Take a healthy dose of old-school ‘Damned’-style gothic punk, a large helping of horror-tinged shock-rock, add a spattering of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ eerie piano, a decent dash of proper punk-edged rock n’ roll, and some sprinklings of ghostly psychedelia, and you’ve got a pretty good recipe for something special. That’s firmly where Oxford-based Das Ghoul sit; there’s touches of the aforementioned Damned, bits of Nick Marsh guitar and Flesh For Lulu atmosphere, even little mixes of opera, ska, and moody Interpol-style alt-rock at times in between the more obvious rushing punk guitar and shock-rock lyrics.
Das Ghoul bring a flash of spectacular pomp and ceremony to goth-horror-punk (is that a thing? It’s a thing), the evil looking masks and pseudonyms adding to a solid musical background. ‘Twisted’ is taken from their new, six-track EP ‘Trip The Light Phantasmic’, the addition of keyboard-player Octavia Von Wakeman filling a coffin-shaped hole and adding the ghastly final piece to the already impressive (presumably red-velvet) backdrop of previous album ‘Noise Das Noire’ and their debut ‘Video Nasty’ EP.
‘Trip The Light Phantasmic’ is … well, fantastic; sinister, punky, and filled with edgy, Edgar Allen Poe-esque gothic horror references and dark, tongue-in-cheek humour. ‘Twisted’ is a perfect introduction to the ghost train.
Check out ‘Twisted’, and the rest of ‘Trip The Light Phantasmic, on BandCamp; Follow Das Ghoul on Facebook.
Review by Alex Holmes