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CD reviews

American Psycho

Misfits - American Psycho Audio CD

A fair review of the Misfits "American Psycho" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Misfits reviews here, or go back to the Misfits tabs.

Band: Misfits
Title: American Psycho
Rating:

Release Date: 1997-05-13
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Abominable Dr. Phibes 2: American Psycho 3: Speak of the Devil 4: Walk Among Us 5: Hunger 6: From Hell They Came 7: Dig up Her Bones 8: Blacklight 9: Resurrection 10: This Island Earth 11: Crimson Ghost 12: Day of the Dead 13: Haunting 14: Mars Attacks 15: Hate the Living, Love the Dead 16: Shining 17: Don't Open 'Til Doomsday

A few decent tracks with a whole lot of filler. (2.5/5Stars)
Without Danzig's creative input, the new Misfits sound would deviate drastically from what they put out during their heyday, trading in the gritty and grinding sound that made them infamous for a well-polished studio record. So, sometime after the Danzig-era Misfits yet sometime before the current touring version of the Misfits there was "Misfits 2000", the collection of true misfits that, thanks to litigation, were able to assume the moniker of the band that a couple of their members were notorious for being a part of. So how did it do? I guess it depends who you ask.

When I didn't have a lot of exposure to music (read: listened to a lot of mainstream bands), I liked enough of the songs on the record to consider myself a fan. As time progressed and as my view of music changed, there wasn't a whole lot of material on this album that kept me captivated enough to maintain it as part of my collection through the years. There's still some good songs, but the album itself feels kinda inconsistent and times and carries less from the tradition of the Misfits than maybe it should have.

The album starts off with "The Abominable Dr. Phibes", which is such a killer opening that you hope the next track is crushing. Instead, you get thrown into the album's title track, which is really just pop-punk on steroids. The next three or four tracks are largely unremarkable and fit the pretty standard formula for most of the songs on here. Then comes "Dig Up Her Bones", which is the album's flagship song and one of the remarkable tracks on the album. That's followed by "Blacklight" which by contrast is one of the most disjointed and nonsensical songs on the album. This is followed by two more songs that are again, unremarkable and formulaic to the whole "pop-punk on steroids" motif that many of the songs go for on the album. The comes "Crimson Ghost", which is pretty blistering and intense. That's followed by "Day of the Dead" which is a corny attempt at Elvis-meets-more "hardened pop-punk. " And then with the exception of "Hate The Living, Love The Dead" the album finishes out with a slew of songs that sound remarkably like the other songs on here. Those with the LP version of the album get the rocking track "Dead Kings Rise", which would have been great to have been included on the album because it was better than many of the tracks featured on the CD (the song actually took a different approach than 90% of the songs on the record. )

So, that leaves us with a record that, to me, has 4-5 songs that were worth remarking about in a positive light and 3 that were worth remarking about in a negative light; with the remaining half of the album not being noteworthy in one direction or the other. I don't know what you'd call it, but I wouldn't call it a home-run for success. I'll chalk it up to an album that's average at best and mediocre at worst.

I think the cover art sums up the album the best. It doesn't feature the album's name on the cover nor does it list their "single" (being "Dig Up Her Bones") as one of the featured tracks. Instead, it just has the Misfits name along with some random, cool sounding song titles on the front and an advertisement for a "free poster" inside (it's the interior album artwork in case you were curious. ) My literal summary: This album can be cool at times, but there's too much emphasis on image than there is on substance. .

ZERO STARS
Awful Awful music which sounds like it was written by a twelve year old instead of a 50 year old has-been. These guys wouldn't even have a record deal if they hadn't won the use of the Misfits name in court.

Great Metal-Punk Hybrid Horror Music!

"American Psycho" has all of the things that made The Misfits great:
-Sing-along choruses
-Horror themed lyrics
-Relentless energy

But what the album really does is improve on the old ideas. American Psycho is a great bridge between "classic" Misfits & the "resurrected" Misfits: all of the energy and none of the profanity. Jerry & Doyle can actually play their instruments now and being backed by Dr. Chud's thundering drums and Michale Graves haunting screams really gives the band a great heavy, full sound.

The stand-out songs are: "Speak of the Devil", "Dig Up Her Bones", "Crimson Ghost", "Day of the Dead" and "Don't Open Til Doomsday".
Also, the hidden track "Hell Night" is pretty catchy.

This is a great album in it's entirety, but the "resurrected" Misfits didn't really find their own sound until "Famous Monsters" which is definitely their best.

Buy this album and prepare to shout along.

Good
I understand that it's not the "real" Misfits, blah, blah, blah. Ok, I have been catching hell for years from "real" Misfits fans because of my affinity for this album. But it's a good album. I agree with the other reviewer who said that really the only flaw was using the name "Misfits". In my opinion, this album is vastly superior to much of the Danzig era Misfits in production quality and musicianship. This lyrically this album is basically the music form of a '50s B horror movie. In fact, most of the songs are lifted directly from them (with the exception of the title track, which is a 90s movie, and "the Hunger" which is an 80s movie). In all, this is probably my favorite Misfits work (or whatever), and, though I own almost all of the others, is certainly the one I listen to most.

PRETTY DAMN GOOD
Anyone looking for Dream Theater Type depth you are not going to find it here. I am going to say this about the Misfits. That is a good thing. This band especially with Micheal Graves ROCKS. The music is better, the vocals are better. We have the melody with the crunch, the crunch with the slam and lyrics that are more than acceptable. Danzig is one of my favorite artists, but I think Graves deserves some credit. If it were not for him carrying this band throug the god awful scene of the late 90's they would have fallen apart.
Sometimes music needs to be fun, this album is fun and that is an understatement. Buy it and enjoy it for what it is.

You can see a complete list of all Misfits discography, or go back to the Misfits tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.