Rise From Your Grave Choose Your Scare Review
Rise From Your Grave
Choose Your Scare
Self-Released
2026
Release the Bats! Pittsburgh’s Undead sons, Rise From Your Grave, have awakened from their slumber and, in compliance with Prince Lucifer, they’ve put together their first album of new material since 2024’s “Tales Of Terror”. This new album is entitled “Choose Your Scare” and will be unleashed September 18th of this year.
“Choose Your Scare” is the feast we’ve been looking for from these boils. Sure, the band has been digging graves and reanimating corpses for several years now, but with this new effort, Rise From Your Grave really seems to have found their footing in the Horrorpunk genre. Until this release, the band relied heavily on Thrash influences to unearth their music. That isn’t the case with “Choose Your Scare”. This is a Stay Sick/Turn Blue-era Horrorpunk record that reminds me of the early days of the genre’s resurgence, back when every basement, cemetery and shitty little club seemed to have another batch of dead kids crawling out of it.
Yes, there are remnants of Blitzkid, Mister Monster and Misfits vibes, but there are also traces of the Punk Mania of bands like AFI and The Jackalopes. I’m sure none of that was intentional, and honestly, it’s perfectly fine if it was. The resurgence of the genre in the early 2000s is one of the reasons we’re all still haunting cemeteries looking for fresh ghouls to dig up. In other words, the Pop sensibilities, the boo-wops and the woahs are all present, and I’m not mad about it. I’m fucking overjoyed.
This is the kind of Horrorpunk that understands the assignment. It’s catchy enough that you’ll find yourself singing along before you realize you’ve been possessed, but there’s still enough teeth in the music to keep it from becoming some watered-down Halloween novelty record. And that’s important to me. Anybody can throw on some fake blood, draw a skull on their face and start yelling “woah!” but that doesn’t mean you’ve earned your cemetery plot.
A few months ago, we got the chance to listen to and write a blurb on the tune “Stay Awake”, so we were already prepared for a coffin full of sweet ditties, and RFYG delivered tenfold.
The opening track, “Rise” is exactly that… It’s a welcoming into the madness. If I’m not mistaken, the guitarist handles the bulk of the lead vocals here. Next up, the tune “Nevermore”, is a deliciously sweet romp through the graveyard that sets the tone immediately. You know without a doubt you’re in for a scream. The melodic chorus and Pop tendencies don’t dull the edge of the axe much; instead, they make the blade easier to swing, leading us directly into “Stay Awake”, which we’ve already discussed in another article. But allow me to say this while we’re on the subject: the song works much better in an album setting. The placement is perfect and it really establishes the mood for what’s coming next.
1, 2, Freddy’s coming for you…
From there, we run face-first into “Blood (That’s All I Want)”. This is an ode to being bitten, turned into a bloodsucker and discovering that once you’ve had a taste, apparently one neck just isn’t enough. This track is a rager. In time, I could absolutely see this becoming one of those encore numbers at a Rise From Your Grave show. It flat-out runs you over in the best possible way, and I can already picture a room full of sweaty Horror kids screaming the chorus back at the band.
“Live Again” is a tune that could be viewed or thought of as an ode to “Bride Of Frankenstein”, but lyrically it falls more in line with “Bride Of Re-Animator”. This is one of my favorite tracks on the album, then again, there’s probably nothing I wouldn’t do to make my bride live again. Some of us have priorities.
The track also appears on a compilation, so it’s been floating around for a while, but hearing it here, surrounded by the rest of these songs, makes it feel like it belongs exactly where it is. It’s another example of the band knowing when to let the melody carry the tune without losing the darker side of what they’re doing.
“Like Mother Said” feels very much like a tribute to the movie “Psycho”. I’ve spent a great deal of time with this track since it was the second single from the album, so I’ve had plenty of time to study it, chew on it and appreciate all the little twists and turns it provides. It’s a brilliant tune packed with great riffs, and the lead break is fucking killer. There’s enough going on here to keep me coming back without the song ever feeling like it’s trying too hard to prove something.
And that’s probably what I appreciate most about “Choose Your Scare”. The band isn’t trying to reinvent Horrorpunk. They’re doing something far more important: they’re making a damn good Horrorpunk record. There’s melody, there’s Punk attitude, there’s Horror, there’s humor and there’s enough blood dripping from the walls to keep the whole thing from smelling like the Halloween Spirit Store.
I don’t want to give away the entirety of the album because there’s still a lot more ghoulishness waiting in the crypt. Just know this: if you’re a fan of the Horrorpunk genre, this is an album you aren’t going to want to miss. If you fancy yourself a fan of Blitzkid, AFI, Misfits and Mister Monster, this will be a welcome addition to your collection of Undead music.
I don’t heap praise like this on just any band. The Horror scene is one you must earn your way into. It’s not a club that lets everybody through the front door just because they bought some fake cobwebs at Walmart and wanted to copy the Misfits. You’ve got to bleed for it. You’ve got to understand the movies, the music, the aesthetic and, most importantly, you’ve got to have heart – beating or not, it takes heart and real conviction to be this good.
Rise From Your Grave has finally spilled enough blood to earn their place among the Undead elite with “Choose Your Scare”.
The album will hit all the streaming platforms and will also be released on disc September 18th. Do yourself a favor and live in the now - it’s the Summer Of Ween! What better way to spend your cash than on a Horrorpunk record like this?
And streaming is weak. Go to the band’s Bandcamp page, buy all their shit and then start pestering them about pressing this album to vinyl. This one deserves to be spinning on wax!
Join us in this feast. Release the Bats and Choose Your Scare.