Review Summary: Just a Misfits Tribute or can this stand on it's own two feet.
The Misfits are one of my favourite bands. So when, walking into my local record store, I saw a cd by a band called Devils Whorehouse, with a horror themed picture on the cover, and song titles like ‘Howling’, ‘The Raven’ and ‘Blood Angels Recital’, I had to have it. When I tried to recover some background information on this band I found out that Devils Whorehouse consists of members of Marduk and Abruptum. Black metal bands for those who haven’t heard of them.
So is this a Misfits or Samhain tribute band? Their biography states they started out as one but they have since tried to put their own spin on the music. Which in this case means there are a lot more hardrock, metal and black metal influences than there are punk influences on this album. It also means their will be a lot of Misfits references in this review.
Revelation Unorthodox starts with an intro that is just an average Joe, middle of the road, instrumental metal intro. It doesn’t really say anything about what’s to come. When the first real song kicks in something strange happens. The black metal chords and fast blast beat drumming don’t really seem to belong to a Misfits influenced band and when the singer opens his mouth total confusion hits the mind. He turns out to be a Danzig impersonator?!?! Why did a punk influenced black metal band enlist Glenn Danzig to sing for them? Why?
When Howling, the third song of the album and one that could have been a 90’s Misfits leftover, is over, you get used to the combination of a metal sound with Danzig style vocals. And it’s actually not that bad. But halfway through Revelation Unorthodox it becomes clear that Devils Whorehouse have not mastered the one thing that made the Misfits the great band they were. The Misfits produced short, effective bursts of music, that most of the time didn’t pass the two minute mark. On this album the short bursts are mixed with slower longer (Funeral Dream 5:54) songs. The short songs are reminiscent of the Misfits, never reaching that level, but they are decent and can hold their own. The problem is with the longer songs. They get boring after they hit the two minute mark. You lose interest and want to reach for the remote to skip the rest of the song. Not because they’re bad songs, but they never seem to have the melodies and hooks that made the Misfits such a great band.
The production of Revelation Unorthodox is pretty good. It has that typical Swedish 90’s death metal production. Buzz saw guitars and a lot of bass. Put on Dismember’s Massive Killing Capacity and that’s how this sounds. Nothing wrong with that. Just can’t help thinking that this could have been a lot better if they would have kept to the short burst Misfits formula.
Revelation Unorthodox, on it’s own, is a good album, but because of the obvious Misfits influence you can’t help but compare it to the original and that turns it into an average album. That said, if you like the Misfits and you don’t mind the metal influences give this a listen. Even though this is not the best out there it won’t disappoint.
