Black Cross Hotel, the horror punk/industrial metal unit featuring members of Stabbing Westward, The Atlas Moth, Minsk, Broken Hope, Whipped, and more, has unveiled their new video for “Windows”. The track comes by way of the band’s recently released debut full-length, Hex.
“The song is a gloomy but punishing gothic rock dirge, reminiscent of Killing Joke at their most ominous with shades of early Cure and ’90s-era industrial rock,” writes Treble. “The clip itself is in black and white, featuring ominous imagery and a whole lot of ooze.”
Adds the band, "‘Windows’ was inspired by The Thing — both the film and the soundtrack. The sound combines Carpenter atmosphere and moods with melodic elements inspired by Ennio Morricone. The story is about attempting to blend in with your surroundings for the purposes of self-preservation and maintaining group cohesion and ultimately failing at both goals. The lesson is that denying one’s true nature ultimately hurts everyone. We feel Jakub (Chariot Of Black Moth) perfectly captured the mood and vibe in this video.”
Purchase Hex on Bandcamp.
“What if Mick Mars and John Carpenter joined Killing Joke?”
That was the question that synth player Andrew Ragin (The Atlas Moth) and guitarist Marcus Eliopulos (Stabbing Westward) posed to each other during the darkest depths of the plague. The answer turned out to be Black Cross Hotel. “Marcus and I are brothers-in-law,” Ragin explains. “I’m married to his sister, and we’ve been friends forever. He’s filled in for me with The Atlas Moth from time to time. We’ve been talking about jamming together for damn near twenty years, but the pandemic provided the opportunity.”
With a lineup completed by producer/bassist Sanford Parker (Corrections House, Minsk), vocalist Dee DeEmme (Whipped), and drummer Mike Miczek (Broken Hope, The Atlas Moth), Black Cross Hotel is a punk/industrial metal band forged in the crucible of the finest ‘80s culture. “Killing Joke is definitely our spirit animal band, but John Carpenter’s movies and music, and other classic horror movies, are where we found our inspiration,” Ragin explains. “A lot of the stuff on this first record is inspired by specific ’80s horror movies.”
Recorded primarily at Parker’s own Hypercube Studio in Chicago, Black Cross Hotel’s Hex is steeped in ‘80s fright flicks and their synth-driven soundtracks. Opener “The Shape” references Halloween homicide machine Michael Myers. “Windows” is the name of Thomas G. Waites’ radio operator in John Carpenter’s The Thing. The title track was inspired by the classic 1985 Bava/Argento production Demons and “Siren” conjures the teenage mental ward from Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
Rather than merely pay homage or recite storylines like so many horror-inspired bands of yore, DeEmme examines these films — and the notion of otherness contained within — from their own non-binary perspective. “It’s part of what makes the band’s deep connection to horror unique,” Ragin offers. Elsewhere, Black Cross Hotel takes inspiration from the famous slow-motion chase scene in Halloween II (“Fugitive”) and Jamie Lee Curtis’ character in The Fog (“Hitchhiker”) while nodding to original horror-punk geniuses the Misfits with a deadly cover of “We Are 138” featuring Randy Blythe from Lamb Of God.
Black Cross Hotel live:
December
17 – Chicago, IL – Sleeping Village (with Ready For Death, Immortal Bird)
(Photo – Derick Smith)
