Hellbound Billy Lucky 13 Nightmares: Part I Review
Hellbound Billy
Lucky 13 Nightmares: Part I
Self-Released
2025
I’m always on the prowl for music that gets under my skin and rattles my bones. In most genres, it’s not that hard, but in Psychobilly/Rockabilly/Horrorbilly? That’s like digging for treasure in a cursed graveyard. You can search from tomb to tomb and still come up empty. But at last, after years of prowling, I’ve struck gold - cursed, blood-slicked gold.
The discovery came by accident, as all the best hauntings do. I tuned into the Psychobilly Family Hour and within a track or two, I was ambushed by a sound that hit like headlights in a foggy graveyard. From Denver, Colorado, rose a beast called Hellbound Billy. Instantly, I thought holy hell, this is KILLER. I went digging for more like a ghoul clawing in the dirt. No CD to clutch, but a band generous enough to pass me their latest creation. And so, fiends, I present to you a fresh corpse of sound: “Lucky 13 Nightmares: Part 1”.
Hellbound Billy have returned from a 15-year coffin nap, and they’re not here to tiptoe back in. They’re here to break hearts, eat brains, and rev their engines until the sky splits. The EP (if you can even call it that) delivers nine tracks in 23 minutes - a blitzkrieg of grease, groove, and grave-dirt.
It all kicks off with “Hot Rod Hearse,” a cool-cat creeper that swings as much as it stings. Suave, crooning vocals glide where most Psychobilly singers growl, evoking a ghostly Sun Records session. But don’t mistake smooth for soft, the melody flows like blood from a stump, and the upright bass thumps like something locked in the trunk, desperate to get out.
“Zombie Hop” shifts gears, slapping you with upright bass thunder and a chorus that’ll have corpses hopping out of their graves to join the dance. “Drive-In Massacre” is pure B-movie glory: love, blood, and popcorn under the glow of a projector bulb. A little kitsch, a lot of swing, and totally irresistible.
For the speed freaks, “Haunted Highway” roars like a cursed engine. It moves at breakneck speed without losing melody, flashing surf-rock shadows of “Pipeline” but twisted into something dark and furious. Then there’s “Rockabilly Vampire,” equal parts fang and pompadour, an anthem for every sharp-dressed ghoul prowling moonlit alleys. And “Graveyard Shift”? That’s a straight-up earworm, its wicked chorus gnawing at your brain like a hungry ghoul until you’re howling it back yourself.
Every track drips with style, clean guitar tones echoing from some neon-lit dive, upright bass like a skeleton rattling its own bones, and vocals that manage to croon cool and howl horror all at once. It’s sleek, it’s sharp, but it’s also drenched in the campy gore that makes Psychobilly such a beautiful monster.
Don’t you dare skip “Satan’s Cadillac” either, it’s a joyride into hell with chrome trim and flames licking the sides. This whole EP isn’t just a taste; it’s a full-on haunted banquet.
Lucky 13 Nightmares: Part 1” isn’t just a record, it’s a haunted house attraction you can’t escape, a midnight monster marathon blasting through your speakers. For me, finding Hellbound Billy was like discovering a cursed jukebox in a graveyard diner, the moment I hit play, the dead started dancing. Currently, the band doesn’t have any physical copies, but they’re in the works. You can stream and purchase the EP in all the normal places, and I’ll attach a link where you can purchase downloads of everything the band has available.
So, crank it up, spread the infection, and let this EP loose on your friends, your neighbors, and your freshly exhumed acquaintances. Because Hellbound Billy’s Psychobilly resurrection isn’t just for the living - it’s for EVERYBODY: the ghouls, the goblins, the vampires, the hot-rod demons, and all of us twisted fiends who like our Rock ’N’ Roll with a little extra blood on it.
Hellbound Billy: they came back from the grave… and they brought the party with them!
https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/lucky-13-nightmares-part-i-hellbound-billy/v8iyiljjo20sa