Written By Chris Norris
Listening to The Ghoulstars feels like stumbling into a haunted video store sometime around 1989 with your friends on a Friday night, arms full of horror tapes, junk food, and terrible ideas.
Their music taps into the era when kids disappeared into basements with Dungeons & Dragons manuals, monster movies, punk records, video games, late-night sci-fi double features, and imaginations loud enough to turn entire weekends into adventures.
On The Dark Overlords of the Universe, The Ghoulstars pull from horror, punk, classic metal, surf rock, and cinematic chaos to create something that feels less like an album and more like a transmission from a lost era of practical effects, creature features, and all-night marathons that nobody wanted to end.
The Ghoulstars Interview
Markus “Daddy Ghoul” Laakso isn’t just the masked mastermind behind The Ghoulstars. Long before the band unleashed The Dark Overlords of the Universe, Laakso had already carved out a respected legacy within Finland’s metal underground as a musician, producer, journalist, and obsessive archivist of horror culture.
Best known for his work in the death-doom band Kuolemanlaakso and for authoring the acclaimed Amorphis: The Official Story of Finland’s Greatest Metal Band, Laakso brings decades of underground metal history, VHS-era horror obsession, and cinematic storytelling into The Ghoulstars’ bizarre universe of monsters, punk energy, cult films, and late-night creature-feature chaos.
Metal Lair spoke with Laakso about horror nostalgia, emotional depth beneath the monsters, cinematic songwriting, and why sometimes the weirdest music ends up feeling the most human.
Metal Lair: For new fans meeting The Ghoulstars for the first time: if your band were a lost VHS tape found behind a Finnish video store in 1989, what would the sticker on the box promise?
Markus: I actually lived and went to school in San Diego, California,from 1987 to 1989, hence the many, many 80s American pop culture references, but to answer your question: “Fast, frightening and monstrously entertaining – buckle up for thenostalgic timebomb that reaps souls and destroys minds! Warning: highly addictive.”
Metal Lair: There are a lot of moving parts on this album, punk energy, cinematic samples, metal riffs, surf textures, horror aesthetics. What helped unify all those influences into something that sounds unmistakably like The Ghoulstars?
Markus: The album is basically a mix of everything that blew my mind as a teenager. That’s when I discovered bands like The Misfits, Bad Religion, White Zombie, The Ramones, Slayer and Danzig that I still love to this day. They all had a had a very intriguing visual image, great lyrics and killer songs. During those days I got obsessed with uncut horror and sci-fi films, that were extremely difficult to find in Finland because of a strict movie censorship law. Most of my VHS-tapes were copies of copies of copies – unless I ordered the originals from abroad ortreasure-hunted them from the very few second-hand movie shops that had them here.
But it all predates that. I’ve been listening to metal since I was about five years old. In Finland, bands like KISS, W.A.S.P., Deep Purple, Accept, Twisted Sister, Scorpions and Mötley Crüe were basically children’s music as all my friends were listening to them. I think the album also takes a deep bow to KISS and Alice Cooper, who brought face-paint and spooky image to the masses, as well as Twisted Sister and Mötley Crüe for the can’t-do attitude.
Obviously, there’s also a more metallic edge to the record, thanks to my love for the harder stuff, and references to old Western movies, scored by the grandmaster Ennio Morricone. It’s not a surprise for me personally that the musical scope turned out so vast, even though I didn’t plan it beforehand. I just like a lot of stuff that still speaks to me. In a way the record is a trip down the memory lane or a dip into Lake Nostalgia, but it’s also something brand new and exciting. It’s very “me” but also “us” as a band.
Metal Lair: You’ve said this album is a love letter to your fifteen-year-old selves. What would teenage Markus think if he heard The Dark Overlords of the Universe now?
Markus: I think he’d be a) extremely surprised and b) very proud. I didn’t have the best self-esteem growing up. I started my first band when I was 28 years old, even though I’d been playing guitar since I was 14. “Great job, future geezer me!”
Metal Lair: A lot of the album pulls from horror films, sci-fi, punk, and classic metal culture. Which part of that DNA do you think listeners connect to first?
Markus: First and foremost, for me music is the most important element in the mix. There are tons of lyrical and musical Easter eggs in there as well, so I’m sure many listeners will appreciate the DeLorean ride. Then again, I also find all the immersive samples immensely important. They add an extra level to the songs and make listening experience deeper – more movie-like if you will.
I’m sure some listeners will find the record too metal or not enough punk or whatever, but that’s not in my hands anymore. So far, the feedback has been amazing, although some extreme metal lovers have found our stuff, well, insert adjectives of your choice here, haha…
Metal Lair: You’ve played in heavier, darker, more serious bands before. Did The Ghoulstars give you a chance to use a different side of your imagination creatively?
Markus: Yes, for sure. I’m too old to give a crap about street cred, “being true” and whatnot. I’m just making music from the heart and seeing where it takes me. Even though The Ghoulstars is my #1 band and top priority right now, I’ve been working on a black metal -infused solo project in the shadows for quite some time now. I’m not sure whether it will see the light of day or not, the older I get, the more I wish to avoid unnecessary drama and forced effort. If something isn’t fun or fulfilling, I find something else to do. It’s as simple as that.
The Ghoulstars is fun and entertaining to us, too, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t take it seriously. It’s a labor of love, and most certainly not of hate.
Metal Lair: The drums are way more inventive than standard horror punk beats. How much did the rhythm section shape the personality of the album once the songs left the demo stage?
Markus: We worked on the drum arrangements vigorously. I’m horrible at playing drums – and thanks to that, I have very unorthodox ideas for the drum arrangements. Whenever I had finished a demo of a song, I sent it to our drummer Toni “Ghoulio” Ronkainen, with and without my crappy programmed drum parts.
He came up with his parts at our rehearsal place playing on top of my demos. Then he came to my home studio, and we worked on the arrangements together. We recorded a proper drum demo of all the songs with my electronic drum kit, so he knew exactly what to play on the actual record. He absolutely nailed everything very quickly. He’s a drum God; I bow down to him.
My favorite drum and bass arrangements are on the verses of “The Dead in Purgatory”. Such groovy 50s vibes!
Metal Lair: You’ve mentioned that some personal struggles found their way into songs like The Dead in Purgatory and They Dance Upon Our Graves. Was it important for the album to have an emotional core beneath all the horror and fun?
Markus: To be honest, it wasn’t planned. It just happened, as I was dealing with very scarring issues in my personal life. I’m glad that it did, though, as the emotional core of the album deepened tremendously, and made the record even better.
Metal Lair: There’s a cinematic quality to the album with horses, trains, samples, spoken bits, monsters, cowboys, aliens. The album feels very cinematic at times. When you’re writing, are you thinking like a songwriter, or are you seeing the songs play out almost like scenes from a movie?
Markus: A good question. Yes, I do see the songs as scenes from a movie. This album is probably the most cinematic I’ve ever done, even though we labelled one of my previous bands, Chaosweaver, as “cinematic extreme metal”. Or at least it’s up there with those two records that I did with that band.
Metal Lair: The album is loaded with Easter eggs, full of horror, sci-fi, and pop culture references. How do you weave all of those elements together without losing the band’s own identity?
Markus: I think weaving those elements together IS a part of the band’s identity – as it is a part of my own identity, too. My appetite for reciting movie quotes in real life is endless. I just love movies and pop culture! The Ghoulstars is a very natural extension of us all.
Metal Lair: The Ghoulstars feel like a band that genuinely loves entertaining people. When you’re writing songs or making videos, do you ever picture the audience reaction in your head?
Markus: Hmm… I haven’t thought of it that way. Sometimes I know for sure, that this part of the song will blow people’s minds. Like for example seeing the crowds react to the whistling in “The Dead in Purgatory” and the chorus of “Too Ghoul for School”. People go nuts hearing them live.
Metal Lair: If someone locked themselves in a room for one weekend with nothing but horror movies, junk food, old VHS tapes, and The Dark Overlords of the Universe, what films absolutely need to be part of that marathon?
Markus: Oh god… There are so many. Here’s a few: Weird Science, Plan 9 from Outer Space, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead, Bad Taste, Braindead, Street Trash, Night of the Living Dead, Donnie Darko, Eraserhead, The Goonies, The Lost Boys, The Thing, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Wolf Man, Deep Redand Rock’n’Roll High School.
Metal Lair: For someone who has never heard The Ghoulstars, what song should they play first and what should they be doing while listening to it?
Markus: They should be listening to “They Dance Upon Our Graves”while prepping a brain for a formaldehyde jar and unleashingquasi-scientific electroshocks to bring it back to life.
Metal Lair would like to thank The Ghoulstars for taking the time to speak with us during the chaos of the album’s press cycle.
The Dark Overlords of the Universe is a wildly entertaining ride through horror, punk energy, classic heavy metal spirit, sci-fi weirdness, and pure creature-feature fun. Beneath the monsters, aliens, and cinematic madness is an album with real personality, imagination, and heart.
Read Metal Lair’s full review of The Dark Overlords of the Universe here.
If you grew up on late-night horror marathons, Fangoria magazines (Markus had a huge collection of them!) on the carpet, somebody rewinding a tape with the VCR making demon noises, underground metal, junk food-fueled weekends, and the kind of strange imagination that made ordinary life feel a little more magical, this album deserves a place in your collection.
Turn the lights down, put on The Dark Overlords of the Universe, and let the weirdness take over.
Lineup
Markus “Daddy Ghoul” Laakso – Guitars
Toni “Ghoulio” Ronkainen – Drums
Arthur “LL Ghoul A” Thure – Vocals
Markus “Hella Ghoul” Makkonen – Bass
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
The Dark Overlords of the Universe is out now via Season of Mist
GHOULSTARS ONLINE:
About The Author:
Chris Norris writes for Metal Lair covering progressive metal, underground music culture, immersive album reviews, longform artist interviews, and the recurring feature World Metal Weekly. The work explores the emotional depth, atmosphere, and evolving language of heavy music across both legendary and emerging artists.
Read more from this author:
Green Carnation Part II Sanguis Interview with Kjetil Nordhus
Stoned Jesus Songs To Sun Interview: Igor Sydorenko on Creative Tension, and Reinvention.
CARACH ANGREN – Interview: The Cult of Kariba
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