Scarecrow hails from black metal dominated Hyvinkää in Finland. Having been around for already 15 years, they don’t follow that path. Even though some of their members are or were in a black metal band (like Azaghal), they play punk on the darker spectrum of the genre, namely horror punk (with a touch of metal and hardcore). Recently they released their fourth full album Exterminators of the Year 4000 and we took it for a spin.
As with most horror punk bands, you just can’t help but compare them to the godfathers of the genre: Misfits. Going on the artwork alone, they clearly found a lot of inspiration with their American inspirational forefathers. After a sinister sounding intro and a bone-chilling scream fitting the first track’s title Scream Queen Death Hop they kick in the album on full speed. What you get here is dead simple: straight-forward fast, catchy punk rock dipped in that horror sauce. Fast drums, punk guitar riffs, raw vocals and plenty of room to “ooo-oooh” along in the songs. Another thing that is a regular occurrence in the songs are samples mostly from horror flicks spread throughout the album.
With Horror of the Beach Party they crank up the overall catchiness even more, so gear up to sing along at the top of your longs and pogo along to this fun track! In Macabre Nights you hear a bit more of the other influences of the band members with a more metal influenced track. You can also hear that the vocals might normally be found in a more extreme metal band rather than a punk rock band. Though somehow it still perfectly fits the music of Scarecrow and the whole horror theme.
The rest of the record is much of the same, but never really gets boring for a second. For instance in the tracks More Skulls and Waiting for the End you can find more of the harsher hardcore punk influences. And with Angels Death they embark on a more melodic heavy/doomy journey without losing any of that punk attitude. Talking about that punk attitude: They really surprised me with They Live! The shortest track of the album is a blistering track of hardcore blended with touches of Napalm Death-esque vocals. That harsher death rattle coming out of the throat of Jack13 is coming back in Theatre of Death and in the death metal/grindcore/hardcore blend of a mindfuck that is Deathfuckingtank!
This is a really great and interesting release riddled with darkness, horror and really cool blends of music genres. It’s clear that after 15 years these guys really know how to do this shit. Definitely to be recommended stuff for (hardcore) punkers and members of the Misfits Fiend Club… They seem to me as a great band to take over the torch and lead the other genre bands to the right path of creepiness and catchiness.
Release date: December 19th, 2016
Label: Inverse Records (82 Records / DSB Records)
Tracklist:
1. Scream Queen Death Hop
2. Horror of the Beach Party
3. Macabre Night
4. More Skulls
5. Angels Death
6. Waiting for the End
7. They Live
8. Theatre of Death
9. Ghost in the Graveyard
10. Deathfuckingtank
11. Exterminators Outro
12. 6ore 6ore 6irls
13. Nightride
