VHS are the perfect band for Halloween listening. Their entire aesthetic is an homage to the best in horror movies, ranging from scream queens and slashers to the supernatural to vampires, which leads us to today’s premiere. The Canadian deathgrind ‘n’ roll trio are slated to release fifth album I Heard They Suck… Blood on December 3, but you don’t have to wait that long to hear the album’s fifth track, “Horror of Dracula,” featuring The Black Dahlia Murder vocalist Trevor Strnad.
Fans of Exhumed, Impetigo, Carcass, Mortician and fake blood will go nuts for “Horror of Dracula,” which hits all the pleasure spots in the brain: ominous riffs, fast-paced mosh parts, guttural grooves and a Simpsons sample. Strnad’s vocals add another layer of depth, in addition to a familiar voice.
“When the vampire idea came up we knew we needed to go back to the time of Hammer Horror,” guitarist/vocalist Mike Hochins tells Decibel. “There will always be a debate regarding who played the best Count Dracula. But for me it will always be Christopher Lee. There’s just something sinister about him and he got to explore the role more than any other actor. So when it came time to decide which Hammer movie to write about, we went with the first movie of the series, Horror of Dracula. The song itself is a bit more epic than the rest of the album and has a nice mid-tempo stomp to it. This may also be the first time you have heard a sample from The Simpsons on a VHS album. It was just too good not to throw it at the beginning of one of the songs.”
Listen to “Horror of Dracula” below and score physical copies through the Wise Blood Bandcamp.