Heavy on the Vincent Price melodrama, every album by poppy Ontario psychobillies The Creepshow opens with an ominous sermon by organist Reverend McGinty. The theme this time? “Busy taking revenge.” This is the outfit’s third outing – second with vocalist Sarah “Sin” Blackwood – and though nothing is going to match the raw energy of her sister Hellcat on their debut “Sell Your Soul”, the clean production and flat-out enthusiasm on display here make for a solid entry. Taking their sermon setup as a full-on conceptual statement, this album displays a rare thematic consistency for the genre (no, Zombies and B-Movies don’t count): it’s a psychobilly road trip to exact revenge, packed with all the speeding cars, pulpy murders and thumping standup-bass lines we’ve learned to expect from this oufit. Pleasingly consistent and increasingly poppy, The Creepshow know how to write catchy songs: from the doo-wop of “Sleep Tight” to Less-Than-Jake doppelganger “Hellbound”, Sin never misses a beat handling double-duty on guitar and vocals. Sure the wailing man-choruses and opening tracks get repetitive (they back-loaded this one, listen through!), but for a band that cribs equally from The Misfits and The Stray Cats, who expected otherwise? This is Canadian pop-psychobilly at its most promising – it just needs more sting and variety.
A-
Originally Published in The Peak, October 2010.
Transylvanilla 
I’ll have to check it out.
You should! It’s fun – just don’t go in expecting any harsh metallic stuff (they aint the Koffin Kats or Nekromantix), or even the level of intensity you’ll find in their first album (current singer’s sister – she ended up in Hellcat And The Prowl), but it’s fast-paced and full of bass, basically. Production rocks, singer’s ridiculously friendly, organs are always fun.
They make a strong case for being one of Canada’s top Psychobilly groups.
[…] this review over at Transylvanilla. Besides the one we have posted below, he has some pretty good reviews, and as he says, “I […]
These guys are amazing! And so fun live!
They’re a *blast* live. At the show I attended, they even dropped a disco ball and arranged a big couples’ dance to “Sleep Tight” (at least I think it was “Sleep Tight”…) – right before launching into a cover of Misfits’ “Halloween”. Ah, it was so great.
We got to share cookies with Sarah!
Really energetic, hell of a lot of fun.
Oh – and thanks for the read/reply!
Hey of course! Any blog that represents! Great work transylvanilla! Sounds like I missed a pretty rad show!
Cheers Mate!
I thank you again! I’ll be sure to check out your Tronah blog, too – that name is too damn clever. Go Canada!
Cheers!
Heh, thanks! XD