Horror and music have operated in tandem for decades; consider the mix of punk and Halloween that both Ozzy and the Misfits did so well.
One band that is making sure scary rock doesn’t die is Twentynine Palms’ own SPELLGRINDER. Mixing melodic metal and terrifying thrash, with foreboding yet poppy lead vocals sharing spooky tales, SPELLGRINDER evokes the sound of hair-metal greats, yet the horror theme pushes their sound into a territory that is more hair-standing-on-end metal.
The band recently released their sophomore LP Planet of the Vampires, eight tracks featuring moments of arena rock, ferocious riffs and homages to cheesy horror movies. The music video for the song “Planet of the Vampires” even includes scenes from a ’60s movie called … Planet of the Vampires.
During a recent interview with frontman Spooky Von Amduat, he explained how the band came to be.
“I have been playing music forever, but nothing that was like SPELLGRINDER, with different kinds of rock ’n’ roll and American roots music and the heavy stuff,” Amduat said. “I grew up a punk rocker, but I had never had anything that was consistently as stylized and exciting and weird. SPELLGRINDER is kind of a weird band. We don’t sing about our feelings or political issues; it’s a horror-themed band. In 2020, I had been conceptualizing having a band that had that razor-sharp, kind of Pantera edge, but with that bluesy, kind of sexy Danzig feel, with all of the horror themes and other influences creeping in.”
For Amduat, it was a matter of combining interests into a passion project.
“When I’m not doing music, I am completely obsessed with horror movies and writing little short stories and making little short horror movies with my friends,” Amduat said. “There’s this creative well there, and if you want to talk about something topical, horror is great for allegory, but it’s just a lot of fun writing these little stories and having that be a theme of a band. People really would see Misfits or Alice Cooper (in SPELLGRINDER), like horror-leaning bands, but I didn’t think we sounded like them. I thought we were sounding like Danzig and Pantera, but I was wrong. You’re not always the most accurate about what you’re doing; other people know better.”
The love of all things gothic carries into the band’s aesthetic, from the jet-black hair to the leather jackets.
“Everything that SPELLGRINDER does, I think, is really cool, and it is all designed to entertain me,” Amduat said. “When I was conceptualizing the band, it wasn’t just a sound; it was an image. I’ve always loved rock ’n’ roll, and there’s a look to it there. When I first saw the Ramones, I was like, ‘Whoa,’ and when I first saw Rancid, I was like, ‘Whoa.’ It’s a powerful thing when the Beatles are all wearing their suits or other looks; it’s a look of unity. It’s a culture, and it always made me just think, ‘Wow, that’s very cool.’
“When I was in high school, and I saw bands like Pantera, I thought that was just ugly. I didn’t like seeing a bunch of big ol’ dudes in shorts looking angry; that wasn’t cool to me. I liked more glamorous, more dangerous, sexy shit. … I wanted the band to look and be presented like a band that would have just killed me when I was in high school.”
Being all about the image can have some downsides, though.
“You have to be a gatekeeper,” Amduat said. “Sometimes I lose a drummer. There are a lot of good drummers, but they’re in a lot of good bands, and you’ve got to share them, and bands are hard. They’re unnatural. When I lose a drummer, let’s say the next guy is shit-hot, but he’s a guy who is not going to be helping me sell records. … It looks weird when I’m around people that are not like me onstage, but you put me around guys like me, it’s fucking awesome. I’m trying to stack the deck and put myself and my product in the best light. SPELLGRINDER, we keep that image clean; we keep it tight; and it helps us sell a lot of albums and T-shirts. My current drummer, the guy I’m training up right now, his name is Aldo, and he’s, like, 60 years old, but he’s a beautiful 60-year-old. He’s got flowing locks and wears very stylized rock ’n’ roll clothing, and every time he’s come to my house for band practice, he’s never driven the same car twice. That’s a flex.”
Another unique aspect of SPELLGRINDER: Their live shows are rounded out with … a go-go dancer.
“That’s a move right there,” Amduat said. “There are a lot of bands out here that sound great, but they don’t necessarily look great. We’re a bunch of rowdy rock ’n’ roll dudes, and what really helps the medicine go down is my lovely wife, who is the go-go dancer. We saw Mötley Crüe, and they had dancers onstage, and she’s like, ‘Oh, shit, that’s a good move right there. We’re doing that.’”
SPELLGRINDER used Planet of the Vampires to indulge into more glam and arena-rock stylings, a place of comfort for Amduat.
“The first record, I think, is a full statement, and it does show a lot of range in that statement,” Amduat said. “This new album is a different statement. It is all meant as one piece. It’s written in a different zone than the first album, really from a basic kind of goal. I really wanted it to be like Ozzy Osbourne’s The Ultimate Sin, or Mötley Crüe’s Shout at the Devil era. With the first album, I had these influences like Anthrax and Judas Priest and Megadeth and these gnarly things, and people were responding like, ‘You sound like W.A.S.P. and Alice Cooper and Ratt,’ so I started leaning into glam and metal and also more into my punk roots. … With this one, I’m putting it way further in my comfort zone, as far as the gear, the arrangements and the song structures—and the songs are easier to perform. They have more breath in them, so more performance can happen. I can step away from the microphone at times. I think the second album makes me like this band even more … and it’s building up to what the third album is going to be, which is some dirty, spooky rock ’n’ roll with our upcoming concept album. Planet of the Vampires is a tight album; it’s eight songs; it’s just as focused as the first, but it’s a progression in the statement of the band.”
Although each song is a different horror story, Amduat said listening to the lyrics comes second to rocking out to the sounds of SPELLGRINDER.
“The themes of the song are the least-important thing when you’re experiencing our band live,” Amduat said. “If you can’t understand the lyrics, the songs are exciting; the band is exciting; we’ve got big hooks; we perform well. We’ve got a go-go dancer on stage, and we’re just shit-tight. … You don’t have to overthink it. You don’t have to worry about some idiot jumping or fly-kicking you, and you’re probably going to see some titties. SPELLGRINDER is a party band; it’s not a hardcore, sweating-in-a-parking lot band. It’s a little more sleazy.”
For more information, visit www.instagram.com/spellgrinder or cryptofspellgrinder.com.
