Finnish punx Scarecrow cook up an unholy racket on their sixth album Splatterpunk; According to Vocalist Jack13 it’s a concept album, but I wouldn’t let that concern you overmuch if it’s just high speed singalong thrills you’re after rather than having to concentrate on what’s going on, plot-wise.

The band themselves refer to their music as horror punk, and their are a few Misfits touches thrown in along the way, especially in the back up vocal department on the excellent ZMB1, or on third track Witchfuck, which features some spooky ‘woo-wooing’ and scary disembodied voices, but at their peak they purvey a metallised crossover/street punk mashup that is actually likely to have a far broader appeal than the gothic fringe that might be attracted by the ‘horror punk’ tag.

Standout track Skull of Antichrist is pure old school crossover, powered by Jack’s most convincing performance behind the mic, some inhuman chugging from guitarist Ruho and bloody great drumming from Lima; it packs more excitement into two and a quarter minutes than a lot of bands can muster for a whole album, and that quality is upheld by the next track Don’t Worry Just Die, which is perhaps the best example of what the band are striving for sonically overall. The Blood meets Samhain for a lit-up Slayer listening session? That’s a party I’d like an invite for…

At sixteen tracks and thirty three minutes in duration, these guys motor along at full throttle with little time for rest or reflection- but they keep excitement levels high and there’s not one moment where you’ll find yourself looking at your watch, or considering flipping forward to the next track. This is high quality, highly addictive stuff, and I can’t recommend it highly enough to you if you love a bit of beer-fuelled metallipunk in your life every now and then.

Splatterpunk releases on August 6th.