The Deathtones – Universal Monsters

By RingMaster Review on February 4, 2024 • ( 0 )

If the likes of HAMMER FILMS and AMICUS PRODUCTIONS rose again and decided on having a house band surely it would be horror punk outfit THE DEATHTONES, Similarly, UNIVERSAL HORROR FILMS would surely have the same inclination and it is the classic era of their tenure within Hollywood cinema that the Milford, Pennsylvania band explore within new album, Universal Monsters. It is the legendary iconic creatures of their movies that the band brings to modern day ears to tell their stories as the band says “in their own element” and within a dark carnival of horror punk that echoes their particular baneful and intimate tales.

THE DEATHTONES were formed in 2021 as a side project by members of pop punk outfit RadioRiot! and such it’s quickly rising popularity within its first year alone, RadioRiot! was put on the backburner. It was a move soon followed by THE DEATHTONES signing with UK based WE ARE HORROR RECORDS amid a flurry of increasingly well received singles and EP’s across 2022 and the following year with an album, going by the name of The American Invasion, bringing together many of those encounters in a greatest hits like proposal. Last year saw several financial and personnel changes which saw a line-up of Billy Bönes (lyrics, vocals, guitar, keys), Mr. Grim (drums), Mikey Murder (bass), Dorian Mordrake (lead guitar), and “Dreadful” Chris D (guitar) in place for Universal Monsters, it the result of the band’s new focus on “doing less releases, but making them better structured and written overall.”

This first encounter since that moment quickly proved a magnetically adventurous and captivating proposition. A year in the making from writing to recording and its unveiling, the cinematic and literary lit realm of the album is immediately set by its atmospheric, gothic veiled Intro and its Lugosi-esque introduction to the release that fluidly evolves into the following Dracula. A Romani like waltz opens up the scene, its intimation and shadows seductive yet haunting and soon joined by the slowly drawn vampiric story shared by Billy Bönes. Unhurried in its revelations initially, the track soon finds greater rapacity to eventually leap upon the listener with bloodlust energy and sonic trespass yet still sways with that initial ethnic dance.

It is a compelling start to the release which Frankenstein only escalated with its voraciously prowling rock ‘n’ roll. In many ways the track is an echo of classic horror punk protagonists like MISFITS but as it weaves its way through ears it bears its and the band’s distinct individuality. Relentlessly stalking the imagination whilst caressing ears in the arcane lure of keys, the album’s best moment is greedily devoured before attention keenly turned to The Mummy where familiar melodic and cinematic throes of Arabian musical temptation align the dark menace of the band’s punk ‘n’ roll instincts. This too is a track that fully pulled us in and wormed under the skin in no time and left intrigue aflame for things to come.

Those explorations continue with the sample introduced and menace-soaked incitement of The Invisible Man, another track-bred in punk and rock ‘n’ roll instincts and eagerly embracing sways of melodic and drama driven flavouring. As with all tracks, knowing the films and stories of each central monster adds to the captivation of the songs and the conjuring of the imagination that is again stoked up by the feral infestation of The Wolf Man. The track is a theatre of sound and primal horror cast in a tempest of sinister enterprise and trespassing craft, its lupine frenzy of an attack as virulently contagious as it is senses blistering.

The album concludes with Creature From The Black Lagoon, the song rising up from beneath crashing waves in a surf punk saunter which with its joyous temptation belies the danger lurking below. That horror is soon revealed in the stalking of riffs and gothic shadows of keys though yet all the while that instinctive catchiness prevails and ensures ears welcome the dangers within.

It is a glorious end to a release that by the listen we have sunk further into and played with more and more in the imagination. It is a return of the monsters that seeded our love and fascination with horror movies and now, with THE DEATHTONES as companions, are igniting those passions once again.

Universal Monsters is out February 2nd via We Are Horror Records; available @ https://thedeathtones.bandcamp.com/album/universal-monsters