What’s Sexy Graveyard Rock? Carnal Sins Can Answer That

Carnal Sins is bringing sexy back.

The Denver goths bill themselves as “sexy graveyard rock,” and go six feet deep with it.

“Why not?” quips vocalist Stevie Connolly. “I don’t even really know what ‘sexy graveyard rock’ means yet. What I have now is it’s rock and roll played with swagger, attitude, confidence and a horror-punk edge to it. That sounds cool, so let’s just go with it.

“We’re trying to do a little something that Denver doesn’t have right now,” he continues, pointing to Devan Fechner’s psych synths and epic key arrangements as an example of the sonic seduction exuded by Carnal Sins. 

“I just sit back and listen to the songs as a spectator and just add my stuff as necessary, trying to add in little melody lines underneath, make certain parts kind of pop,” Fechner explains.

“I think that really gives us that sexy edge,” Connolly continues. “I feel like Carnal Sins, when you hear that name, you know what you’re getting into with this band.”

Connolly, who is known locally as Stevie Pink or the Pink Wizard for showing off his rosy wardrobe and pointed hat at pretty much every metal show there is, recruited his undead comrades in 2024 with the help of guitarist Andrew Sares.

“We met at a truck stop looking for lot lizards,” Sares jokes. But he’s the one who urged Connolly, typically a drummer, to front the project. “He dresses in pink. He’s a frontman without a band until now,” he adds.

“Yeah, he said, ‘You act like more of a frontman than anybody I know,’” Connolly recalls. “So I guess I’m going to be a singer now. It’s cool to step out from behind the drumset and put myself out there as a frontman and explore a different side of the personality that I have.

“I always wanted to be a professional wrestler, but I’m still the same size now as I was in seventh-grade when I first wanted to be a professional wrestler, so I take that energy and bring it to the stage,” he continues.

But Carnal Sins isn’t all pink pomp and cemetery circumstance. On its four-song 2025 debut, Sexy Graveyard Demo (numbered to 69, naturally), the group displays its eerie candor — including the work of guitarist Brendan Calhoun, bassist Max Kaufman and drummer Clint Duffens — making music that’s reminiscent of early Misfits and Candlemass, to give you a sense of what’s behind the funerary drapes.

“I think his general percussive instinct helped him craft really good, strong vocal melodies that really comport with the rest of the music and riffs that we have going on, as opposed to vocals that go on top sloppily,” Calhoun says of Connolly’s croons. “He has a good instinct for vocal melodies and delivery because of his experience as a drummer. I think it would come out a bit different, and we’d have less character in the vocals if Steve was not a drummer and didn’t have that rhythmic sense in that way.”

Carnal Sins is doing it live for only the third time on Thursday, February 19, at hi-dive, opening for seductive Louisville heathens Savage Master. Local power-metallers Viperwitch and Fechner-featured Chamber Mage are also on the bill. The sexy sinners have a little surprise in store, too.

“I think my favorite ongoing joke is we’ve been doing a different Misfits cover at every show,” Kaufman says, revealing that the musicians are tackling “Skulls” this time.

“In my opinion, the Misfits are the original sexy graveyard rock band,” Connolly adds.

But the members of Carnal Sins are the sexiest grave-rockers in Denver right now. More songs and gigs, sure to get you dancing around your grave, are in store, too.

“It’s a good-looking and good-sounding band,” Connolly concludes. “And I feel like this show is going to be the sexiest night of rock and roll this winter.”

Carnal Sins, with Savage Master, Viperwitch and Chamber Mage, 7 p.m. Thursday, February 19, hi-dive, 7 South Broadway. Tickets are $19.