It was Johnny Rose, the band behind Birmingham rock ‘n’ rollers Thirteen Shots and the independent label Undead Artists, that pushed our gaze the way of Italian horror punks Cavaverman, and boy are we grateful that he did. The trio released their new album Tales From Cavafistool this past Halloween, a thirteen track proposal that rocks with the bloodlust horror punk should always do but equally with an imagination unafraid to involve other bold flavours and twists of invention. The result is a fascinating and seriously rousing stomp fuelled with a potential that says even bigger and bolder adventures are ahead, so time the world woke up to the sonic zombie hunters.
Consisting of guitarist/vocalist Sal Champion, bassist Apocalypse Giò, and drummer Doktor Hell, it is fair to say that Cavaverman wear many of their inspirations on their sleeve the likes of The Ramones, Misfits, Alkaline Trio, and Entombed included, weaving them into their own contagious and visceral romances of sound and horror. As previous releases like Dead Brains For Brain Dead and James Dead showed, at times there is no escaping the familiarity to those influences but more often than not they merely spice fresh pools of bloodied Cavaverman imagination.
Tales From Cavafistool quickly stirs the blood and passions with opener Vampiro; a pull back on a shotgun the spark to a charge of spicy riffs and thumping beats driven by the potent tones of Champion. With a snatch of psychobilly to its character and straight forward rock ‘n’ roll in its instincts, the song rumbles and swaggers with expectations feeding horror punk tenacity and zeal, but with a wealth of enterprise it only thickly excites before Dead In Berlin offers its own breed of lusty punk ‘n’ roll. As in the opener and many more, Misfits is an obvious spicing but one, as suggested earlier, honed into the ways of Cavaverman with fresh and imaginative resourcefulness. The rhythms of Giò and Hell stalk and grumble magnetically throughout its scavenging whilst Champion shows himself as alluring with fingers on strings as voice on lyrics.
The more restrained Yellow King shows a fuzzier melodic string to the band’s creative bow whilst still creating a virulent offering hard for body and voice to resist whilst the mighty Green Goblin is a two and a half minute addiction that you will be crooning long after leaving its and the album’s side. Familiarity is once more a potent hue but entangled in a pungent pop punk weave, the track is like all your best friends partying in the ears.
Such its contagion and slavery upon the passions, the following Don’t Cross The Streams has a harder task to shine alongside but its efforts are strong and enjoyable, especially with its excellent sinister entrance on intimidatingly anthemic rhythms. Into its stride, the song loses some of its potency in energy and impact but it still has feet romping and pleasure aflame by the time it makes way for Inside You and straight after Hero. The first of the pair also embraces the punk pop side of the band, breaking into an easy going and vibrant rocker before its successor grows from a scuzz kissed croon under atmospheric cold into an impassioned serenade with rising crescendos. The track might be another not quite matching some of those around it, but what it lacks in a persuasive spark it more than makes up with in bold and fiery blends of varied rock styles to show the strength of the band’s songwriting and imagination.
Lora Ashley is a delicious straight forward incitement of hooks and united vocals, an inevitable horror punk sing-a-long raising the spirits and greed ready for the drama laded rock ‘n’ roll of Dead Boys Of Summer. Resistance is futile here too as the track prowls ears with its sturdy rhythms and grinning hooks, vocals the final lure in a lustful anthem. Irresistibility continues in the old school punk joins fifties spawned rock ‘n’ roll of Don’t Worry About Me next, the song something you could imagine a collusion between The Damned, Flogging Molly, and Calabrese producing whilst the irresistible Teenwolf is less than two minutes of boisterous incitement with anthemic effect on body and emotions.
Tales From Cavafistool is finished off by fiery rocker Just Another Day where blues spicing adds to rich flames of melodic and heavy rock aligning to a rockabilly swing, and finally the short sepia toned instrumental epilogue of Dawn Of The Cavaverman. The final piece is like the closing of the theatre curtain at the close of a creative triumph, and that is just what Tales From Cavafistool is, a triumph from a band previously in the shadows but now bounding forward with a real punch. As uniqueness and imagination continues to grow within the craft of Cavaverman, there is no reason to dismiss the thought that something special for horror punk is brewing in Italy.
Tales From Cavafistool Cavaverman is out now via Undead Artists and @ https://cavaverman.bandcamp.com/album/tales-from-cavafistool
https://www.facebook.com/Cavaverman
Pete RingMaster 04/11/2015
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The RingMaster Review 
This band is SO GOOD!