BLOODSUCKING ZOMBIES FROM OUTER SPACE - SUMMONING FIENDS

Watch out for the slasher Pepi! The malicious fiend has been wreaking havoc for ten years, leaving nothing but scorched earth in his wake.

His henchmen are five undead Viennese whose hunger for new songs and sounds is insatiable. For almost 20 years, the Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space have been sweeping through Vienna, Austria and the rest of the world with their reign of terror, which is rhythmic and fast-paced. No one else has mastered the game of unbridled horror movie love, social criticism and tongue-in-cheek irony as well as the quintet from Wiener Neustadt. They passionately break down musical boundaries and establish new dogmas.

From rock'n'roll in "See You At Disneyland" (2004) to "Monster Mutant Boogie" (2008) and "Mörder Blues" (2010), the first of many highlights in morbid Viennese, there is an invisible ribbon that bundles the unique development of this band.

On their tenth album "Shock Rock Rebels", this colorful mixture of different styles makes more sense than ever before. Creepy pope Alice Cooper would be delighted with the fresh compositions from the Lower Austrian zombie headquarters. The political mixes with the personal. The humorous with the thoughtful. The current with the timeless. The Bloodsucking Zombies are once again just themselves - and yet so much more. The punk element is more pronounced than ever in songs such as the humorous break-up number "Madman" or the unambiguous horror showpiece "The Dentist", the "Teenage Antichrist" pays homage to their own shock rock heroes from Alice Cooper to W.A.S.P. and on the programmatically titled "This Night On Halloween", the creepily made-up undead give us a first glimpse of the gloomy Samhain, where frontman Dead "Richy" Gein and co. dance with the skeletons and werewolves under the full moon - and lyrically lead us out of the shackles of the pandemic with verve and vigor.

They manage the balancing act between nerdiness and universality better than ever before. The rocking, driving "Belial" deals with the cult "Basket Case" splatter films from the 80s and "Damien" offers the listener a devilish history lesson. But the zombies can also be different. In "Off With Their Heads", the team of monsters venture into political territory and, with sarcastic humor, call for the guillotine for the planet-destroying top 10,000. The thought-provoking but no less brisk "Pig Hunt", a parable on the hardships of meritocracy and - of course, it doesn't work without blood and booze! - the pure survival of a manhunt. "Stop Writing Songs About Your Girlfriend" is the best reflection of the combo's delicately subtle humor. It's not just interchangeable pop bards from the German-speaking world who get their comeuppance - even U2's sultry singer Bono can't resist the edgy zombie bite.

The hit-suspect "Geisterhaus" shows once again how well Viennese suits the undead. The perfect soundtrack for a gloomy walk in the fog at Vienna's Central Cemetery.
For their fans, all the freaks and outsiders out there, the zombies have once again come up with something special. "Shock Rock Rebel" is available in three versions. As normal vinyl in blood red, limited to 500 copies. As a CD limited to 1000 copies, hand-sprayed in five different colors and including a 16-page booklet, and as a box set limited to 150 copies, containing a total of six 7'' vinyl singles and all kinds of gimmicks (from board games to condoms). "Shock Rock Rebels" is the acoustic bible for all those for whom Dario Argento, Jason Voorhees, Tobe Hopper or Freddy Englund are more than just pop culture. And everyone else can let themselves be whisked away into horror orbit by the body-painted shock rock squadron.