Genre: Punk rock
Origin: Finland
Released: 2009
Website: Scarecrow
Label: Deadclub Records, Devils Shitburner Records
Uploaded: 13.01.10

Man, Scarecrow keeps throwing things my way, and this is the fifth release of theirs I’ve received. They’ve gone from a fairly simple Misfits-esque band flirting with Discharge to a massive steamroller of rock, punk, hardcore and metal. They’ve matured and honed their sound, and with each release there’s been a change in their sound. When I received their latest installment, the Hangman promo, it contained four preview tracks that would eventually wind up on their next fullength. And here we have it; The terror.
The first time around I couldn’t understand what the hell I was thinking with Hangman, as my review stated a hint of NOFX. During the first couple of tracks here I came to the conclusion I must’ve been an idiot to hear such influences. It wasn’t until London after midnight came into play that I realized what I had noticed back then. This is by far the band’s most diverse material to date. Aggression-driven, metal-oozing hardcorepunk gets mixed with melodic, sing along-friendly punk rock, and they do it extremely well. The variation is extensive, but they wrap it all together in their own sound, so as to not become incoherent. It doesn’t matter what style they go for, it all reeks of horror, booze and attitude. During Zombies we get served some thrashing, groovy riffing and even clean vocals, which is definitely breaking out of Scarecrow’s ordinary mould. As for Mortification it brings with it a Motörhead vibe to the hardhitting hardcorepunk, both Go to hell! and Morgue wedding are heavy-hitters of fast-paced mangle, where as Hanging dead bodies has a Danzig, almost Type O Negative vibe to it. So there’s no question about the diversity of the material, but as I said they wrap it up nicely into a package of their own.
The otherwise hoarse, raspy vocals have tons of variation here, the aggressive, horrorpunk has tons of variation, the song structures are really varied and the directions the music takes are extensive. But the dark, spooky aesthetics remains the same, and it fits the musical concept perfectly. It’s just too bad there’s no booklet accompanying this killer-looking digipack, as the lyrics would’ve been a nice treat to have. But I guess I’ll have to settle for an energetic and catchy punk, metal and hardcore infusion.

Tracklist:
01. Go to hell!
02. Morgue wedding
03. London after midnight
04. Mortification
05. Blackest winter
06. Hanging dead bodies
07. I’m not ready to die
08. Zombies
09. Gasmask girl
10. Only death for human being
11. Death around the world
12. Deadend