We Are Horror Records are back, after a brief hiatus, and are better than ever. To celebrate this fact label founder, Dan Phillips, has truly outdone himself and put together the third bloody horror-fuelled instalment of the Horrorpunk's Not Dead compilations. These compilations are the finest collection of what's what and who's who from modern horrorpunk today. Volume 3 boasts a whopping 50 tracks of the best blood curdling horrorpunk bands across the globe. As is the way with Horrorpunk's Not Dead, these comps are not a collection of one dimensional Misfits wannabes. They are in fact a glorious horde of well thought out styles that form the horrorpunk genre as a whole, from goth, metal, punk and pop elements making Volume 3 bigger, better and scarier than EVER before!
A few of the tracks featured on Volume 3 are from bands that belong to the We Are Horror label such as Das Ghoul and Tricie and the Phantom Punks as well as many other bands that jumped at the opportunity to feature. It has 18 previously unreleased tracks from bands such as Boogeyman, The B Movie Monsters, Mutant Reavers and The Graveyard Boulevard, with The Order of the Fly giving us a rousing rendition of "Partytime" from Return Of The Living Dead. Other bands like; Coffin Carousel, Headstone Horrors, The Rosedales, Video Nasties and The Tomb tones have donated tracks from their recent albums.
These compilations present a great opportunity to showcase your band and reach a wider audience so it really does pay to put in your best track. This does mean that Volume 3 in particular is a mind blowing experience for the listener as every track nails it. Horrorpunk's Not Dead Volume 3 came out in April and it is still high up on my playlist. Because it features one track from 50 different bands it's very hard to pick stand out tracks as this changes on a daily basis for me... there is so much to listen to it makes it harder for me to fixate on one particular track. This has forced me to change the way I listen because normally I am someone that tends to get stuck on one track. Or at least that is what I do when I'm listening to an album by one band. If I were to do this with this particular compilation then the review would be even later than this is as it would take me months to finish it mostly because there are a lot of tracks to fixate on... it just depends on the day and what mood you are in. There really is something for everyone on Volume 3 and I guarantee you will discover a few new bands that you will want to hear more from. The awesome and gruesome artwork for Volume 3 is amazingly well done, if a little less colourful than Volume 2 it gives it a more mature, sinister graphic novel vibe which is never a bad thing.
I feel like the Horrorpunk's Not Dead compilations have achieved everything they set out to do which has been to provide a vessel that brings the focus back to the old school compilation format on a grander scale whilst bringing the horror and showing the world the great talent that stalks this genre.
Horrorpunk's Not Dead Volume 3 is available digitally through We Are Horror Records website and bandcamp page.
