Review Summary: Every bit as gruesome as it sounds
Snow White's Poison Bite. Remember them? Those Finnish guys who had a brief flirt with popularity after releasing some incredibly awful pop-rock-come-post-hardcore tunes a la Black Veil Brides a few years back? Well, turns out they're still around. And they've done a little bit of growing up. A little.
After signing to Victory Records, they're back with 'Featuring Dr. Gruesome and the Gruesome Gory Horror Show', an instant candidate for most overly gimmicky album name of the year. Or perhaps all time. What Snow White's Poison Bite get right is that they've ditched their annoying mainstream sound for a more classic horror-punk sound. Throw in a variety of different influences from every corner of rock music and you get this Frankensteins monster of an album.
Where it goes wrong is the execution. It's admirable that this album clearly has a lot of inspiration poured into it, but the Finnish shock-rockers don't quite have the substance to pull it off. The intro track begins cornily enough, sounding like some kind of cheesy ghost train introduction, but it's appropriate. What follows is 8 tracks of madness, and not necessarily the good kind. The songs come in all shapes and sizes; 'There's A New Creep on the Block' brings the heaviness with a big beefy breakdown, while 'Will You Meet Me In the Graveyard?' contains a good old fashioned annoyingly catchy chorus. Hell, even Michael Graves from horror-punk legends the Misfits in 'Zombie Romance'.
But all these great ideas collapse. Maybe the band don't have the spunk to pull it off. The intros to the aforementioned 'Will You Meet Me in the Graveyard?' and 'The Gruesome Gory Horror Show' sound incredibly similar, suggesting a lack of creativity in their general musicianship. The vocals are by far the most niche feature that Snow White's Poison Bite bring to the table. Sure, the general style almost slots into the horror-punk genre, but maybe that's an excuse to cover up the fact that "Jeremy Thirteenth" (yep, it's one of those bands where they all have nicknames) sings so nasally he may as well have a champagne cork shoved firmly up each nostril.
It's actually a shame, as 'Dr. Gruesome and the Gruesome Gory Horror Show' seemed like an intriguing idea, but Snow White's Poison Bite just failed at pulling it off to its full potential. Songs can be fun in short bursts, but listening to the album start-to-finish can feel like a chore, especially when, y'know, you could just turn it off and put on something good.
