While most of the first wave of 80s psychobilly wore their schlocky horror influences like a cheap pink drape coat, there was always something a bit more real about Demented Are Go.
Most of this was down to their genuinely unsettling singer Sparky, the only constant in their 30 year reign of terror. This new album, their first in seven years, sees them tread a more meaty rock’n’roll path than before. Sparky’s guttural rasp of old has darkened to a more smoke-hewn bluesy howl, but many of the songs now plod along where once they used to charge.
At their best – the monstrous stomper Devil Says Kill, and almost touching hymn to a grubby existence called The Life I Live – they feel like they’ve finally pulled away from the nostalgia-shackled psychobilly scene. But sadly the singer’s fascination with filth and bondage is still evident on nasty little songs like Retard Whore and Epileptic Fit.
This seemed puerile back when he was a young man, but now he’s in his 50s it’s just a little bit sad.
