Photo by Lydia Kuzak
The vampire sub-sect of rock and roll is often a deep, dark crypt full of pancake-make-up’d men afraid of growing old. Take for example all the subtlety and grace of The Hollywood Vampires. Barf.
The proper debut of Detroit’s Zilched is the antithesis of all that pageantry and pomp. “Blue Doom” has all the fixings of the ongoing 90s revival, while also adding a healthy smattering of 80s undead goth rock.
Lead singer Chloe Drallos deftly channels — both sonically and visually (via the aid of director Lydia Kuzak)—the suburban-angst-meets-vampire-rebellion that had its glorious heyday in the late-80s/early-90s films such as Near Dark, The Lost Boys, and Fright Night. Gone is the bubbly alt-pep of Buffy and the overwrought sparkly emo of Twilight. Instead, we slake our thirst on this woozy, melancholy road trip with its dark, bouncing, Concrete Blonde-invoking groove.
A new wave of vampiric rock and youthful angst might just be the perfect soundtrack to quell our deep-rooted apathy and reanimate our desires into the shrouded dusk of tomorrow. And Detroit, as it stands straddling both the decay of its infrastructure and a high-speed tech gentrification—while recently starring in horror-hybrid future cult classics It Follows and Only Lovers Left Alive — might just prove the perfect breeding ground for a fresh class of lo-fi goth cantors.
You can keep up with Zilched on Facebook, Bandcamp, and Instagram.