“To win a woman, take her with you to see Dracula” (Bela Lugosi).
Horror, the incomprehensible, fear itself – they all bear a deep and dark longing, they all evoke a fathomless lust for danger, for the abyss. Similarly, Rock’n’Roll, the devil’s music moving our legs and boiling our blood, never fell short of its expectations. To unite these infamous cesspits can only result in the creation of The Other, crawling out of the swamp of our darkest desires. A little bit of ground fog, fateful organs, thunder and lightning. There, something is approaching. Are you reaedy for the fright of your lives?
Enter The Other. Make no mistake, this not not some random Rock band painting their eyes black and whispering evil lullabies into our ears. The Other are bound to become the biggest Horrorpunk institution on the planet, a ferocious troupe unleashing their bloody Horror show at every stage they could sink their teeth in. From Wacken Open Air to the legendary (and packed!) Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood, they have been fuelled by the supernatural and the sinful allurements of endless nights. Since their beginnings exactly 15 years ago, the Cologne bloodsuckers surrounding their undead captain Rod Usher proved on six records, in two comic books and at hundreds of gigs around the globe that George A. Romero indeed was right: “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth” the director made his actor Ken Foree utter in “Dawn of the Dead”. What’s that got to do with The Other? Well, it seems that this band, too, is unwilling to creep back into that hell from whence it sprang in 2002. Instead, they radiantly exhume the legacy of the Misfits and The Damned, defile their rotting corpses, cross-breed it in their in-house Frankenstein lab with the theatrical antics of KISS and the tasteless grandeur of Alice Cooper to unleash the possessed aura of these Rock’n’Roll demons in an apocalyptic present.
Their 15th anniversary marks the birth of a beast: “Casket Case” is a stunning feat even they themselves probably didn’t know to be capable of. Hungry, on the run, with sharp teeth and crooked claws, it is an album like the embodiment of the most perfect and horrendous of all Horrorpunk creatures. Just like Bela Lugosi, whose roles all lead to his breakthrough as the most iconic “Dracula” of all times, it is “Casket Case” that will make The Other immortal. Not altogether coincidentally, the title itself is a little tribute to “Basket Case”, the record that let Green Day’s career take off like a rocket.”To us, a ‘casket case’ is someone who’s possessed by blood and by his own downfall”, undertaker Rod Usher informs us. And is delivering an accurate selfdescription en passant. With it come 16 new tales from the crypt, delivered with deathly bravado and sharp edges by your truly, massively strengthend in Waldemar Sorychta’s studio chapel and regurgitated by a band that was almost dead and gone a mere two years ago. Along came the new guitarists Ben Crowe und Pat Laveau – and proved to be true game changers. “Ben and Pat have truly embraced the band by now. They see The Other as their monstrosity, are possessed by playing live and long tours. They really are pouring their very blood into this band. Hence”, Usher laughs, “there are 16 tracks on the album.”
Tracklist:
01. A Party At Crystal Lake
02. She’s A Ghost
03. Counting The Flies
04. Dead.And.Gone
05. Morgen Ohne Grauen
06. Faith And The Fallen
07. Till Death Do Us Part
08. Little Black Riding Hood
09. Not My Usual Self
10. A Heart Is Mysterious
11. End Of Days
12. The Horror Of It All
13. X-ray Eyes
14. Pray For Your Soul
15. Werewolf Of Bedburg
16. What It’s Like To Be A Monster
