Finnish band BOUNDSLUG appears to be a fairly recent addition to the Finnish rock scene. They are sparse with information about themselves, but it appears that the band appeared in 2016, and that they released their debut album the same year. “Circus in Town” is their second studio production, and was digitally released by the band in the fall of 2017.
Boundslug describes themselves as psychobilly and horror punk, and for me at least the former appears to be more appropriate than the latter. Those familiar with The Cramps will hear some subtle nods in that direction, but perhaps more in terms of approach and atmosphere than in terms of the actual music.
The rockabilly tendencies are very much present, especially due to the bass: The band tends to favor an acoustic, old school bass from what I can hear. The rhythm guitar tends to be gnarly, dirty and grimy, while the guitar solo details and solo runs are either clean, flowing in a very vintage manner or twisted with psychedelic effects to create eerie atmospheres. The guitar aspect of this album did bring a band like D.A.D to mind at times, and in terms of a more generic style description Boundslug comes across as a hard rock band to me. A couple of songs have some additional keyboard textures applied too, possibly Mellotron, to add that ghostly atmosphere that kind of comes with the territory of anyone that wants to dabble in things associated with horror.
The make or break for this band are the vocals though. He isn’t the best of singers when actual, regular singing is called upon, and his accented delivery elsewhere is very much of the love it or leave it kind of voice. For my sake I found the vocals to not be able to elevate the total experience, and in some cases – just about all the calmer songs – to have a detrimental effect.
While I do find the greater majority of the songs here to be worthwhile, there’s nothing here that I really desire to rave about. This is an album I mark down as mainly for genre enthusiasts due to that, and I’d suggest that those who know and love music that pairs of rockabilly with hard rock are the ones that should investigate this album further.
My rating: 55/100
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Track list:
Circus in Town // Call From the Pit // Wall of Lust // Witch // Hounds // You Belong to Me // Raise Your // Halloween // Puppets // Hold On // 1953
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