Album Review: Creeper - 'Sanguivore'
Taking the mania of macabre down a deeper and darker path than ever before, Creeper prepared a feast fit for a vampire with their latest record Sanguivore.
Following on from their 2020 record Sex, Death & the Infinite Void, the Southampton act have taken to the studio to breathe life into a Halloween horror concept surrounding the lives of vampires who are out to rule the world one drop of blood at a time. Enter the tales of Spook and Mercy with Sanguivore. The record opens with ‘Further Than Forever’, a nine-minute introduction to the story and a dramatic opening to the wild ride the listener is about to have.
Starting off with an audibly beautiful intro, the song kicks into a sound more akin to the more operatic and gothic rock themes of the 80s. Big and campy, frontman Will Gould leads the track with his mysterious vocals and the chorus of fallen angels singing alongside him. Taking on the feel of alternative musical theater, not dissimilar to the likes of The Rocky Horror Picture Show or even the Meat Loaf inspired production Bat Out of Hell.
Broken up mid-track with a spoken word bridge, describing the descent of a being beyond the living world and being emotionally and physically impacted by her presence, this is one of the most memorable ways to start off a full-length record. This is how someone pulls the listener in and makes them want to experience every second, every minute; how to keep them guessing and never let them know the next move. This is quite the fantastical production, even by the standards set by Creeper over their almost decade-long career. The bar rises higher and higher, and there are only two places to go: even higher, or the very bottom.
The next track is ‘Cry To Heaven’, the first single released for the record. Being the first taster of Sanguivore and giving the fans just a sample to hook them, it works as the best follow-up from ‘Further Than Forever’. Keeping the pace and the energy, the retro influences are in full force from this single. Once again the backing vocals are adding to this spiritual theme that’s running through, bringing out the soulfulness while also smoothly transitioning to a stunning guitar solo - and bringing them both together near its conclusion.
Gould acts as the narrator and there is no better person in rock to be working through this silver screen-esque epic, this show-stopping instant classic. With his unique voice, soothing yet unsettling with the atmosphere surrounding him, it keeps his fellow classic horror fans caught on the line ready to be reeled in closer and closer.
‘The Ballad Of Spook & Mercy’ is where the band delve deeper into the background of their story’s leaders. Friends forever and partners in blood crimes, Spook and Mercy are explored with no page left unturned and no neck left unbitten. Formed as a moonlit ballad, best played among the mist of a graveyard, this is a track that is destined to be an instant fan-favourite and definitely a live staple if the group know how to make it work with their own extravagant stage productions. The ups and downs, the build-ups upon build-ups are styled in a way that in the 2020s could only be pulled off by the likes of Creeper. A band who have demonstrated the midnight charisma and macabre elation that it would take to make such art work and such a rare concept flow in a way it does.
Before the album’s closing two tunes, the album is given a breather of sorts in the short escape of ‘The Abyss’. The structure sets the listener into a feeling not far off waiting for the final scene of a stage show to commence; the last slice in the mythical masterpiece that Sanguivore has found itself to be. Moving into ‘Black Heaven’, the beat is picked back up and the full moon is back in full view. There is all rise and no fall, that is too evident with one track left to go, and the quality has not dropped nor has the emotion thinned out. Bruises are still fresh, blood is still running through the veins, and the bodies aren’t dead just yet - there is still unfinished business.
‘More Than Heaven’ is how the record is seen off into the darkness of the void, and can be interpreted as one of the more emotionally powerful songs on the track list. A piano-led number, it is a Creeper branded love song, as Gould belts out the words, “I will love you more than death”.
Summing up the bond between creatures of the night, ones that in lore have been considered selfish and heartless and no more than murderous monsters living undercover. Twisting the narrative to prove one last time that beings of all matter - dead, living or undead - can feel, and think, and especially they can love. Even if their love is in the pitch black night-time, within the grey clouds, or deep in the ground within their own wooden boxes. They can still care and they will still find each other, whether they meet again between the tombstones of the graveyard, or in the fiery depths of hell itself.
Showing off their creative chops in the medium they’ve collectively trained over the years, Creeper have brought out possibly not just one of the best records of the year, but also one of the best stories to ever be told in the gothic genre. Finding the heart and soul in blood-suckers and heathens, they have proven that there will always be a place in rock music for an occult opera.
Words by Jo Cosgrove
