Bubblegum Attack Records from Moscow, Russia have brought together four awesome and uniquely different horrorpunk bands to bring us this twelve track split album entitled Brains For Friends. This is by far the best thing to come out of Russia since balaclavas and vodka, especially in the last year or so.
Brains For Friends features three tracks from four different Russian horrorpunk bands. Beginning with zombie loving four piece Romero's Nation who's brash, bold and fast paced punk rock blasts this off to a great start with songs about brains ("more brains for my dead friends"), dead girlfriends and clever plays on words with their track "Darkhangelsk After Midnight" as the band themselves hail from Arkhengelsk. I also kind of hope this is a bit of nod to Finnish melodic death metallers Children Of Bodom but I might be way off on that one. Either way Romero's Nation are a cleverly thought out outfit named after a true legend of horror incorporating catchy riffs and an edgy old school punk stripped back sound with shouty vocals, who theme their music around all things zombie and the undead. Next up we have The Dead Friends from Volgograd who have a more other worldly look on their music and horror content going for a more paranormal theme. They still have a stripped back DIY punk sound but they chose a more melodic vocal style. I haven't been able to find out much about them as a band but I do love their vocalists style and deep dark voice. Their track "Area 51" is one of the stand out tracks for me. They hold a steady pace until their final track "Sin City" kicks things up a notch. Moscows Molly Fancher slide themselves in with a horror infused blend of psychobilly double bass and 50's rockabilly chic. Featuring dual male and female vocals and spoken word narratives to tremendous effect. Female vocalist Kate has an amazing voice the likes of which I can only compare to Ylva Eriksson of Brothers Of Metal, two completely different bands that use these stand out vocalists to really make a statement. Molly Fancher bring a more produced sound and are the only band to offer a track in Russian. The rest of the tracks are all in English. The last three tracks come from another Moscow based band, Chaneys. They combine a bit of all three of the previous bands by incorporating that looser punk style and emphasizing prominent bass lines and punchy drums but using the softer vocal singing style with lots of well placed woahs and ohs. Vocalist Gleb Kasady has a very familiar voice and uses it to its full potential. They have a fresher more modern approach to horrorpunk and a well produced sound. Their track "Harbingers Glow" is an epic cascade of 90s punk meets 00s cool.
Brains For Friends is a really well thought out showcase of the countries finest horrorpunk bands. I love it's progression through the different horrorpunk styles and that it kind of uses Romero's Nation and Chaneys as punk rock bookends with The Dead Friends and the great Molly Fancher attending to the more melodic side of things. I have favourite tracks from all four bands but if I were to pick just three favourite tracks as a kind of broad spectrum over view of the album they would probably be "Area 51" By The Dead Friends, "The Kid and His Story" By Molly Fancher and "Harbingers Glow" By Chaneys, mind you this has changed numerous times since listening to it and will probably change again on my next listen! Brains For Friends is one that is very easy to listen to and you will pick up on different things every time.
Brains For Friends is available via Chaneys bandcamp page and Bubblegum Attack Records bandcamp:- https://bubblegumattackrecords.bandcamp ... or-friends
