After making their big comeback in 1997 with American Psycho, the Misfits seemed to be back on their usual roll as far as album releases go, seeing how they followed up the less than stellar American Psycho two years later with Famous Monsters, an album that is markedly more enjoyable, but in my opinion, still suffers from being an album that feels out of character for the once menacing Misfits. This feeling also translates to the image the band is putting out on this album, which is far less actual 'horror' and far more 'monster mash', I mean, just look at the cover; while it looks pretty great in a campy sci-fi/ horror camp kind of way, I would never think that the group were called Misfits by the title alone.
I will say without any reservations whatsoever that the album opens incredibly strong with what may be one of my Top 5 all time favorite Misfits tunes, "Forbidden Zone"; this track is insanely well constructed and has a massively enjoyable hook. This is an example of how well this line-up could work together, it is a shame that we never got to see this group go forward though, seeing as how shortly after the release of this LP, the band would once again disband for nearly 5 years, before bassist Jerry Only would reform, and later front the group.
And while no other moment on this entire LP trumps "Forbidden Zone", I have to say that the first quarter of the LP certainly holds up against it. Especially on the wonderfully cult-ish "Dust To Dust", which features yet another great hook. And another thing to note with the better tracks here; the band just sounds a lot more enthusiastic and in sync. A lot of moments on American Psycho (and even this album, admittedly) feel like the band is still shaking off the rust of over a decade of inactivity. But here, we see them return to form in a pretty big way.
This makes the rest of the album a pretty big disappointment. While there are some decent moments here and there in the form of "Die Monster Die" and "Living Hell", there are some downright laughable ones too. The biggest offender being the saccharine sweet "Saturday Night" which is the sound of the band shooting for a 50's crooner, but ending up with a mopey punk song with no guts whatsoever. And we get a couple 'songs' here as well that just feel like a riff or hook but never come together, such as "Witch Hunt" or "Pumpkinhead".
But the biggest problem I have with this album is actually Grave's vocals, not because I think they're overall terrible, in fact I think he really makes the tracks that I enjoy here all the better. It's when he forgets to clear his nasal passages before singing on cuts like "Scream!" or "Crawling Eye" that I start cringing. The sound of his voice on these tracks is just so grating and annoying, it makes me wonder where the vocalist on "Forbidden Zone" was that day, because he ain't here now!
Did I enjoy this more than American Psycho? Certainly. But I'm not going to lie to you and say that I think this is a great album or anything. Sure, it has worthwhile cuts here and there, and one downright fantastic one. But it also features some of the worst tracks I've yet heard from the Misfits. So approach with caution.
5.6/10
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