Review Summary: further than forever, deeper than a dream
For whatever reason, vampires have remained a mainstay within the pop-culture stratosphere. Cinema has given us more than enough iconic vampires over the decades, from Dracula to Nosferatu and Santanico Pandemonium, amongst countless others. In music, whenever you think of punk-rock/goth-punk music concerning vampires, chances are MCR’s Vampires Will Never Hurt You from their unpolished debut, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love (2002), springs to mind. Sanguivore, the third full-length LP by British goth-punk band Creeper, showcases the quintet reinventing themselves once again under new vampire personas, and the results are what you’d come to expect from a band obsessed with over-the-top theatrics. Akin to Creeper’s previous two efforts, Sanguivore is a sprawling concept album. This time, vampire lovers Spook and Mercy are at the forefront of the storytelling, and their grandiloquent exploits are chronicled over the course of the record's ten tracks.
Opener Further Than Forever introduces Sanguivore’s gothic landscape with cinematic flair and theatrical bravado, brilliantly laying the groundwork for what it to come later on in the record. Creeper have always worn their influences on their sleeve and from this opener alone, comparisons to Meat Loaf and MCR are inevitable. Cry to Heaven flaunts gothic flair and boasts deliriously theatrical prowess before amping up the goth-punk energy with Sacred Blasphemy. With these first three tracks, the world of Sanguivore begins to take shape. Narratively, the record feels more focused than their previous effort, Sex, Death & the Infinite Void (2020), with Will Gould’s lyrics dutifully focused on the respective journeys of the lead characters. Of the three full-length Creeper records, Gould sounds his most confident here; his vocal performance is his most passionate offering to date and his theatrical swagger is maintained all the way up until the beautiful closing ballad, More Than Death, a morose last chapter that sits comfortably alongside the dreary sentimentality of Damned & Doomed, the closer to their under-looked EP, American Noir (2021). Musically, Creeper sound better than ever. Hannah Greenwood’s keyboards and backing vocals are an essential addition to the band’s distinctive formula and Ian Miles’s guitar work is wildly energetic and match-made for Gould’s darkly flamboyant vocal style.
When it comes to concept records, the biggest indicator of success (to my mind, at least) is when you come away wanting to know more about the story itself, like MCR’s Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004) or Steven Wilson’s Hand.Cannot.Erase (2015), for example. Sanguivore is a concept album that offers a lot of story rife for possible exploration across other mediums. A comic-book mini-series about Spook and Mercy, perhaps? I could see that. With their influences unapologetically on full display and their penchant for dramatic fanfare elevated to thrilling new highs, Creeper deliver their most accomplished record to date. With nine tracks and one interlude, Sanguivore never overstays its welcome and the pacing of the record is all the better for it. Those who prefer the early output of MCR and 80s rock operas will surely have a blast with this record, but those who couldn’t care less for Creeper’s previous output probably won’t be swayed. Then again, Creeper aren’t interested in converting the nay-sayers: they’re a band with a vision and they’ll continue to explore that vision their way, and Sanguivore succeeds in showcasing the band at their creative best.
