Having got their black summer underway with the slithering gothic sleaze of their recent single ‘Cry To Heaven’ and a triumphant surprise headline set at Download Festival, CREEPER today unveil the new single ‘Teenage Sacrifice’. It’s the second song to preview their vampiric new album ‘Sanguivore’ which will be released on October, Friday the 13th and represents the follow-up to their Top 5 album ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’.

Echoing the crunching stadium-scale ‘80s metal of Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest, ‘Teenage Sacrifice’ commences with a spiralling riff from Ian Miles which wraps itself like barbed wire around William Von Ghould’s anthemic hook.

William Von Ghould says, “The song introduces Mercy, the protagonist of the ‘Sanguivore’ narrative. She’s deceptively innocent yet savagely violent, and her ability to make people fall under her spell is just one indication that Mercy is not all that she seems.”

‘Teenage Sacrifice’ is also a song in which a typically intricate CREEPER narrative is given a whiplash of devilishly dark humour courtesy of Von Ghould’s opening lyrics: “All my friends are digging graves and I’m giving them the shovels / I’m burning churches to the ground and making love in the rubble.” As with the rest of the ‘Sanguivore’ album, ‘Teenage Sacrifice’ is the product of CREEPER’s creative union with producer Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Royal Blood, The Cult).

The accompanying music video, directed by Billy Howard Price and Jacek Zmarz, is both an unsettling and terrifying glance into Mercy’s world. She may just have been around a little longer than her teenage looks might suggest… It’s a visual which, like the band’s music, darts between eras with some of the sinister surreal touches of an A24 folk-horror and a little Hammer Horror-style flamboyance.

Taking a darker turn from ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’, ‘Sanguivore’ is a thrillingly theatrical new story that the band’s ever-growing army of devotees will devour themselves within. Riffing upon fearsome throwback vampire flicks such as ‘Near Dark’, ‘The Lost Boys’ and ‘Interview With The Vampire’, its narrative focuses upon Mercy and her relationship with Spook, an older man who falls under her control but doesn’t quite lose sight of their previous humanity. Somehow the music is wilder than the narrative, taking in sonic touchstones including Jim Steinman, Sisters of Mercy, Billy Idol, Nick Cave, pagan-folk, late ‘70s punk and gloomy industrial synth textures. It’s all larger-than-life, darker-than-death, and the best album CREEPER have ever recorded.

‘Sanguivore’ is available to pre-order HERE. While all test pressings quickly sold out, four vinyl editions are available each of which is packaged with a signed art print.

CREEPER’s most recent UK headline show came at London’s Roundhouse, where William Von Ghould stepped out to thank the sold-out audience when a mysterious figure leapt from the shadows and decapitated him in front of 3300 people. They will follow the release of ‘Sanguivore’ by embarking upon the following ‘Sacred Blasphemy’ tour dates. 

NOVEMBER
5th – Bristol, O2 Academy
6th – Glasgow, Clyde Room
8th – Nottingham, Rock City
9th – Manchester, Academy
10th – London, 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire

A new chapter in the thrillingly theatrical story of CREEPER gets underway today as the acclaimed UK band shares the brand new single and video “Cry To Heaven” and announce the Friday, October 13 release of their third album Sanguivore.

Watch the video here.

CREEPER’s previous albums — Eternity, In Your Arms and Sex, Death & the Infinite Void — have seen the band enamour an army of devotees, a highly committed following that propelled their second album to a Top 5 chart position.

Vocalist William Von Ghould says, “Keeping in line with the band’s ethos of aggressive musical progression, the song is once again an ambitious departure from previous works. ‘Cry To Heaven’ turns the key and unlocks a door to a new world of decadent excess. The introduction to a new tragic story of love, loss, and vampires. This is Creeper at their most outrageous, harking back to a time where Jim Steinman ruled the airwaves in leather gloves and Aviators.”

Opening with the rousing harmonies of the devil’s own choir, “Cry To Heaven” immediately establishes another fresh evolution of CREEPER’s style. It’s a luscious, maximalist wall of sound in which swaggering hard rock at its most anthemic is amplified by punchy, high-drama synths, topped by the band’s signature vocal interplay between William Von Ghould’s sinister croon and Hannah Greenwood’s majestic range.

It’s a track which sees CREEPER extending and updating the lineage of the darkwave hedonism of The Sisters of Mercy with the crunching guitars and wounded roar of Danzig. Those two bands are also reference points for the accompanying video, which sees Von Ghould channeling classic Andrew Eldritch vibes within a visual that feels like an S&M twist on The Lost Boys.

The song’s lyrics also tease the narrative that will unfold within the Sanguivore narrative. Its references to blood lust, sex, cannibalism, and a human disguise hint at a new story of ill-fated love and corrosive lust — themes which burn throughout CREEPER’s previous album concepts.

For the uninitiated, a sanguivore is an entity that needs to feast upon blood to survive.

“Cry To Heaven” is the latest result of CREEPER’s collaboration with the twisted mind of producer Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Royal Blood, The Cult, Killing Joke).

Sanguivore is now available to pre-order or pre-save HERE.

In addition to its digital release, the album will be available on physical formats which include limited edition vinyl formats and CD.

The news comes as CREEPER are set to play the Heavy Music Awards at the OVO Wembley Arena tonight, where they’re nominated for Best UK Artist, Best UK Live Artist and Best Single for “Ghost Brigade.” Their previous accolades include landmark awards from Kerrang!, Metal Hammer and Rock Sound.

Completing the CREEPER line-up are founder members Ian Miles (guitar) and Sean Scott (bass) along with drummer Jake Fogarty.

SANGUIVORE TRACKLIST:
“Further Than Forever”
“Cry To Heaven”
“Sacred Blasphemy”
“The Ballad Of Spook & Mercy”
“Lovers Led Astray”
“Teenage Sacrifice”
“Chapel Gates”
“The Abyss”
“Black Heaven”
“More Than Death”