Recorded during the sessions for 2020's
Sex, Death & the Infinite Void,
American Noir sees
Creeper continue to probe both the darkest and most Broadway-ready regions of the goth-punk cinematic universe. Commencing with "Midnite Militia," one of three interstitial pieces that serve as callbacks to its predecessor, the eight-song EP is flush with vampiric sexual energy and dystopian fantasy.
Creeper's protagonists are always on the cusp of either physical or existential death and looking to screw the pain away, which they do with Shakespearean gusto on the lusty "Midnight" and the lighter-melting "One of Us" and "Damned and Doomed." Billed as an epilogue to the fallen angel story told on
Sex, Death & the Infinite Void, the EP's biggest deviation is the prominence of vocalist/keyboardist
Hannah Greenwood (Annabelle), who confidently carries most of the record with frontman Will Gould (the angel Roe) mostly riding shotgun. While the band's metal/horror-punk beginnings still appear in flashes -- the raucous "Ghost Over Calvary" bears the hallmarks of a
Ghost production,
Creeper has evolved into a wrecking crew of doomy opulence that suggests
Bowie and
T. Rex by way of Dog Man Star-era
Suede. At times,
American Noir sounds like the product of an undead
E Street Band, like a strong line of thunderstorms suddenly appearing above "highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive." ~ James Christopher Monger