Misfits disappoint with change in sound

The Misfits have always relied on movie-monster imagery to frame their music, but some wonder if they’ve become musical monsters themselves. Misfits

The Devil’s Rain

Misfits Records

Grade: C-

Rocks like: Metallica, Balzac, Motorhead

The Misfits have always relied on movie-monster imagery to frame their music, but some wonder if they’ve become musical monsters themselves.

Two generations after the legendary departure of Glenn Danzig and retaining only one original member, bassist and now-singer Jerry Only, the Misfits are on shaky ground with the hoard of “fiends” (Misfits fans) who propelled them to immortality. Its newest album, The Devil’s Rain, is the group’s response to this doubt and, sadly, it falls flat.

Only is joined by Dez Cadena — an original member of Black Flag — on guitar and talented newcomer Eric Arce on drums. But the resulting album trades the three members’ collective musical and lyrical power for hyperbolic heavy metal and an imitation of Danzig’s rhetorical strength.

The title track begins with ominous ethereal sounds and a chunky guitar riff that moves toward a steady pop-punk rhythm. The chorus of “It’s pouring down / it’s come for you / the devil’s rain,” resonates in Only’s exaggerated croon and the song ends after an admirable guitar solo from Cadena.

Unlike the rougher punk and hardcore of the Misfits’ first two incarnations, the current lineup has created music that tends to jolt its listener around, conjuring visions of various B-rated monster movies without the subverted lens of old.

“Twilight of the Dead” moves toward melodic balladry with a distorted guitar chaser. “Your blood runs cold in this twilight of the dead,” is an adequate hook, but it still doesn’t sting with the same vigor that once made the band’s music as potent as its imagery.

The Cadena-penned song “Jack the Ripper” is stylistically different — more hardcore than metal with a harder thematic edge — and reminds you exactly who these guys on your iPod are. This song — along with the closer, “Death Ray” — sings to the power of punk, although not necessarily in the guise most would recognize as the Misfits.

By way of a valiant effort to redefine a classic band, The Devil’s Rain will be a hard sell to the Misfits’ devoted legion of fans who might have been expecting another Earth A.D. or American Psycho.