laakso and goose-bumping drummer Toni “Ghoulio” Ronkainen shared a past life together in the Top Ten charting Finnish death-doom band Kuolemanlaakso. Bassist Markus “Hella Ghoul” Makkonen formerly haunted the low end for Season of Mist labelmates Hooded Menace while moonhowler Arthur “LL Ghoul A” Thure croons for the stoner rockers Thermate.
They sport face paint that resembles a mixture of Kiss, black metal corpse paint and the wrestler Danhausen.
This is an album full of songs that would make great ring entrance themes for the very nice and very evil Michiganite.
The temptation would be to describe them as basically The Misfits but with Rob Zombie on lead vocals instead of Glenn Danzig, but that would not be entirely fair. For example, they possess a quirky sense of humour that you would not associate with the iconic horror punks.
The use of snippets of dialogue from classic horror movies becomes something of a leitmotif throughout the album, and fans of scary movies will have great fun listening out for them.
I can’t identify them, though I’m sure I heard Vincent Price at one stage. I can also detect the influence of Vincent Furnier, aka Alice Cooper.
I suppose that’s inevitable with any artists with a horror-based aesthetic. Even more important than the look is the quality of the music, however, so let’s exhume each song one-by-one, and really get into the bones of the thing.
This Ghoulstars The Dark Overlords of the Universe review dives deep into the band’s blend of horror punk, metal, camp, and B-movie chaos track by track.
Too Ghoul For School
The album’s evil escapades commence with this upbeat, punky little number that doffs its cap to classic rock ‘n’ roll.
It’s immediately apparent why they are compared to The Misfits. The cap doffing takes the form of lyrics such as “Be-bob-a-lula, let’s skip school-a” – a phrase that could well have come from the mouths of Danny Zuko, Rizzo or Kenickie in Grease.
The use of school as a setting will also bring to mind the aforementioned Alice Cooper, who, along with Rob Zombie, appears to be the primary vocal influence for this performance by “LL Ghoul A”.
The main melody sounds like it’s being pushed through a giant sonic pencil sharpener, if that makes sense. Its big, juddering sound reminds me of the effect used on the main riff in How Soon is Now? by The Smiths. (All similarities end there, of course.)
Guitar World informs me that the: “…complex, pulsating tremolo effect (was) achieved in the studio by running a Fender Telecaster through multiple Fender Twin Reverb amplifiers.” I have no idea if that’s what they’ve done here, but that’s what it sounds like to me.
The lyrics are delightfully comical at times, containing such glorious couplets as: “Do you, do you wanna/Bite like a piranha?” There’s those classic rock ‘n’roll allusions again. I also particularly enjoyed the nod to The Notorious B.I.G’s Hypnotize:
Ghoulie, ghoulie, ghoulie
Can’t you see
Sometimes your bones just mesmerize me
I wonder if they know what ghoulies, or more accurately, goolies are in British slang. Possibly not. On with the album!
The Dead in Purgatory
The second track goes full steam ahead with a snare-focused train-style beat that proves to be a favourite for the fearsome Finns.
Their innovative approach to lead melodies continues with the highly unorthodox use of whistling on this track. How often is whistling used in loud guitar music?
There’s Wind of Change by The Scorpions and Civil War by Guns ‘N’ Roses, but in both cases it was reserved for their more subdued moments.
I am reminded in this instance of the darker and spookier elements of country music, particularly something like Ghost Riders in The Sky.
The images of the dead rising from their graves in this song are as chilling as those of the red-eyed cows with their burning brands in the Frankie Laine/Johnny Cash classic.
We have a good old-fashioned punk rock whoah-along chorus and a horror movie sample starring – I think – Vincent Price appears at around the half-way mark. They do love those samples, and use them as liberally as White Zombie in their 1990s heyday.
Zombie Apocalypse
I find it quite odd that this should be a fast number. If anything, a song about zombies should be slow and plodding, just like the titular creatures themselves.
Here, the D-beat drum pattern and Dead Kennedys-style bass line prepare us for a punk rock tour de force, though the opening, and closing, lyrical salvo of “Zombie attack!” is pure Anthrax, like the cry of “War dance!” in Indians.
In fact, the song is very much akin to the sound achieved by the legendary New York thrashers on albums such as Among The Living, with its speedy, palm-muted riffs and the rolling double kick drums in the chorus. There’s more horror movie samples to savour as well.
The Dark Overlords of The Universe
Of all the songs on the album, this is the one that justifies the Misfits-fronted-by-Rob-Zombie thing the most.
It actually reminds me most of the version of The Misfits that we witnessed in the 1990s, when Michale Graves was at the helm instead of Danzig.
The chorus is catchy as all Hell, making it a strong candidate for an accompanying video.
It might be my fancy, but the melody seems to have something of the Finnish folk tradition about it.
Elsewhere, that train-style snare-driven beat they love so much is back in evidence. There’s a dark humour in the lyrics that is quite captivating. For example:
You are the host
I’m the deceiver
You become toast
I, the soul-eater
It’s this overarching sense of silliness that sets them apart from the band to which they most frequently compared. Speaking of silliness, the less said about the key change towards the end of the song, the better.. This isn’t the X Factor, gentlemen.
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
This is the least punk and least Misfits-like offering so far, being a mid-paced groove-laden effort that might have been a cut from White Zombie’s La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. 1, especially with all the samples.
The riff in the chorus will evoke memories of Thunder Kiss ‘65, though I’m more taken with the funky, syncopated beat in the chorus, particularly as they pair it incongruously with NYHC-style gang vocals.
The switch to jig time towards the end adds a certain jauntiness to proceedings. If there’s one thing we’re crying out for more of in metal, it’s jauntiness. One thing is for certain. With a title like that, we can safely assume this song isn’t about me.
Graverobbers From Outer Space
Now there’s a Misfits song title if ever I saw one. I could well imagine it on a setlist alongside Astro Zombies and Teenagers From Mars.
The song commences with a sample I can’t identify, before launching into another one of those classic punk rock whoah-alongs I mentioned earlier.
I can actually hear a bit of Pennywise in there. I’m not talking about the demonic clown from It, though he certainly wouldn’t be out of place on this album.
The guitar solo is highly innovative, consisting entirely of a series of hammer pulls. I think they’re hammer pulls anyway.
I don’t know much about technical guitar. That might actually be the name of a gym exercise or a wrestling move. I was about to say I’ll be corrected in the comments, but nobody reads my work, so it doesn’t really matter.
Anyway, the lyrics are quite gory, and the references to smiling evil villains and faces melting into strange grins make me think of The Crimson Ghost, aka the legendary misfits mascot.
The Wolfman
And here’s a title that evokes the golden era of gothic horror, bringing to mind the classic 1941 movie of the same name starring Lon Chaney Jr.
The song certainly features plenty of samples to that effect. It also features more “yeahs” than James Hetfield could typically muster.
There’s a similar abundance of yeahs in White Zombie’s More Human Than Human, come to think of it, though that opening riff has more in common with Cannibal Corpse’s Hammer Smashed Face than anything else.
It’s one of their more extreme moments musically, especially when it switches to 12/8 time where it sounds strikingly similar to the middle section of Child’s Play by Carcass.
There’s some lovely intricate stickwork on display here from Toni Ronkainen. This track might actually be my favourite.
The Ballad of The Cursed Bandits
This splendidly-titled track surges into life with a combination of Discharge-style D-beat and squealing feedback. Then, instead of the train-style beat, we have the actual sound of a train, for “this is the train robber’s jam”, don’t you know?
They go to great lengths to point out repeatedly that they are “a dangerous band”, and I’m certainly not going to argue with them.
Again, it’s fast-paced punk rock that will draw comparison with The Misfits, but it’s also a lot of fun.
I liked the use of the scary monster voice on the line: ”Don’t try to be brave, get outta my way,” and again later in the track. It reminded me of the similar effect on Alice Cooper’s Feed My Frankenstein.
Also, the rhyme of “icy breath steaming and skeletons gleaming” is absolutely exquisite! I also really liked the solo, which was highly unorthodox.
I really don’t know what sound they used to achieve it. Was it a melodica? Whatever it was, it worked.
Vampire
This is, mercifully, not an Olivia Rodrigo cover, as amusing as such a thing might have been. Instead, we have the return of the juddering sonic pencil sharpener sound, which is infinitely more welcome.
This track alternates Orgasmatron-style mid-paced chugging with passages of lightning-fast blast beat madness. It’s more distinctly metal than a lot of the offerings on this album, particularly when the rolling double kick drums kick in.
I’m wondering if there’s a bit of a tribute to Slayer going on in Vampire, and no, I’m not talking about Buffy Summers.
The lyric: “Blood rained from the skies” can’t help but evoke memories of the closing track of the greatest thrash album of all time.
If that doesn’t convince you, there’s the repeated refrain of “Hell Awaits”, which was the title of the album immediately prior to the greatest thrash album of all time. It’s just a theory. Either way, it beats the Hell out of Olivia Rodrigo.
They Dance Upon Our Graves
The closing track, somewhat unexpectedly, starts off in doom metal mode, with more than a hint of early Sabbath about it.
This only lasts for a few bars, before we are firmly back into punk rock territory, complete with football-terrace singing to provide the main melodic hook.
The lyrics are seemingly more ernest on this one, being a lament in the mould of the Michale Graves-era song Dig Up Her Bones.
We have another whoah-along section, complete with hand claps, and then they switch it up entirely with a blast of rapid death metal to bring matters to a close.
It’s an eclectic parting shot, and it brings to an end an album that is sometimes creepy, sometimes comical to the point of being camp, and occasionally crushingly heavy, with the spirit of punk and the spectres of classic horror reeling around the place.
It’s bound to be quite a spectacle live as well, so be sure to catch these Ghoulies when you get the chance.
Fans of horror punk, White Zombie, The Misfits, and theatrical heavy metal will find plenty to love in the Ghoulstars The Dark Overlords of the Universe review.
Summon The Dark Overlords of the Universe by Ghoulstars
Niko Anttila
Tracklist:
1. Too Ghoul for School
2. The Dead in Purgatory
3. Zombie Apocalypse
4. The Dark Overlords of the Universe
5. The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
6. Graverobbers from Outer Space
7. The Wolfman
8. The Ballad of the Cursed Bandits
9. Vampire
10. They Dance Upon Our Graves
Available formats
Digital Download
CD Digipack
12″ Vinyl Gatefold (Black)
12″ Colored Vinyl Gatefold (Yellow, red and white marbled)
Lineup:
Markus “Daddy Ghoul” Laakso – Guitars
Toni “Ghoulio” Ronkainen – Drums
Arthur “LL Ghoul A” Thure – Vocals
Markus “Hella Ghoul” Makkonen – Bass
Guest musicians:
Mathias “Vreth” Lillmåns (…and Oceans, Finntrol) – Backing Growls
Tommi “Tuple” Salmela (Tarot, Raskasta Joulua, Lazy Bones) – Backing Vocals on “The Dark Overlords of the Universe”)
GHOULSTARS ONLINE:
About The Author
Kevin McSweeney is Metal Lair’s resident scribe of the underground, eternally rummaging through the global metal scene for riffs worth your time.
As the guiding hand behind Seven Deadly Songs every Friday, he has an uncanny knack for finding the track you didn’t know you needed, usually before finishing his pint.
Equal parts loyal, kind, and quietly razor-witted, Kevin brings deep knowledge, impeccable taste, and a steady, reliable presence to Metal Lair.
Read More From This Author:
EP Review: Infected Dead’s Invicta Is Technical Death Metal With Teeth
EP Review: Knowing It Shall Wake by Olympus
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