Horror is a hunger. I watch it, play it, read it, and listen to it—anything that scratches that itch for the strange and the macabre. When horror is made from love rather than cheap shock, it reshapes how we see the world. Even on a shoestring budget, the right tone and detail can make a story linger like a ghost. From Nosferatu to Get Out and Halloween, the genre endures because it taps something primal.
Music, oddly, has rarely paid the same sustained tribute. There are brilliant horror scores, of course, but few albums that wear the genre proudly on their sleeve. The Ghoulstars change that.
From the first note of their debut album, it’s clear this is a band made by fans for fans. They’ve leaned into the ’80s aesthetic—right down to stylised stage names—because that decade was where horror and heavy music collided and thrived.
Markus “Daddy Ghoul” Laakso commands the guitar with theatrical menace. Toni “Ghoulio” Ronkainen drives the drums with cinematic gravity. Markus “Hella Ghoul” Makkonen anchors everything on bass, while Arthur “LL Ghoul A” Thure guides listeners through the album with a voice equal parts swagger and menace.
Together, they don’t just play horror—they summon it.
Too Ghoul For School
If you want to understand the band’s intent, start with the music video for this track. It nails the ’80s so precisely you could swear it was shot on VHS tape. The riffs are instantly catchy, while the visuals—filters, cuts, framing, and all—are lovingly retro.
That video acts as a manifesto: The Ghoulstars know their era, and they’re here to resurrect it.
Musically, the song lands like a lost single from the era of Mötley Crüe and White Zombie. The chorus hooks immediately and demands a physical reaction. You’ll find yourself standing, shouting, or both.
LL Ghoul A’s rapid-fire delivery slices through the mix with razor-sharp precision, while the arrangement constantly shifts between quiet nostalgia and explosive payoffs. It’s an irresistible opener—if this doesn’t hook you, you might not be Ghoul enough for what follows.
The Dead In Purgatory
This track opens like a spaghetti western filtered through a haunted house. Ghoulio’s drumming gives the song a slow, inescapable gravity, while a whistled motif drifts through the mix like a ghostly warning.
Spoken-word snippets feel lifted from an old horror reel—grainy, intimate, and half-remembered.
Lyrically, the song paints a hopeless landscape, but The Ghoulstars flip that despair into something strangely uplifting: the final stand of a doomed horror protagonist. Just when you think escape is possible, the track snaps shut with a cruel final twist worthy of a classic jump scare.
Zombie Apocalypse
A thunderous bass intro drops like a tombstone before the band unleashes a relentless wall of sound. The beat practically forces headbanging, turning the crowd into one collective undead horde moving to the same pulse.
The cinematic spoken passages return here, evoking the atmosphere of Night of the Living Dead. This is the kind of song that follows you home long after the album stops spinning.
It’s another perfect example of the love The Ghoulstars poured into this record—a tribute not just to zombie films, but to horror culture as a whole.
The Dark Overlords Of The Universe
The title track refuses to hold back. The riffs hit hard, the transitions swagger with confidence, and the chorus bites with punk intensity.
By the time the track reaches its peak, punk and metal blur together into something impossible to categorise cleanly. Each member gets a moment to shine through quick bursts of solos and fills that reveal personality without ever derailing the momentum.
Most importantly, you can hear how much fun the band is having. That balance between joy and menace becomes the album’s secret weapon.
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
The opening spoken exchange immediately sets the tone like a title card from an old horror flick. There’s a gleeful, grotesque energy here reminiscent of Re-Animator.
Once the chorus crashes in, the track becomes a full-blown anthem. Backup vocals chant the title while the band structures the song like chapters in a pulpy horror novel.
Spoken interludes break the verses into scenes, constantly rebuilding tension before the next eruption. Beneath it all sits a feeling of controlled chaos—a pressure threatening to burst through the skin of the song itself.
Graverobbers From Outer Space
This track is pure love for Plan 9 from Outer Space.
The Ghoulstars pay tribute with both reverence and humour, blending sampled dialogue with pounding riffs and rhythmic chants to create a chaotic cinematic collage. The repeated title becomes less of a lyric and more of a ritualistic incantation.
By the finale, everything explodes into one last glorious horror showdown.
The Wolfman
A grounded, animalistic rhythm opens the track before LL Ghoul A launches into a performance that feels more like a transformation than a vocal take.
This isn’t guttural excess—it’s controlled predatory intensity.
The song grows increasingly wild as it progresses, like a creature slowly losing the last remnants of restraint. Heavier and more metallic than much of the album, “The Wolfman” embraces its monstrous identity completely.
The Ballard Of The Cursed Bandits
Distorted noise bleeds into the speakers before the band crashes in like a runaway train. This is one of the album’s fastest and heaviest tracks, refusing to let up for even a second.
LL Ghoul A showcases enormous vocal range here, shifting between shrieks, whispers, and theatrical snarls with ease. Ghostly backup vocals linger in the background like echoes from beyond the grave.
Short, sharp, and addictive, it ends before it overstays its welcome.
Vampire
A single drumbeat ignites the atmosphere before a smooth riff begins creeping forward through the darkness.
Everything about this song feels haunted. Persistent notes linger like a pulse in the dark, while subtle distortion in the vocals makes LL Ghoul A sound recognisably human yet impossibly ancient at the same time.
As the track closes, the distortion remains humming in your ears, capped off by a wonderfully grotesque little “blegh” that ensures the discomfort lingers.
They Dance Upon Our Graves
The final track arrives slow and methodical before erupting into a familiar ’80s-inspired riff that instantly pulls you to your feet.
There’s a simplicity to this closer that makes it perfect. After all the theatrics and chaos, the album ends on something direct, catchy, and deeply nostalgic.
It feels like a final celebration before the curtain falls—a last dance on the grave before dawn arrives.
Conclusion
This is a band driven by love, care, and genuine passion for horror culture. Every detail—from the wardrobe and stage names to the riffs and cinematic interludes—acts as a tribute to ’80s B-grade horror and the metal scene that grew alongside it.
The Ghoulstars hide easter eggs throughout both their music videos and songs, rewarding repeat listens and obsessive fans alike. Most importantly, they sound like they’re having an absolute blast making this music, and that energy becomes infectious.
Production work from Victor Bullok of Triptykon and Dark Fortress elevates the record without stripping away its campy horror heart.
The result is an album that feels exciting, theatrical, fun, and genuinely eerie all at once.
As a debut, The Dark Overlords Of The Universe leaves a massive impression, and if there’s ever a chance to witness The Ghoulstars live, you can guarantee I’ll be in the pit.
There’s far more to come from this band, and I genuinely cannot wait.
Now come everyone—let’s go howl at the moon.
Rating: 8/10
