My introduction to Ghoul was in 2001 when Razorback Records head surgeon Billy Nocera excitedly sent along a copy of the group’s demo tape for me to check out, praising them as "The best band I’ve signed to date!" Upon listening to the demo, which I should probably hock on eBay to mindless morons willing to spend upwards of $100 on material they can get just as easily for free off the internet, I couldn’t help but wonder what the fuss was all about.

"Billy," I said to him "Is this Impaled?" Billy was quite upset about me asking such a question "No. It is NOT Impaled, this is Ghoul!" he replied. I was puzzled still, so I asked him again "Are you sure? I mean, this does sound an awful lot like Impaled. The vocals are the same. The riffing style is the same. Hell, the picture you sent of the band has a member whose knuckles are just as primate-like and hairy as Raul’s."

At this point, Billy was fuming. Considering this conversation was going on by e-mail, I can only imagine that he was probably punching his monitor and yelling at Jill to hurry up and make his damn dinner because he is the man of the house and should be served the moment he walks in the door after a hard day of… whatever it is he does. He responded to me shortly, with an abrupt "It’s Ghoul. No member of Impaled is involved in this." Then he sent me Ghoul’s debut full length, We Came For The Dead, and again, I asked him "Alright, seriously, dude. This is Impaled… and it sound like they smoked a lot of weed and are having giggle fits, because this isn’t gory. This is silly. In fact, it’s happy. It’s happy grind, Mr. Nocera. Happy grind, indeed!"

That simple comment started a three year blood feud between me and Razorback Records. I insulted Ghoul, he killed my dog. I called The County Medical Examiners a stupid Exhumed-side project, he killed my family. I cried at their wake, he mailed me a Devourment CD he smashed with a hammer along with a beheaded Tickle Me Elmo. It was a magical time in both of our lives.

All lies aside, after hearing the Ghoul demo and debut full length, I was less than impressed with the band’s happy upbeat style and general lack of… well… ghoulishness. Why I decided to pick up Maniaxe knowing full well I didn’t really like their debut I can’t really explain either, but I did. I’m actually pretty glad that I did. Maniaxe still has the typical Carcass-influenced segments, but unlike We Came For The Dead, this release has a much stronger thrash vibe and has a decidedly more ghoulish and maniacal approach. Songs like "Maggot Hatchery" and "Sewer Chewer" will leave you running around the neighbourhood, axe in hand, smashing poseurs and cutting down shrubbery. The humour that was at the forefront of their debut is perfectly displayed on the track "Ghoul Hunter", a mostly spoken-word track with goofily poetic lyrics so ridiculous that the only way it could be any sillier would be if it was done in a Vincent Price voice.

The music on Maniaxe isn’t as openly moshy as their debut, with more emphasis put on being thrashy and violent than goofy and happy. Perhaps their burlap sacks were soft and gentle on the recording of the first album, but over the span of 2 years those sacks became rough and itchy, driving them all insane. Whatever the case, Maniaxe is 10 tracks of warped and inhuman thrashy-death-gore with west coast splattergrind vocals and a few goofy tracks to remind everyone that just because they’re evil doesn’t mean they can’t have fun. While I’m not super fond of the goofier stuff, it does help set the overall mood and tone of the album, and the meat of the album more than makes up for the cheese.

Maybe my musical tastes are changing as I get older, or maybe Maniaxe really is a lot better than We Came For The Dead or maybe I shouldn’t try to review CDs after spending my afternoon smoking the reefer and… whoa… dude… my hands… they’re huge! You know what they say about guys with big hands, right? I need to go make a sandwich…

One final word; don’t confuse this Creepsylvania outfit with the "true" Ghoul from Maryland. It’s like comparing The Ghost Busters animated series from the 70s with the Gorilla, and The Real Ghostbusters animated series in the 80s with Slimer. Sure, one may be original, but when’s the last time you saw a gorilla spew green goo? Creepsylvania Ghoul even have Billy Nocera on their side, who’s a lot like Arsenio Hall, who did the voice for Winston Zeddemore on the first 2 seasons of The Real Ghostbusters, only Billy doesn’t have the shame of having Martial Law on his resume, though he did release The County Medical Examiners full length.

Written By: Teufel