Sex, Death & the Infinite Void

Following the release of Eternity, in Your Arms, the members of Creeper began searching for ideas for a subsequent concept album. While touring the United States with Waterparks in 2017, they found themselves in Dunsmuir, California, which would be the basis for the setting of the album, the small town of Calvary Falls. The cultural differences and otherness that Gould began to experience on this tour and the 2017 Warped Tour then inspired the album's story of an angel who falls to Earth and finds himself an outsider on a different world.[4]

In November 2018, the band played the last show of the Eternity, in Your Arms album cycle at the KOKO in Camden Town, London. Before the final song, "Misery", the frontman Will Gould said, "Not only is it the last show of this album, but it's the last show that we'll ever do," an almost word-for-word quote of David Bowie's speech at the Hammersmith Apollo on July 3, 1973, when he killed off the character of Ziggy Stardust on stage.[5] Gould wrote that "the idea was to end it in the same way it began, and the campaign began with a disappearing act".[6]

Following this, Gould and Miles would make multiple travels to and from Los Angeles in search of producers for their subsequent record, soon deciding on Xandy Barry.[7] However, as the pair planned to temporarily relocate to the city to write and record the album, Miles entered a psychotic episode as a result of his bipolar disorder, and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.[8] Gould described the year between the KOKO performance and the band's return as "the worst year of my life" as during Miles' mental health struggle, Gould's relationship with his fiancée began declining and his mother's partner has died. Furthermore, when Gould returned to Los Angeles without Miles, he began to struggle with anxiety, experiencing his first two panic attacks,[9] and soon turning to alcohol and spending time in the studio as a way to cope.[10] Due to this, both Gould and Miles considered disbanding Creeper.[9] However, Miles' mental health began to recover and his wife eventually bought him a guitar so that he and Gould could write songs together over FaceTime.[8]

On 1 November 2019, a year to the day after Creeper's supposed disbandment at the KOKO, they performed at Club 229 in London under the name Fugitives of Heaven.[11] During this performance, they debuted the song "Born Cold",[12] which was then released on 3 November.[13] The band also announced a supporting slot on Babymetal's 2020 Metal Galaxy world tour.[14] The album was officially announced on 10 January 2020 for a 22 May release date alongside a UK tour.[15] The album's second single "Annabelle" was released on 20 January,[16] followed by the third single "Cyanide" on 28 February.[17] On 5 May, the band announced that the album's release and the following tour dates would be delayed due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, with the release date now set for 31 July, and the tour set for the end of August.[18] On 22 May, the fourth single "All My Friends" was released.[19] On 8 July, the supporting tour dates were subsequently delayed the end of March 2021,[20] then on 24 July, the sixth single "Poisoned Heart" was released.[21] On 30 July, the day before the album's official release, the online event Creeper Con was held, in which the band released the music video for "Poisoned Heart", unreleased footage from their KOKO performance and Creeper: The Story Of... Sex, Death & Infinite Void: a series of podcasts produced by Mighty Moon Media recalled the creation of the album.[22]

During the album's writing and recording process, more songs were completed than the sixteen tracks that made it onto the album. Eight of these unreleased tracks were released on 30 July 2021, as the American Noir EP.[23]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.6/10[39]
Metacritic	91/100[40]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[41]
Beats Per Minute	80%[42]
DIY	[43]
Gigwise	9/10[44]
Kerrang!	[45]
The Line of Best Fit	7/10[24]
NME	[25]
Q	[46]
The Sunday Times	[47]
Upset	[48]

Sex, Death & the Infinite Void received widespread acclaim from music critics. Aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalised rating of 91 based on eight critical reviews, indicating "universal acclaim" for the release.[40] Many critics praised the album's shift in tone described by DIY as being "tinged with a more moody Americana feel, and doused with faded Hollywood seediness."[43] The band's experimentation with different genres and not restricting themselves to one sound was also praised. "Genre is Dead! Magazine" stated that Gould's vocals had improved over its predecessor, "opting to croon or sing baritone rather than scream".[49]

Louder stated that every song on the album sounds completely distinct and described it as an "exercise in escapism and experimentation" seeing the band "liberated from the constraints of genre, showcasing their immense, diverse talent and creating a new world that holds our attention at a time when that's a difficult thing to pull off."[50] The review for AllMusic claimed it "a sh*t-ton of fun -- a master class in smudged-eyeliner camp directed by a clutch of vampires masquerading as musical theater majors."[41]

Riot Mag compared the album to Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by My Chemical Romance in the way it perfectly captures the same adventure while carrying the "morose weight of actually having to deal with your consequences."[51] Rather than the comparisons to Alkaline Trio and AFI seen on their last album, critics drew comparisons to Nick Cave, Roy Orbison,[43] Roxy Music, David Bowie, Suede, Pulp, Meat Loaf, Blur, Supergrass, Queen and Prince.[45]

Songwriting credits per booklet.[52]

Adapted from CD liner notes.[52]

Creeper

• Will Gould – lead vocals
• Ian Miles – guitar
• Oliver Burdett – guitar
• Sean Scott – bass guitar
• Hannah Greenwood – keyboards, backing vocals
• Dan Bratton – drums

Production personnel

• Xandy Barry – production, mixing, engineering, orchestral arrangements and programming
• Timothy Williams - orchestral arrangements and programming
• Wally Gagel - mixing
• Spike Stent - mixing
• Redah Haddioui - mix assistant, engineering
• Matt Wolach - mix assistant
• Richard Woodcroft - engineering
• Andrew Lappin - engineering
• Pete Lyman – mastering
• Stuart Hawkes - mastering on track 4

Art design

• Andy Pritchard - layout
• Demon Dance - design of the 'Descending Angel'
• Billy Howard Price - photos

Additional Personnel

• Patricia Morrison- Voice of Annabelle