Norm & The Nightmarez – Sinister Tales

By RingMaster Review on November 18, 2022 • ( 0 )

The click of a switch, the rolling of sonic reels and the night terrors began…

Sinister Tales is the new anthology of psychobilly tales from NORM & THE NIGHTMAREZ, a collection of fear cured transgressions taking ears and the imagination into the depths of horror, madness and irrepressible creepy goodness. As their previous acclaim laden releases like Psychobilly Infection, Psychobilly D.N.A. and last year’s The Chamber of Chills, the swift invasion of Sinister Tales is a Creepshow of cinematic intimations and minacious narratives, and as those before it, an album hosting fresh rock ‘n’ roll adventure and addictions in the horror show of by NORM & THE NIGHTMAREZ.

Led by the creative hunger and prowess of Birmingham based singer songwriter/guitarist Norm Elliott, the band once again embraces a wealth of flavours within Sinister Tales. Various styles within rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly and classic fifties essences are drawn and woven into the band’s psychobilly bred proposals and once more we have an album which twists and turns with unpredictable and rapacious dexterity breeding fresh lust within these ears.

It begins with the outstanding Dr Phibes, the song as many inspired by legendary cinematic yarns and re-presented in the inimitable world of NORM & THE NIGHTMAREZ. The illustrious tones of Mr Price open up the track, the movie sample wrapped in spooky veils from within which the song surges forth with psychobilly urgency and rapacity. All the while, Norm’s guitar jangle casts veins of sinistrous intimation too, each thread barbed in temptation as rhythms deliciously nag.

The gripping start continues with The RadioActive Man, the pulsating pull of upright bass strings wrapped in sultry guitar twangs and surf nurtured shimmers. Another tale of peril is cast by Norm in the midst of heat, his tones as ever a rich lure matching the flaming sounds around him.

Like No Other Night Before is next up, its classic stroll and threat carrying tale immediately enslaving attention, the greediness found soon intensified by the portentous drama of the song and its sonic flames before Jake Monsetta hits the dirt track with a fateful bargain in its pocket. Dirty and muggy with an essence of garage rock to its breath, the song easily had us locked into its deal especially with its sonic shimmers and predacious stomp.

The punk ferociousness of Magazine prowls the album next with its untamed prowess courting lures of classic and new hues while Rise of the Mothmen is another of the instrumentals Norm is so adept at composing and presenting, a track laying the canvas for the imagination to conjure and ears to feast upon. Both songs had us thickly involved though still eclipsed in lustful attention by Old Scratch. It is a summoning of demon and dexterity, the music alone a source of storytelling offering an uncluttered but rich source of suggestion.

Feeling your age? Then let Psychobilly Pensioners From Outer Space accompany your aches and pains, the track a cosmic incitement showing defiance of the expected and that uproar has no age limit. As all tracks it is rock ‘n’ roll manipulation, from the roving mastery of slap bass and the psychotic weaving of guitar to descriptive word and defiant voice the song swung its lures like a puppeteer with us keenly dangling on its strings.

Across the equally cunning and scheming instrumental, Future Shock, and She Goes Out With a Wolfman with its classic fifties shaped lupine tale, ears only found greater appetite for the release, one Then There Were None escalated further, In no time it declared itself another major favourite track candidate with its Deliverance meets The Hills Have eyes like premise and indeed breath. The song is a predator of the keenest attention; its webs of guitar and prowling rhythms proving pure addiction.

The final pair of Phantom Zone – Adam’s Rib and Phantom Zone – The Thing provided a striking finale to the album, the first rolling in on instant and enlivening rhythmic manipulation before sharing its punkabilly prowess and soon stretching out a might hand for best track too. Its successor is a final cauldron of fifties rockabilly, seventies punk and eighties psychobilly brewed in NORM & THE NIGHTMAREZ craft, a bitch slap of closing spirit rousing incitement.

Sinister Tales is the fourth and sadly it seems the final album from the band and quickly proved to be another ear and imagination igniting adventure with NORM & THE NIGHTMAREZ. Within its walls it uncages some of their finest exploits, a collection of songs again proving the band one of the most vital propositions in UK psychobilly and likely to remain so whether here or not.

Sinister Tales is out now on Normal Records; available @ https://normandthenightmarez.bandcamp.com/album/sinister-tales