Rock City Morgue introduced their new direction, driven by bassist Sean Yseult’s piano skills and singer Rik Slave’s haunted crooning, on last year’s These Are Dark Days EP. On Dead Man’s Song, their first full-length, they completely flesh out this sound on songs like “Don’t Leave Me Haunted,” “Never Tell Lies,” and the ominous title track. As many Nick Cave comparisons songs like this have garnered, I can’t help but think of Welcome To My Nightmare-era Alice Cooper: the slower pace, the spooky lyrics, and the theatrics of it all. These seasoned pros take all of these elements and use them to their full effect here. On top of that the recording, produced by Daniel Rey of Ramones fame and Yseult’s former bandmate J. Yuenger, and mixing are much clearer than on their previous efforts. This is not to say that the band has lost their edge, which they prove with songs like “Trouble,” the Sex Pistols-esque “Never Ending,” and the crushing opener “Disconnected.” (This anthem is, in my humble opinion, the best song the quartet has yet produced.) With the music on Dead Man’s Song, RCM do what many other bands fail to do; they perfectly and seamlessly marry the familiar sound that put them on the map to the brave new direction in which they are headed in their Cadillac hearse.