Altsounds - Church For Sinners - Making Monsters [Album]

Type in Church For Sinners in Google. Yes you guessed it. Biblical and religious references dominate the pages. Expected of course. It does seem ironic however, that a band who are clearly making a genre of music that would piss off our almighty leader, should appear on the same page as a website called “www.catholic.com”. These boys are about as catholic as Saddam Hussein, but thankfully not as evil, even if their artwork for debut album “Making Monsters”, does feature deceased corpses.

So what genre of music are the Washington quartet making? Why punk rock of course, or to be more exact horror punk. Even before the CD begins spinning, its clear that a big influence on Church For Sinners music is 1980’s horror punk band The Misfits. Zombie folks on gloomy coloured backdrops with dashes of green and purple spliced here and there with the bands name written in bright, white lettering. How very “Earth A.D” of you.

From the word go it is apparent that Church For Sinners weren’t just in love with the artwork that Danzig and co produced, but the music as well. “Home Sweet Hell” is an all jumping, all dancing affair, with sharp, zany guitar chords and bouncing drum beats. A perfect opener for an album, that is less about the deeper meaning of the lyrics and more about enjoying the music. Misfits meets Suicide Machines meets Rancid if you will. The second track on the album, titled (just as the album is) “Making Monsters”, is enjoyable and showcases the members of Church For Sinners instrumental abilities, not only as individuals but together as a band. However the vocals need to be tightened slightly, as Bergemeier does tend to echo Wylie rather than sing alongside him. “Autopsy Turvy” is the next and best track on the record. Tight vocals and guitar strumming that Johnny Ramone would be proud of, “Autopsy Turvy” maybe one of the shortest tracks on the record, but just like most great punk records, this is a mere mathematical blip.

“Last Caress”, “Blitzkreig Bop” and “New Rose” all clocked in at under three minutes, yet they are still considered some of the greatest punk tracks of all time. Church For Sinners may not be as successful or well known as the masters of the above tracks, but if they continue to thrash out gems like this, they could be well on their way. “Hitchhikers” and “Dead To Rites” touch more upon Church For Sinners horror punk and psychobilly influences. With ghastly ghoul noises in the background of “Dead To Rites” and ghostly vocals in “Hitchhikers”, both songs would be perfect for the graveyard. “Ghost Of Autumn” is another song that stays below the three minute mark and again is typically punk, not just because of its length. The two minutes and fourteen seconds are jam packed with fast-paced guitar strings and even quicker drum beats, making this track one of the strongest of the entire album. “The Bleeding” is the final song and is defiantly the slowest track throughout the record. This is more of a song to fill out the record than bring in the fans, probably why it was left until last.

The one problem with this album is that, although songs such as “Autopsy Turvy” and “Home Sweet Hell” are good songs, there are no tracks that leaves the listener thinking “My god how did they come up with that”. Even though determination, effort and obvious love for all things punk, pours through “Making Monsters”, it will most probably only be the hardcore lovers of punk that will fully enjoy this album. But then that is the way of punk. It is not just a genre of music but a lifestyle and these boys clearly eat, sleep and breath punk rock.

A good first attempt from the Washington quartet, attempting to recreate the good old days of classic punk, even if the bands they pay homage too weren’t recognised until many years after their existence. Lets just hope it doesn’t take the world that amount of time again to realise what a talented band looks like.