The Independents – Full Moon Arise

Looking at them you may get the impression that they are a metal band; but that is far from the truth. In reality, The Independents are one of today’s only “ghoul punk” bands left. Their latest EP, Full Moon Arise does nothing but back up that fact.

The five piece punk band from Southern California resemble closely some of the bands which created the so called “ghoul punk” genre. The Misfits and AFI are two bands which you can easily pull in for comparison. Hell, they even do a AFI cover song as a bonus track on Full Moon Arise, so obviously, the band won’t be offended by that comparison.

Evil Presley leads the band with his melodic voice (somewhat resembling that of Davey Havoc from AFI once again). Dark lyrics flow from his vocal chords and out through his mouth. Lyrics about the walking dead, necrophiliacs, death and running for your life are all sung with a passion and conviction. Backing him up is Blackie Levay and Willy B on guitar (Willy B has his in the shape of a coffin) and Vivian Mortimer on bass. Finally rounding the group off is Billy Bones on drums. Leading the trend in musical devices, Blackie Levay also plays the keyboards on many of the tracks. That adds a little extra depth to the sound of the songs.

Full Moon Arise, the band’s first label release since Back From The Grave in 2001 (which was produced by the legendaryJoey Ramone along with Daniel Ray), puts a lid on the first decade of this incredible band and opens the lid to yet another one. A little extra feature on the EP is a small documentary of the band’s first ten years. Just place the album into your computer to see pictures, some extra tracks, videos, posters and more.