Formed in 2014, the group originally featured vocalist Will Gould, guitarists Ian Miles and Sina Nemati, bassist Sean Scott, and drummer Dan Bratton.
The band independently released their self-titled debut EP in 2014, before signing with Roadrunner Records and issuing follow-up The Callous Heart the next year.
After touring extensively, Creeper took a year-long break and returned in 2020 with Sex, Death & the Infinite Void, which reached number 5 in the UK.
Creeper were hailed by critics as one of the best new rock bands shortly after their formation, winning awards from magazines Metal Hammer, Kerrang!
[3] When Miles and Gould originally conceived the idea for the band, they intended for it to be a New Romantic-influenced take on dark wave, before it eventually developed into a much more punk-influenced sound.
[5] The quintet independently released their self-titled debut EP on 19 June 2014, which was later issued as a limited edition 12" vinyl by Palm Reader Records on 18 December.
[6] The band played their first headline show at the Joiners Arms on 1 August,[7] followed by their first performance in London at The Old Blue Last on 13 September and a stint supporting Welsh group Funeral for a Friend.
[11] In December 2015, it was announced that Nemati had left Creeper in order to "concentrate on his sound engineering career in London", while touring keyboardist Hannah Greenwood was upgraded to a full-time member.
[3][13] In May 2016, Creeper supported Black Veil Brides vocalist Andy Biersack on his Homecoming Tour,[15] as well as performing second on the bill for Funeral for a Friend at their final show on 21 May at the O2 Forum.
[20] Gould offered the following explanation of the album's inspiration: "Eternity, in Your Arms is a record, this time not only about being young and heartbroken, but about transition, about age and loss.
"[20] The band later supported Pierce the Veil alongside Letlive on a tour of the UK and Europe, which started on 29 October and ran until 6 December.
[22] In promotion of the album, Creeper embarked on a headline tour on 25 March 2017 which included dates throughout Europe running into mid-April,[23] alongside support acts Milk Teeth, Puppy and Energy.
[37] The band have also worked on a book titled The Last Days of James Scythe, based on the ongoing story of the eponymous character, which is to be released on 30 November 2017 by independent publishers 404 Ink.
"[39] The band supported Neck Deep and All Time Low on tour the following year,[40][41] and later returned to the festival circuit with performances at 2000 Trees and Reading and Leeds.
[51] Like Eternity, in Your Arms, the album features a central narrative around which the songs are written, in this case focusing on the story of a relationship between protagonists Roe and Annabelle, who live in a fictional American city called Calvary Falls.
[55] Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the music industry, Creeper delayed the release of Sex, Death & the Infinite Void from May to July 2020, as well as pushing back the promotional God Can't Save Us Tour from April to August.
[59][60] In September 2020, shortly after the album's release, the band announced that they had parted ways with drummer Dan Bratton, although no explanation was given for his departure.
[66] On 10 September, the band performed at Rise Festival in Newcastle under the name the Weeping Widow,[67] which saw Greenwood singing for the entire set, without Gould.
[85] During this era, the band cited musical influences including Marilyn Manson,[98] AFI, Jawbreaker, Jim Steinman, Energy, David Bowie, Metallica, Tiger Army, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Alkaline Trio, the Misfits,[99][100][101][102] the Nerve Agents and the Cramps,[103] in conjunction with taking influence from the imagery of films like Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys and Phantom of the Paradise by Brian De Palma[99][100] as well as novels and plays like J. M. Barrie's 1904 book Peter and Wendy and its 1954 stage musical adaptation.
[107] This era's narrative followed an angel called Roe who comes to the small town of Calvary Falls, based on Dunsmuir, California, intending to warn people that in seven days the apocalypse will come.
[109][105][110] NME writer Dannii Leivers described it as "a bombastic, goth rock epic, as theatrical and sweeping as a batwing lace sleeve"[105] and Ashley Perez Hollingsworth of Genre is Dead said that it "isn’t just an album.