Misfits Albums- Introducing Horror Punk Rock

September 1st, 2010 by admin

You can’t imagine horror punk rock without the complete collection of Misfits merch and albums. This particular genre may seem unusual to you and this may partly be because it isn’t a very widespread sub genre. The Misfits are regarded as the pioneers in it and hardly any other group excels in what they do.

Glenn Danzig is generally credited for coming up with the initial band idea. The name is a reference to Marilyn Monroe’s final film. Joining Danzig in 1977 were Diane DiPiazza, Jimmy Battle and Manny Martinez. Battle and DiPiazza didn’t stay very long with the group and Jerry Caiafa or Jerry Only came into the group after the two original members left. Danzig and Only are the two musicians who have stayed longest with the group. Except for them, membership in the band has been erratic, with a total of 17 people coming and going.

Soon after the band was created, they began recording songs for their first album, Static Age. Unfortunately, no one wanted to offer a contract agreement to the group. As a compromise, the band simply released singles. Twenty years more passed before this work saw the light of day in its entirety.

The year following their founding, the band started to move into a dramatic shift that would eventually become definitive. Danzig started to compose pieces that increasingly featured horror themes. The members of the band also eventually transformed on stage as audiences saw more of them in goth clothing printed with skeletons and with devilock hairdos. This was when every single Misfits album from then on was labelled horror punk.

For four years, the band saw more recording and performance action. But it was only really in 1982, five years after they started as a group, that Walk Among Us came out. This was to be their first real full album release since Static Age did not materialize yet at this time. A year after this development though, things started to take an ugly turn. Danzig, who, up to this point was the prime mover, no longer wanted to continue. He went off tangent and founded Samhain. Band member Only eventually also founded his own group, Kryst the Conqueror.

Strangely, even the group’s breakup didn’t put the final nail on the coffin. After members pursued their own projects, word got out that listeners and other bands appreciated the group’s music more than the members realized. Only decided then that perhaps a reunion was in order. This fuelled a legal battle pitting him against Danzig. An out of court settlement was signed, allowing Only and another member to carry the Misfits name and use its logo. All rights to Misfits merch however were to be shared with its founder, Danzig even if he no longer wished to perform with the group.

Only became the new default band leader but problems with the line up ensued. The possibility of releasing a new Misfit album dimmed in 2001 when Only was the only member left in the group. He was however, eventually able to recruit Dez Cadena and Julio “Robo” Valencia to join him. They recorded Land of the Dead together.

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