Baby AFI. Meat Loaf meddlers. Fancy dress enthusiasts. Whatever your perception of Creeper currently is, forget it. Seal it in a letter bomb with no address and let it explode in the middle of nowhere. Southampton’s purveyors of purple punk have revealed their true colours on their debut proper, ‘Eternity, In Your Arms’, and it’s not what you thought it was going to be.
It appeared that Creeper’s stall had been perfectly set out by their three EPs, which were released in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and each offered a slightly different shade of the band. Their self-titled bow established Creeper as an AFI-cum-My Chemical Romance concoction, while the following year’s ‘The Callous Heart’ laid out plans for something grander. ‘The Stranger’ then went all-out, blending Wagnerian Jim Steinmanisms with the brash, spooky punk Creeper do best. Fifteen songs. No filler.
And they could've just stuck with the template laid out on 'The Stranger', but this ain't their first rodeo. Creeper are here for business and they increasingly appear to be back-patched sons and daughters of innovation. Obviously they've not come into their debut sounding like Bolt Thrower, but there's no way you’re sticking this album in a convenient genre pigeonhole.
Hiding With Boys, Down Below and Suzanne each hinge on Creeper's now-core sound - Alkaline Trio and AFI covering 'Bat Out Of Hell' - and while the re-recording of ‘The Stranger’ highlight Misery might seem unwarranted, here it’s got Hell's bells and whistles attached to evoke more tears than usual.
Throwbacks to the band's hardcore history are brief but brutal: Poison Pens' yells are nothing short of sphincter-shattering, while Room 309's gang vocals are the fist-clenching stuff the best punk is made of. But it's stronger than before. Sharper. More fleshed out. The EPs were Creeper dipping their toes in while 'Eternity, In Your Arms' is them diving into a shark tank.
No punk band should have the guts to go 100 miles an hour in Room 309 only to sequence it next to a country duet between vocalist Will Gould and multi-instrumentalist Hannah Greenwood. But Creeper do. It's called Crickets and it's beautiful. Greenwood’s voice breaks at the song's vulnerable peak and with Gould taking a backseat you can fully appreciate what an essential stitch in Creeper's backpatch she is.
The experiments don't stop there, though. You've also got Winona Forever, a weird gothic diary entry tied together with plinky-plonky piano and a chorus that could be delivered by both Elvis Presley and Rivers Cuomo. It's jarring and doesn't initially stick, but the replay value on this record is ridiculous, so it will get you in the end.
As Creeper's first full creation finishes with the haunting I Choose To Live, it's astounding to think this band is only three years old. Where they've come in that short space of time is unbelievable and where they go next is a white-faced, spooky question mark. So much is revealed on 'Eternity, In Your Arms' before you even consider Gould’s lyrics, which deserve an entire deconstructive review of their own. Creeper are the most fascinating new band of the past five years and ‘Eternity, In Your Arms’ more than backs up the hype.
Creeper Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue March 28 2017 - LEEDS Stylus
Thu March 30 2017 - LONDON Electric Ballroom
Fri March 31 2017 - SOUTHAMPTON 1865
Sat April 01 2017 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute
Sun April 02 2017 - CARDIFF Tramshed
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