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Grave Pleasures - "Deadenders" (Video Premiere)

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Few post-punk (or full-stop rock) albums in recent memory captured my imagination the way Climax the debut album by Finland’s Beastmilk did.

Last year, a two-piece feature on vocalist Mat McNerney outlined how Beastmilk became another band, Grave Pleasures, and released a follow-up album, Dreamcrash. The band’s fans seemed cooler on that release than Climax. Comments on this website underlined a sense of disappointment with the album’s comparatively polished almost Interpol-ish sound profile.

Those people will be pleased to hear “Deadenders”, one of two songs from the upcoming Funeral Party 7″. The song sounds like it was lifted straight from Climax. The garage rock aesthetic has completely supplanted the studio sheen that characterized Dreamcrash. Maybe better, the Cold War paranoia that sounded so fresh on songs like “The Wind Blows Through Their Skulls” and “Red Majesty” has returned, and recent stunts by Vladimir Putin make McNerney’s Bolshevik obsession all the more relevant. A music video culled from open source black and white propaganda footage deepens the gothic smirking, and I am in full support. Nuke me, baby!

I wasn’t part of the chorus chanting down Dreamcrash, but I’ll admit it didn’t hypnotize me the way the Beastmilk material did. If “Deadenders” is any indication, the wicked Finnish garage goths registered our complaints loud and clear. Don’t take my word for it though. Here’s McNerney

We’re surfing the apocalypse again and this time with the reverb button back on. Back to the new old sound and back to a Finnish lineup. Now we’ve returned to the bunkers and are handling some radioactive new material for the next album. The new stuff is a nuclear fusion of our Beastmilk past with Climax and the beast(sic) parts of Grave Pleasures’ Dreamcrash album. This new 7” is a small detonation of that new material and released in an exclusive way, to reward our fans for sticking with us. It’s great to be back making another short format release on 7” just like the early days with Beastmilk To complete your end of the world celebratory package, we have put together a funeral party karaoke video so you can sing along to your doom. An underground uproar with a funeral party beat, we’re definitely dancing with the dead again.

Funeral Party will be released via Secret Trees on November 18. Follow Grave Pleasures on Facebook.