The Misfits
Earth A.D.

THE REVIEW

Approximately 45 minutes.

This is what Glenn Danzig, Jerry Only, his brother Doyle, and Arthur Googy left us with just two albums: “Walk Among Us” and “Earth A.D./Wolfsblood.”

The Misfits (a name borrowed from the title of the last film made by Marilyn Monroe) represented the convergence point between the most baroque punk and the emergence of extreme metal. It is no secret, in fact, that “Kill 'Em All,” the debut album of the then-teenage four horsemen and the initiator of thrash, paid a heavy tribute to the New Jersey band.
The nocturnal and evil creation by Danzig, who, after leaving the mother band he co-founded with Only, embarked on a respectable solo career, dwelling in hard rock sounds with Sabbath influences, managed to blend in lyrics, music, and image, all the stereotypes of B-grade horror movies.

Starting with the logo that distinguishes all the band's gadgets, namely the skull “The Fiend.” Listening to the violence of the Misfits' sound chapters also means being catapulted into a long nightmare through zombies, werewolves, cemeteries (urban legends tell that the entire crew was arrested while laying waste to an entire cemetery in search of the tomb of Marie Laveau, notorious master of black magic), Martians, vampires, murderers, and much more deranged found in second-rate fantasy and horror literature.

The second “Earth Anno Domini” stands out from its predecessor for a darker, faster sound, less punk and more hardcore. The listener can do nothing but remain inert in the face of so much concentrated pure violence, and can only let themselves be dragged into that artfully created nightmare towards the “Green Hell” where they fall together with the hordes of demons and other nocturnal creatures, lyrically evoked by our guys through a sonorous voodoo that is sinister and fascinating at the same time. But there is not even time to realize what has happened before the dream is already over.
This “Earth A.D.,” with its twenty-one minutes, indeed, flies past you like a lightning bolt, with the same speed as a flashback. Songs like the title track, “Devilock” (also the personal hairstyle style of Jerry Only), “Death Comes Ripping,” the one minute of “Wolfsblood,” the 45 seconds of “Demonomania,” “Hellhound,” give you no escape, they capture you and leave you bleeding, definitively knocked out.

Of course, one cannot fail to mention perhaps the most famous song of the combo, “Die, Die My Darling,” covered, along with others, by 'Tallica to pay homage to the band that most inspired and captivated them (the late Cliff Burton had the band’s logo tattooed on his shoulder). The band, in conclusion, should be admired both for the contribution it made to establishing American hardcore and for extreme metal, all adorned with a cult image that, in vain, has been the subject of emulation.

With all due respect to Manson, Murder Dolls, and whatnot.