“Punk is nothing but death and crime and the rage of the beast” Batman uttered this damning statement back in Fortunate Son. Perhaps he was warning the boy wonder of the cavalcade of pop-reference infused punk of The Bat Creeps, whose new album, Flaccid Justice, mixes the best of nerd culture with tales of earlier days, when boiled sweets and you had to get “direct edition” comic books.

You want to reminisce about Emil Antonowsky, the poor underling of Clarence Boddicker? Well, ‘Toxic waste thug’, with a chorus of oi oi ois imagines a better future -if marriage counts as one- and has an infectious (ahem) sing along at the end. Need your daily dose of Arnie impressions? ‘Electronic murderer’ has them for your, accompanied with a Fear meets Agent Orange punk attitude. ‘Stay puft’ is the album opener, a fluffy ode to everyone’s favourite candy kaiju.

The real meat and potatoes isn’t a “spot the reference” game. The band’s already sorted that out on their facebook. No, the actual heart of this coterie of songs is the heart behind it. There’s a lot of bare emotions and nostalgia fuel in this tracks. The famous names are just the hook and sinker, the line is full of memories of your fave comic book shop*, a now seemingly rare place where you could shoot the shit with your friends, find solace in wonderful inky dead trees, and perhaps get hooked on a new expensive addiction, Roy Harper-style.

Still, emotional does not guarantee dourness. ‘Theme from Bat Creeps’ is the perfect jingle for the band’s action figures (buy them all to form Devastator), ‘Terry’s in space’ is a solemn, heartfelt goodbye as punk as it comes, and ‘Dalton I love you’ is both a Morrissey pisstake and a genuinely strong note to finish the album with.

Anyways, I’ll end my review with this message, which will go unanswered: Terry, you numpty. Come back from space. That’s where Katy Perry creeps for human flesh and adrenochrome!

—Sam J. Valdés López.