German psychobilly may seem contradictory, but on Dead Moon's Calling Mad Sin tears through psychobilly tunes and cowpunk like they were raised in the south. It's a nice mix of punk, rockabilly and classic horror.
Sometimes Psychobilly, Sometimes Just Psycho
The album opens with an audio collage of horror movie samples and eerie music, and then tears right into "Point Of No Return", a great bluesy '50s-styled rockabilly tune with a great singalong chorus. The album just gets better after that.
Song after song, Mad Sin throws fast, dark psychobilly at you. The most common themes are horror related; with titles like "To Walk The Night", "Radio Psycho" and "Cannibal Superstar", Mad Sin shows the affinity for classic horror that is common to psychobilly bands.
The lyrics are all suitably morbid, and creepy in a campy way, as on "Plastic Monsters", a rockabilly dance tune where vocalist Koefte De Ville booms out the chorus "Whatcha gonna do when they're after you? We're fast and frightening!" You'd only find it scary if you feel late-night black and white horror movies are scary. Otherwise, you'll just find it fun.
Guest Vocals and Dark Duets
The album also features two notable guest vocalists. Lars Frederickson of Rancid supplies guest vocals on "Apes On Parade", and Patricia Day of the Horror Pops helps out on "Dead Moon", a great creepy duet between her and De Ville with lyrics that read like the promotional writing on drive-in horror movie posters ("When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth. So praise the morgue, get ready for rebirth").
The hardest thing to believe about Mad Sin is that they're German. They sound like they'd be more at home in a Southern bar on Halloween serving up rockabilly and country blues to the yokels than in a German beer hall.
