KERRANG! #647, May 10, 1997
---------------------------

THE MISFITS - AMERICAN PSYCHO (4 out of 5)
There are cult bands and then there are cult bands - and The Misfits are
probably one of the most notorious and influential of all. 

Formed in 1977 by bassist Jerry Only and vocalist Glenn Danzig, the
New Jersey outfit put out a handful of classic crash-bang-wallop punk
records which now fetch quite ludicrous sums of money, and promptly
split up in 1983 before more than a handful of spiky-haired oiks had even
heard of them. Danzig went on to have a sense of humour bypass and a
successful solo career, and that perhaps would have been the end of it
were it not for the fact that Soundgarden, Guns N' Roses and - most
notoriously - Metallica cut cover versions that raised The Misfits' profile
to legendary status. If The Misfits had sold as many records while they
were around as they did bootleg T-shirts and patches after they split,
then they'd have been bigger than God.

Up until now, that's the way most people thought it should have stayed -
you shouldn't even try to recreate something like that. When news
filtered through that The Misfits had reformed without Danzig, the only
thing louder than the cries of dismay were the gales of laughter. But
somehow, The Misfits have managed to return from the dead with two
new members, and knocked out an album that, while perhaps not
classic, certainly doesn't bring shame to their glorious legacy of brutality.
The new drummer is Dr Chud, and he hits things hard, which is what
drummers generally do. The new vocalist - one Michael Graves -on the
other hand, has much to live up to. And do we dig Graves? Well, his
voice isn't buried quite so deep as his predecessor's was, but he
certainly gets away with it. And, aside from occasionally sounding
alarmingly similar to Wolfsbane, all the songs stick pretty close to what
fans would expect. It's still crash-bang-wallop topped off with a bunch
of 'Woh-oh' Hammer Horror choruses and about dead dudes and all
things spooky. There's even a nod to their past with a track called 'Walk
Among Us'.

True, American Psycho lacks a Last Caress, Skulls or Hatebreeders but
it's big, dumb fun - just like their recent London show. It could have all
gone wrong, like the pathetic 'Munsters Today' TV show which
attempted to feed of it's '60s predecessor like an ugly, bloated leech.
Instead, we get something more akin to 'Addams Family Values', not the
same as the black-and -white original but well worth checking out all the
same.