Sanguivore II is an album that opens with a spooky monologue, declaring: “Rock music is a horny vampire, and tonight it is feasting upon you!” Later, there is a song called “Parasite” featuring a chorus where keyboardist Hannah Greenwood sings “Be my parasite!” while frontman Will Gould shouts “Suck! Suck! Suck!” Then there’s a talk-box solo. This—if you couldn’t tell already—is the best moment on the album. On this album, Creeper have become masters of the single entendre—as further exemplified when Gould cries “Give us HEAD! ... ...stones” atop Greenwood’s wailing vocalisations on its lead single. Things are only slightly more subtle when Gould and Greenwood simultaneously breakthrough the sultry Bauhaus vibe of “The Black House” to confess they “want to hold you like a hammer in my hand,” and “nail you on the cross at your command” in uplifting, gospel-like (dark) celebration. Often, it’s better to couch your sexual metaphors in luscious, obscuring imagery and innuendo; Sometimes, though, you've just gotta say the damned thing.
The music also makes its influences and intentions obvious, with the entire album and its presentation being comprised of pure goth rock pastiche (they've even ironically managed to rip off Avenged Sevenfold's logo, along with their look!). Second single "Blood Magic" is a particularly odd mix, blending the chorus melody from Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth" with the main riff from Alice Cooper's "Bed of Nails" and a distinctive guitar fill that might be the coda to White Zombie's "Thunderkiss '65", but also might be something else and rather too much lingering Meatloaf. It's an audacious combination, that doesn't quite work in totality, but—much like its subjects—it and the rest of the songs seduce by way of pure, sublime spectacle and are a great indication of the sorts of song Ghost should be both writing and ripping off these days.
As its title suggests, Sanguivore II follows is a sequel to both the sound and story of its predecessor—which earned them several UK-based AOTY accolades (even as others suggested that it didn't quite live up to its potential). This sequel is a far more consistent outing than the original Snaguivore, leaning ever further into the successful goth-glam sound of that album's strongest moments, even if it never quite reaches the heights of standout tracks like "Cry to Heaven" or "Teenage Sacrifice". It also makes that album stronger in retrospect, with both albums wild swings in sound and sequencing making much more sense as a double-disc concept album. Opener "Mistress of Death" again sounds like Meatloaf by way of Cradle of Filth and—in isolation—again feels like they’ve started the album with an (anti-)climax. Taken together, though, it and "Further than Forever" fit perfectly as outlandish overtures, and while neither are as strong as "I’d Do Anything for Love" from Bat out of Hell II (1993), they are both far, far (far!) better than anything from 2006's inadvisably nu-metal-drenched Bat out of Hell III (2006).
From there the band go on to deliver a rather tongue in-cheek (or rather pommel in pants) narrative gender-swapped(ish) take on Queen of the Damned. Much like, Taylor Swift imagined what if Romeo and Juliet got married and lived happily ever after on "Love Story", Sanguivore imagines what if Akasha simply joined The Vampire Lestat and they went on an unatural-born, rock’n’roll killing spree. Greenwood remains Creeper’s secret weapon and is used much more presently and frequently here, playing the lead role of the Weibermachtian queen of the dead within the album's female dominated descriptions and taking centre stage on "Razor Wire"—a sultry, "Fever”-ish jazz number in which Greenwood commands her followers to get "down on [their] knees to serve" while proclaiming "Decapitation is a lifestyle baby!". Gould meanwhile continues to channel a combination of gruff, largely mirrorshade-wearing goth icons like Glenn Danzig, the Sisters of Mercy's Andrew Eldritch, and the 69 Eyes' Jyrki 69, with a bit of Billy Idol mixed in, lest you're worried about them taking any of this too seriously. Elsewhere he delivers nods to the Eurythmics' by blathering on about how "some of them want to abuse you" atop the pulsating synth of "Daydreaming in the Dark"—a title so platonically goth that it's actually amazing that it appears to be a completely original concoction. The album is also bolstered by accentuated guitar heroics from newly blooded touring guitarist Lawrie Pattison, who brings a metallic edge to proceedings that i hope Creeper continue to lean further into on future outing.
Creeper are a band who could open for either Ghost or Lady Gaga, and that in itself is an enthralling achievement. There might still be a bit too much Meatloaf left on the bone for my vegetarian vampire tastes—but I've also always been more of a Louis than a Lestat. The also might not be particularly original bone in its resurrected body, but it is a winning combination. Sanguivore II doesn’t reach the heights and heavy metal extravagance of Jorn Lande and Trond Holter’s Dracula: Sing of Death (2015) or even Atreyu’s angstier Anne Rice interpretations on The Curse (2004) (—although it absolutely demolishes that album’s more recent and utterly atrocious reinterpretation), but it stands alongside the original Sanguivore as the epitome of Creeper's endeavours so far. I'm sure for many the albums will stay that way, eternally preserved in supernatural stasis. I still believe though, that with a little more refinement in focus and personality they could become much more than mere—if extremely acomplished—imitators.