For those sour-faced, self-proclaimed arbiters of punk
who endlessly declaim that Jerry Onlys Misfits are Not the Real
Deal: suck on this. Yes, you there, shuffling in the back, whining
about how the Misfits have totally sold out man, theyre not
the band they were in the eighties. This is not the record for you.
DEA.D. ALIVE! is an album for listeners who love catchy, sloppy hardcore
delivered at incredible speed in three minute slabs of impeccably
played, gloriously trashy horror punk.
DEA.D. ALIVE! is the third live album from the Misfits, following
1987s Evilive and the imaginatively titled sequel Evillive II.
The audio quality has been improved this time around; no longer do
they sound like a Misfits tribute band playing down a well. In fact,
they sound more energised and engaged than they have in years, ripping
through the songs with a renewed sense of purpose and comprehensively
debunking the idea that punks should live fast, die young. Tearing
through material from 2011s masterful The Devils Rain,
the 53 year old Only has never sounded better.
But first, a confession: the resurrected Misfits are my favourite
incarnation of the band. Shock! Horror! Yes, Glenn Danzigs version
had their moments, and left behind an extraordinary catalogue of punk
anthems, but the rot had set in by the time they released the hardcore-by-numbers
snorefest that was Earth A.D., the aural equivalent of losing a fight
with a washing machine. Songs like Bloodfeast, Hellhound
and Demonomania were straight-ahead gore thrashers that
brought to mind Slayer at their worst and sorely lacked the tuneful
flourishes of their earlier material. The decline was evident in the
song titles and lyrics; where was the wonderfully strange, tongue
in cheek imagination that was so evident in Teenagers from Mars
and Where Eagles Dare? With hindsight, its a bloody
good thing they broke up soon after. Following the Misfits demise
our dear Mr. Danzig started his own band, modestly called Danzig,
and began his irreversible slide into heartstoppingly shit Satan-worshipping
wankery, taking the evil-supernatural vibe so very, very seriously
that the whole enterprise became utterly ludicrous. By contrast, the
resurrected Misfits know theyre ridiculous, and they go all
out to own it.
Here, then, are fourteen live tracks offering a potent distillation
of what makes the modern-day Misfits so great. The songs encompass
their post-Danzig career; if you want classic Misfits cuts Im
afraid youll have to go elsewhere. For those of us who appreciate
the knowingly preposterous and incredibly fun melodic hardcore of
the Only era, DEA.D. ALIVE! offers a smorgasbord of delights, featuring
stunningly vicious renditions of Vivid Red, Land
of the Dead and the deliberately absurd Curse of the Mummys
Hand, as well as tracks from the poppier Michale Graves era
of the band. These include a blissful version of the poisonous doo-wop
ballad Saturday Night which surpasses the original, a
dementedly violent take on American Psycho and a grindingly
sinister Helena. Onlys voice serves this earlier
material well; although he cant hold a tune quite as well as
Graves, his older, rougher delivery brings out the latent creepiness
of the songs, with lines such as if you're bound and youre
gagged, draped and displayed, would you still love me anyway?
taking on a new uncanny resonance in this context. This is a timely
reminder that, for all their apparent goofiness, the Misfits have
never lost the ability to unnerve
If youre new to the wonders of the Misfits, this collection
offers a fantastic place to start. Perfectly capturing the raw, vibrant
intensity of their stage show, DEA.D. ALIVE! growls, roars and thumps
with renewed ferocity, bursting with the force of a band rediscovering
their place in a stagnant scene disproportionately focused on their
past glories. Shredding through the songs with more energy than a
band whove passed their 30th anniversary have any right to,
the Misfits triumphantly reclaim their crown as the undisputed kings
of horror punk, more than living up to their storied past and completely
demolishing the popular conception of them as sell-out has-beens.
The Misfits are alive, vital, and ready to rip your face off. Let
the horror business begin.