Fiends Of Dope Island

The Cramps helped define a wicked toxibilly sound, with a cultural impact that sparked a legion of devil cults and a long trail of cave-stomping imitators. Their final studio album, Fiends of Dope Island, captures that unruly spirit with all the grit, swagger and midnight mischief you’d want.

Self-produced and gloriously unhinged, it pulls together incantational rock ’n’ roll hexes like “Big Black Witchcraft Rock” and “Papa Satan Sang Louie”, puts a hoodlum twist on the exotica standard “Taboo”, then tears through the crypt-kickin’ blues rave-ups “Dopefiend Boogie” and “Wrong Way Ticket”.

It all closes with the musical equivalent of a 13-car pile-up.