Here's the truth!

Depends on what you're looking for...
 

Danzig and Jerry Only, ARE, and will forever BE, The Misfits. But I really like Graves' voice... always have. I think American Psycho and Famous Monsters are both really good albums (and the production value is better -- if that's what you're looking for). But, traditional Misfits fans will always be indifferent to (or unimpressed with) "life after Danzig." To each his own...

Why would I want better production value on a Misfits album?

I'm glad Danzig broke them up when he did. They were becoming less of a punk band and more of a gothic metal band by the end, which makes sense since they had to supplement material Danzig had written for his solo project to make LP length.

Static Age still stands as my favorite Misfits album, but even their worst Danzig album is better than their best Graves album. And them not releasing an album is better than their best Only album.

In what way do you feel they were becoming a gothic metal band? Earth AD just sounds like hardcore to me, nothing particularly gothic about it. In fact I'd actually go as far as saying it's more stripped down sounding than their previous work.

LOL those were word-for-word my exact thoughts when I saw the thread title. :laughing:

I had that same question. Earth AD is certainly hardcore punk. Maybe there's some validity to the notion that Misfits had become 'more metal' than previously and that they were 'goth' but to me that does not = Gothic Metal.

We'll probably have to chalk this up to semantics and personal definitions of genres, but I'll try and explain it anyway.

The Goth part should be self explanatory. They sang about death, and had a liberal use of skulls, etc.

I hear Metal all over Earth A.D. Primarily, Hellhound, Demonomania, and Devilock. To my ears, those are Metal tracks. Granted, I subscribe to the group who thinks Black Flag stopped being a punk band when idiot Rollins joined, so I'm already in the minority.

For me the goth part is the part that actually isn't self-explanatory. I guess I can sort of hear a slight metallic edge to the music (though not really what was considered metal in 1983) so I can understand that comparison a little. But singing about death and a liberal use of skulls are staples of metal not goth, especially not goth as it was in 1983. I have a hard time seeing any overlap whatsoever between the Misfits image and sound and that of contemporaneous goth bands like Siouxsie & the Banshees, Bauhaus or the Cure.

Let's back track and see if we can find common ground first.

Do you consider The Damned to be a goth band?