Horror punk

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Horror punk, or sometimes zombie punk, is a music genre that was defined by the band Misfits, blending horror movie lyrical themes and imagery with musical influences from early punk rock, doo-wop, and, to a lesser degree, rockabilly.

Horror punk bands usually tell tales through their lyrics, which are often related to horror films, black humor, and horror stories or novels. Horror punk has traditionally used, amongst other horror influence, the aesthetics and themes of zombie films. Some bands base their whole genre on zombies, taking up the name zombiecore. Often bands who tend to play horror punk properly or a horror punk influenced kind of music, are categorized under the umbrella genre "horror rock" in order to separate them from more traditional punk bands, this term is also used by bands to refer to their music (like Calabrese) or is included on their songs lyrics and imagery (for an example, Balzac). The horror punk genre has a thriving underground following, with websites and concert festivals. The fan base has been tied to the resurgence of the closely-related genres, psychobilly, deathrock and horror surf.

The genre, with the exception of artists like Jack Grisham and Michale Graves, is overtly apolitical in deep contrast with other forms of the punk rock genre.

Subgenres

Horror hardcore

"Horror hardcore" also called "holy terror" is a term coined by Dwid Hellion that refers to a hybrid of horror punk and hardcore punk. The Misfits's final album, Earth A.D., and the early work of Glenn Danzig's subsequent band Samhain inaugurated the style. Septic Death and Integrity also performed this subgenre.

Horror metal

"Horror metal" is a term which has been going since the 80's since Ripper released their first album and was described as horror metal. Since the 1980s, a number of bands playing several different styles of metal have fallen under this banner, from Necrophagia to The Vision Bleak.

Fashion

The quintessential example of horror punk fashion can be found in the band the Misfits. While looking considerably similar to other late-1970s punk rock bands and fans, the band took a darker approach to its style. They wore predominantly black clothing, skeleton costumes, and makeup similar to that seen during the earlier half of the 20th century in horror films (characters such as Frankenstein or Dracula). Horror punk style also incorporates "sexy" items, such as fishnet stockings, corsets, and elaborate makeup. The use of occult and horror imagery is prevalent on T-shirts, buttons, patches and jewelery that contain images of films related to the scene (films starring Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, etc). Hair may be in mohawk form, teased out or in the devilock style. Much of the aesthetics of horror punk are similar to goth and especially deathrock.

See also

• Hatecore
• Punk fashion
• Shock rock
• Horrorcore

References