For their third full studio album, ‘Sanguivore’, UK five-piece Creeper made a blood pact to give full rein to those things that truly define them; to take a flaming torch to the more dimly lit recesses of frontman Will Gould’s ever-fertile mind.

Result: 40-plus minutes of music combining the grandiose and the epic with the punk rock spirit that has been a cornerstone of the Creeper sound since their 2017 debut: a ripped leather jacket wrapped in a plush velvet cloak – a cloak lined in red satin, of course.

Drawing inspiration from folklore and myth, the more shadowy side of popular culture, Creeper have staked out a space that is their own; a misty world of gothic imagery and dark romance, of crypts and castle ruins, the unrequited and the undead – a world where love comes at a price and beauty smiles with sharpened teeth.

From opening statement ‘Further Than Forever’, a nine-minute, multi-layered tour-de-force sure to put a smile on the face of the late Jim Steinman, through to closer ‘Spook And Mercy’, a late-night tale of ‘little Mercy’ and her ravenous exploits, ‘Sanguivore’ is a hugely ambitious, loosely conceptual journey through the glorious and the graphic.