Review
Gay for Johnny Depp
Blood: The Natural Lubricant

Captain of Industry (2005) Neil

Gay for Johnny Depp – Blood: The Natural Lubricant cover artwork
Gay for Johnny Depp – Blood: The Natural Lubricant — Captain of Industry, 2005

In theory alone, I should love this album. Gay for Johnny Depp is a homosexual band. Great, I love homosexuals in bands. They sing about filthy gay sex. Great, I love filthy gay sex. They play cum rocking screamo hardcore. Great, I love screamo and hardcore. They love Johnny Depp. Great, I think Johnny Depp is an okay actor.

Theory is just that, purely theory. Reality eventually creeps the fuck up in you like a ridiculously large-sized black penis you find attached to a man named Leroy in your local park's darkest bushes. In theory, it's going to be fun and something to brag about later. In reality though, having your anus stretched beyond the width of your average toilet seat is not so appealing.

Gay for Johnny Depp essentially has one trick and they ride it pretty hard over the course of this 14-minute EP. Part dirty full-steam-ahead rock, part spastic screamo, it owes a great debt to the San Diego scene, particularly Swing Kids and Antioch Arrows. The more fashion concise members of The Blood Brothers fanbase would undoubtedly gain erections over this if their tight fitting jeans didn't prevent the necessary blood flow.

Gay for Johnny Depp makes a reasonable showing of it though. Their rhythms are frantic, the tunes are catchy, certain parts will make you shake that pointy finger, and sure, some of their lyrics are pretty filthy. But, it just so happens I've heard bands that beat Gay for Johnny Depp at each of these things. Maybe I expected too much? Perhaps, but how can you not have unreasonably high expectations for a band that calls their record Blood: The Natural Lubricant (An Apocalyptic Adventure Beyond Sodom and Gomorrah)?!

One thing I feel obligated to say is that Gay for Johnny Depp are not the first ever 'homocore' band. Christ, Cargo, do some research. If anyone is at all interested in this band, but perhaps wants something with sweatier, dirtier, lower slung balls, then might I recommend you hunt down the Limp Wrist discography. God, those fags could rock.

5.7 / 10Neil • October 16, 2005

Gay for Johnny Depp – Blood: The Natural Lubricant cover artwork
Gay for Johnny Depp – Blood: The Natural Lubricant — Captain of Industry, 2005

Recently-posted album reviews

Sahan Jayasuriya

Don’t Say Please: The Oral History of Die Kreuzen
Feral House (2026)

For those of us who spent the mid-to-late 1980s navigating basement community halls, churches, and loveable, armpit-smelling dive bars, the name Die Kreuzen was a permanent fixture on the punk rock radar. They were the sound of the Midwest underground --too fast for the goths to do their spooky Bela Lugosi "shoo the bats away" interpretive dance, too technical for … Read more

Sewer Urchin

Global Urination
Independent (2025)

There’s a fine line between crossover thrash that feels dangerous and crossover thrash that just feels like a party. Global Urination doesn’t bother choosing because it does both loudly and without apology. St. Louis’ Sewer Urchin have been grinding since 2019, and on their latest full length they double down on everything that makes the genre work. They give us … Read more

Ingested

Denigration
Metal Blade (2026)

For a band that built its name on sheer brutality, Ingested have spent the last several years refining what that brutality actually means. With their newest release, Denigration, the band finds that continuing evolution. They’re still punishing, still precise, but noticeably more controlled and deliberate in how it all lands. From the outset, the record makes its intentions clear. “Dragged … Read more