I first stumbled across Hallowmas – The Road To Hallow’s Eve on the Century Media Records online store – CM Distro.com. The CD cover artwork took my Metal breath away, I am a huge Metal sucker for the scary and horrific album covers… this goes back decades for me. You cannot always judge a book, uh, album by it’s cover. In the case of my purchasing The Road To Hallow’s Eve based on the artwork and song titles, well, I proclaim a Horror Punk victory! This album is on Coffin Records, a recognized label notorious for underground talent. Hallowmas released this album back in 2005, I bought it about one year ago, during one of my Halloween spirited moods. Cutting to the Metal chase here, this is one dandy of a Horror Punk Band, a terrorizing thrill a second is The Road To Hallow’s Eve. It’s all good… Horror Punk style. I have numerous times, since buying this CD, have tried to read and/or find out more about this cool Hallowmas band… all in vain however. The only trail I find on the world wide web about them are the basics I found in the liner notes of this very album. Hallowmas is without question an underground Horror Punk band. I sincerely hope they resurface and continue their Horror Punk path… The Road To Hallow’s Eve makes for an intense foundation for them to build upon.
Lead singer Boris Randall does remind me of the Misfits era Glenn Danzig… strikingly similar, still there was and always will be only one legendary Glenn Danzig. Hallowmas plays tight enough to forge together quality Horror Punk Rock songs, all the while giving off the impression that this is as uncommercial a band that will ever be. To say that this album Rocks is a Metal understatement of the facts… this album leaves me wanting more, much more Hallowmas please. The center spread photo of the band, within the liner notes, shows them donning skeleton costumes and skeletal makeup. Between the music Hallowmas plays, along with their persona, it would be too easy to dismiss them off as copycats of the Misfits. By comparison, look at how many Death Metal bands that share the same characteristics of their peers – how many Glam/Hair Metal bands that sported the same look as their peer bands. As a devout fan of the Misfits, I personally am flattered when other Punk or Horror Punk bands take on the style of such a historical and legendary band.
The more I listened to The Road To Hallow’s Eve, the easier it was for me to break into the shell of the Hallowmas Horror Punk and hear some spirited originality. Each song is Rock and Roll rooted, from the pulsating rhythm section to the attention grabbing guitar riffs, a fine mixture of Old School Punk meets dark infested Horror Punk this album is. The only song (based on the info in the liner notes), that Hallowmas did not perform or write on this album is Road To Hallow’s Eve. This is a gothic influenced and spooky instrumental, (keyboards), that was written and performed by Killjoy and Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima… I find the vocals to be quite haunting, almost like a chant you would not want to hear alone in a remote and dark forest. In my Metal opinion, Hallowmas and The Road To Hallow’s Eve is another devilishly cool Horror Punk CD that I will turn to often… especially this Halloween Season!
Hallowmas as they appeared on The Road To Hallow’s Eve:
Boris Randall – vocals
Damien Matthews – guitar
Johnny Coffin – bass
Drew Blood – drums
The Road To Hallow’s Eve – Track Listing:
The Hanging Girl
Twins Of Evil
Planet X
Miss Devil Doll
When You’re Blue
The Road To Hallow’s Eve
Pagan’s Night
A couple of years ago, I purchased All Hallow’s E.P. by AFI… man, this is a cool Horror Punk gem. Released on November 3, 1999, on Nitro Records, this is AFI when they were creating Horror Punk and it is worth every penny I spent on it. A tidy E.P. it is, with four songs that are lathered with quality Horror Punk attitude and speed. Davey Havok on lead vocals sounds vintage, even though it has only been about a decade since this E.P.’s release. Every time I listen to All Hallow’s E.P., I walk away believing Davey Havok was born to sing this style of Punk Rock. I could listen all day to this Horror Punk style of AFI. I have been currently rummaging through my Metal and Punk Music collection, sifting through the spooky titles of both albums and songs and putting them on my daily rotation of music listening. Horror Punk will always stand out when searching for the creepy tunes, All Hallow’s E.P. is an obvious choice. With the Halloween season knocking at my Metal doorstep, rounding up the scary stuff to listen to has become an annual right of Horror passage for me.
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.