Leave it to Mary Shelly Overdrive to celebrate Halloween with class. They just released two EPs titled Shock Theatre and Bride of Shock Theatre loaded with their customized shockabilly / hardcore metal nuances guaranteed to rock you and shock you.

Actually Shock Theatre is a re-release, having first surfaced a year ago. This version is slightly re-polished with the most obvious change being a revamped vocal duet from lead singer Mark Wood and bassist Wyckedevil Jones on Rob Zombie’s “House of a Thousand Corpses”. The Rob Zombie cover is my favorite song on the EP but the other five tracks also deliver the goods . The recordings starts with a sample of the notorious Blood Feast trailer then glues the tracks together with samples of other horror/gore films. A great party game would be to try to identify all the films represented on this EP. I think I got 100 percent right but I’ve been a hardcore horror film fan since my childhood when I would sneak out of the bedroom to watch the forbidden Creature Features while everyone else was sleeping.

Bride of Shock Theatre uses the same technique of audio samples to set the mood. The songs are equally hardcore and spooky, all being originals except for three covers of songs by Blue Oyster Cult, Bauhaus, and New Math. The covers are good but it is the originals that really bring this EP to life…or should I say undead? The highlight of the EP is the pulsing “Lament of Janos Slorzeny”. Both of these albums are required for any respectable Halloween party.

The two albums are available in 160kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, support the artists by purchasing their new self-titled full album…and thanks for featuring the blurb, guys!

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