Fiends Of Dope Island [LP]

The Cramps - Fiends Of Dope Island [LP]

The architects of a wicked toxibilly sound, The Cramps boast a cultural impact that spawned a legion of devil cults and left in its wake a cavalcade of cave-stomping imitators. On their final studio album, the self-produced Fiends of Dope Island, these charm-school rejects apply their sinister handiwork to a volatile combination of incantational rock ’n’ roll hexes like “Big Black Witchcraft Rock” and “Papa Satan Sang Louie” and put their hoodlum warp on exotica standard “Taboo” before swerving and careening through the crypt-kickin’ blues rave-ups “Dopefiend Boogie” and “Wrong Way Ticket,” finishing with the musical equivalent of a 13-car pile-up.