The album that killed off Misfits
Now resigned to emblazoning mass-produced merchandise and Primark T-shirts made in sweatshops, Misfits were once at the forefront of the US punk scene. Pioneering horror punk and influencing later hardcore and pop punk genres, the band formed by Danzig have had an undeniable impact on the face of alternative rock.
Starting off in 1977, Misfits began, like many punk bands of that era, playing small shows at the iconic CBGB club in New York’s East Side. The club was a melting pot for the city’s weird and wonderful, where seemingly anything went. Pretty quickly, however, the Danzig-fronted band found themselves too weird for the weirdos – with their horror and sci-fi-influenced sound proving too radical for the new wave audience of CBGB.
Developing their own unique voice, the image of Misfits that we all know and love soon began to take shape. Characterised by dark makeup, the iconography of skulls and adoration for horror B-movies, the band’s first album, Walk Among Us, was an adrenaline-fuelled rocket ride through the mind of frontman Danzig. Capturing the energy of their early live performances and the sound of the blossoming hardcore scene, the album proved influential on many future punk artists and bands.
On the other hand, their follow-up was the album that killed off the horror junkies, at least for the time being. Keen to develop upon the sound of their first record, Misfits recruited ex-Black Flag drummer Robo on the advice of Henry Rollins and set about creating a more developed sound akin to thrash and metal. The resulting album, Earth A.D., proved to be a pivotal release within thrash metal, punk and hardcore.
In spite of its relative success and lasting popularity within the punk scene, Earth A.D. also signified the end of Misfits. In fact, the album was released on Danzig’s own Plan 9 label two months after he had played his last show with the band he formed. Becoming dissatisfied with the sound that Misfits had become known for, Danzig set his sights on more diverse creations, planning a solo career. Bassist Jerry Only explained the reason for the split, saying that after the release of Earth A.D. “There was no place to go. We had taken it to the limit. We tapped out. That was it.”
“What Earth A.D. did was launch the hardcore scene, the death metal scene, the thrash scene,” Only continued, “All those other bands, Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, all those bands that came after us used that as their guiding light”. While that slightly self-congratulatory quote does ring true, it brings into question why the bassist was not happy with having made this incredible, pioneering album and why he felt the need to destroy the legacy of Misfits.
For the uninitiated, Earth A.D. was not, in fact, the end of Misfits – it was simply the end of the period in which Misfits were worth listening to. The original line-up, minus the driving creative force of Danzig, was reformed in the 1990s, recruiting staunch conservative and far-right crackpot Michael Graves to take his place. This divided opinion among punk fans, who rightly saw this as a betrayal of both Danzig and the roots of the punk genre in general. But hey, at least they’ve got all that merchandise money to fall back on.
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