When I first put the CD in, I immediately liked the sound of the music. The first track is "Meet Me Out In The Sticks." It is a fast-paced punk sound that really appealed to me. Then about 10 seconds in, the vocals started. My first impression is that the mixing was a bit off because the vocals were a lot softer than the rest of the music, so it was hard to hear the vocals and even harder to understand them. Quickly though, I realized that the mixing guy did the band a favor by mixing it that way. While the bass, guitars, and drums were really well done, the vocals were horrible. I felt like I was listening to a goth lounge singer. It's like he was trying to croon like a lounge singer, but was devoid of all emotions. Punk music should evoke emotions. It should be powerful and aggressive. So I kept listening to the CD hoping to find something better.
The second song is called "Bleed For Me," so I was sure that it would have the emotion to match the theme of the song. Unfortunately, it was just as emotionless as the first song was. The third song is called "The Last House On The Left Of Mockingbird Lane" and I must admit that it is much better than the previous two. The background vocals are exactly what you would expect from a punk band and the lead vocals do have more emotion. This song I could listen to more than once. From here on out, the songs alternate like this with most of them being something that I really don't want to have to hear again, but a few are tolerable. I think my favorite is "Dead By Dawn," mainly because I really like the music. At first, it has a very System of a Down feel to it. Plus I really love Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, so I'm glad that I liked that song in particular. "Get Off My Knife" is another one that is a bit fun and upbeat. "Cleaverland" has to be my least favorite on the CD. It's just plain boring and emotionless.
Since I disliked most of The Rise of Creepersin so much, I decided to go to the band's official site and listen to some of the previous music for a comparison. I found that I did like the music from their older albums better, especially "Monster From Long Ago" and "The Calling." It seems like the older music had a much wider range of musical style and vocal range. I will admit that the more I listen to The Rise of Creepersin, the less I hate it overall, but it's just not a CD that I will listen to voluntarily. My advice to you if you're thinking of purchasing The Rise Of Creepersin is to check out their MySpace page and see if you like the new songs. All of their songs on the CD are available to hear if you click on the album on the site. If you like them, then you should get the album.
