EP REVIEW: HOLA GHOST – Chupacabra

EP REVIEW: HOLA GHOST – Chupacabra
Hola Pete Records
2013
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

After their deranged 2010 debut, featuring a vintage Roland 707 drum machine, Denmark’s finest deathpunk mariachi’s Peter Sandorff and Jeppe B Jensen recruited a real, live drumming person for this five-track EP, named after the folkloric blood-sucking South American beast of legend.

The new configuration ramps up the mariachi flavour, with horns and a more Mexi-rockabilly sound with the addition of a human drummer. With song titles like Chpacabra, Mexico, Soldadera and Copenhagen Gringo that should be no surprise at all, and the swaggering deathblues of the latter is a blood soaked gunfight waiting to happen.

Fifth and final track Old Barn takes a radical detour to Johnny Cash territory, and these cats have the chops to make that a very good thing indeed.

There was a demented appeal to Hola Ghost’s drum machine-as-band-member debut which really appealed, but they’ve taken control a lot more here and the more polished, less punk sound is a bold step in a positive direction that we hope to hear more of soon.

Category: CD Reviews