Michale Graves – “The Lost Skeleton Returns”
Album Reviews | Aug 19th, 2013
Record Label: Hydraulic Entertainment
Genre: Horror Punk
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Much like the lost skeleton, Michale Graves who is known for fronting the Misfits in the 90’s, has come back to where he belongs…in the horror punk library. Although he hasn’t really strayed far from the sound of the 90s Misfits, “The Lost Skeleton Returns” is a great collection of reworked Misfits songs, his solo stuff as well as some brand new original material.
While a lot of Misfits fans are sticklers for the Danzig fronted Misfits, which you surely can’t blame them for…thems be some good stuff…I was always a fan of the reformed Misfits of the 90s fronted by Michale Graves. They were one of my earliest concert going experiences which had them opening for GWAR. I can still vividly remember many memories about that show one of which was how good the Misfits still sounded and how unique Michale Graves voice was live in person. Unfortunately, I can also remember Oderus’ vomiting penis and I’ve tried to forget that memory on many occasions.
With “The Lost Skeleton Returns” there are some remade versions of a handful of Graves era Misfits songs. “Dig Up Her Bones”, “American Psycho”, “Scream”, “Fiend Without A Face”, “Saturday Night” now aptly titled “Crying on a Saturday Night”, and “Fiend Club” all get the 2013 treatment. Some songs are slowed down, some sound more metal while some sound more punk. There are definitely some interesting sounds to those classics.
The rest of the songs on “The Lost Skeleton Returns” consist of some older Michale Graves songs also getting the remake treatment like “Dawn of the Dead” and “Earth vs. Spider” as well as four new tracks to add to the gene pool. “Lost Skeleton”, “Zombie”, “Forbidden Planet” and “Something Wicked” fit right in with both the Misfits songs as well as his original re-recordings to form quite an album that merits repeated listens.
Even though it has been almost 20 years since Mr. Graves donned the Crimson Ghost face paint and sang about Martians and Pumpkinhead and teamed up with Vampiro to fight off the NOW, his voice is still strong, his songwriting is still entertaining and I’m glad that he’s come back to the horror punk realm in which he belongs. I hope that the Lost Skeleton has found his way back home.
Bottom Line: A return to form for the former Misfits frontman. The re-recorded Misfits songs brought back some high school memories and had some interesting changes in sound while the solo remakes meshed well with the new originals to form a solid horror punk album that still sounded fresh.
Notable Tracks: Dig Up Her Bones, Godzilla, Fiend Club, Earth vs. Spider, Lost Skeleton
Overall Rating:
