Michale Graves - Punk Rock Is Dead
Michale Graves was the replacement singer for the ill-conceived resurrection of The Misfits which thankfully dissolved after a couple bad albums which didn't really sound like The Misfits of yesteryear at all. Now, in a supreme example of irony, Michale has returned with his own band, none of them original Misfits members, but has succeeded at making a better Misfits record than the reincarnated version of the band.
That's not to say this is anywhere near the timeless classics of the early Misfits but the better songs on "Punk Rock Is Dead" utilize the same songwriting style of simple three chord punk with campy horror lyrics you can sing along to in big, bold choruses. The only big difference is the overall sound. The guitars are bigger and brighter than their predecessors with a nice low end, having the benefit of modern production and the people on this record are actually good at their instruments versus the sometimes horrendous playing by The Misfits. But most of the credit for making this work should go to Michale. On the surface this attempt to recreate relatively simple material would surely fail without Michale's strong vocals which, while not quite as distinctive as Danzig, perfectly fit the horror punk style of evil Elvis crooning.
There are a few missteps here, mainly a couple of energy sapping Jim Morrison impersonations on some slower material in the middle, but these can be forgiven by some truly standout cuts book ended at the front and back of the album. A couple of these are just as catchy as the very best of the Misfits songs and will really appeal to fans of that band, especially the ones like me that were disappointed to see the latter version of that band fail so miserably.
That's not to say this is anywhere near the timeless classics of the early Misfits but the better songs on "Punk Rock Is Dead" utilize the same songwriting style of simple three chord punk with campy horror lyrics you can sing along to in big, bold choruses. The only big difference is the overall sound. The guitars are bigger and brighter than their predecessors with a nice low end, having the benefit of modern production and the people on this record are actually good at their instruments versus the sometimes horrendous playing by The Misfits. But most of the credit for making this work should go to Michale. On the surface this attempt to recreate relatively simple material would surely fail without Michale's strong vocals which, while not quite as distinctive as Danzig, perfectly fit the horror punk style of evil Elvis crooning.
There are a few missteps here, mainly a couple of energy sapping Jim Morrison impersonations on some slower material in the middle, but these can be forgiven by some truly standout cuts book ended at the front and back of the album. A couple of these are just as catchy as the very best of the Misfits songs and will really appeal to fans of that band, especially the ones like me that were disappointed to see the latter version of that band fail so miserably.
