THE HANGMEN: Debauchery In The Mortuary

Release year: 2022/2023
Label: Mortuary Records/Crazy Love Records

It’s been a long wait for friends of British psychobilly act The Hangmen: their previous album was released way back in 2007, after which there’s only been a compilation of rarities (Exhumed & Groomed, 2014). 15 years is such a long time, that many bands never last that long – let alone have a 15 year career before falling silent for 15 years… and then actually coming back from the dead.

Obviously, it can be understood if one approaches Debauchery In The Mortuary with some caution. It’s been a long wait, and two thirds of the line-up have changed, some positions several times. Catastrophes have been brewed from similar ingredients in the past.

Starting from the descriptive facts, psychobilly is still the name of the game. The long pause hasn’t brought about a paradigm shift: vicious, aggressive, punked-up and rather classic psychobilly is what you get. By and large, if the second wave is what makes your heart race, then Debauchery In The Mortuary is up your alley.

The old platitude says that good wine gets better with age. Personally, I think “good wine” is an oxymoron, but in the case of The Hangmen, there’s something to it. And “better” is of course a very subjective statement: I’m sure long-time fans will have their personal favourite albums which Debauchery In The Mortuary will not trump over. But that notwithstanding, it’s an album which combines a very classic style with a sound that’s matured in the right ways. Take for example vocalist/guitarist Loz Firewalker’s vicious vocals: you can hear this ain’t some snot-nosed kid behind the mic. And that in a good way.

The nice thing about Debauchery In The Mortuary is that it’s a varied album. There’s fast stuff, slow stuff, rockin’ stuff, punk-y stuff, catchy stuff, aggressive stuff… basically, a nice slice-through of the things second wave psychobilly consists of.

Take for example Sweet Suicide Tears; beneath it’s rough, punk-psychobilly sound is a track heavily indebted to old rock & roll. Necronomicon, on the other hand, is a heavy-handed mid-tempo romp of classic psychobilly. Evil Genius has a bit of garage punk a’la The Cramps in the mix, which works well with Firewalker’s violent snarl. And though the band never play at absolute breackneck speeds – speeds where it’s all about showing off how fast you can slap that bass instead of having a proper song – there are plenty of speedy romps here, starting with the steady plod of album opener Hell’s Vagina or the amped up turbo-rockabilly of Thermonuclear Whore.

What this all sums up to is a fine comeback album, if you choose to call it that. The sharp edges haven’t dulled, and the band has stayed the course stylistically. When combined with some genuinely good tracks, this makes for a satisfying album. Yeah, it doesn’t break much new ground, but perhaps this bunch of dogs shouldn’t be taught new tricks – not if the old tricks result in an album as solid as this.

I certainly didn’t see in the cards that a new The Hangmen album would climb up pretty damn high on my list of favourite rockin’ releases of the year – goes to show how unreliable the cards can be, eh?

Visit The Hangmen on their official website or Facebook