Mason Orso
Staff Writer
Walk Among Us is the first full-length album released by the Misfits of Ruby and Slash Records in March 1982.
The Misfits are accepted by some as ancestors to the punk music genre.
They get inspiration from various movies such as the Astro Zombies, Blood Feast, and The Brain Eaters.
In addition to the influence of films, the Misfits are no strangers to horror comics.
Horror films and comics are combined with catchy punk tunes giving birth to the horror punk scene.
It is 24 minutes of rapid instrumentality with content suitable for the Halloween spirit.
Glenn Danzig and the rest of the band steer away from politics, a commonality in the punk scene, and embrace the terrors of Martians, zombies, and lady vampires referred to as vampira.
The album begins with Danzig wailing “20 eyes in my head, 20 eyes in my head, 20 eyes in my head, they’re all the same, they’re all the same.” Suggesting the familiarity of being stuck inside his own head and being leered at by a set of eyes.
With thoughts racing as fast as the strumming patterns of the guitar, 20 eyes is a manifestation of an anxious mind.
Subsequently the tale continues further with the haunting experience of transforming into a Martian with an urge to kill, lacking humane qualities of being able to recall its own name.
“I walk down the city streets on an unsuspecting human world, in human in your midst, the world is mine to own.”
Accompanied by the urgency of the bass drum, this other worldly creature walks among humans ready to terrorize.
Minor power chords and heavy bass riffs fill your head while the whole world starts to break loose and the vampira wearing a black dress enters trembling.
Still early into the album, ‘Nike-a-Go-go’ invades your brain introducing the first guitar solo of Walk Among Us.
The second guitar solo repetitively played on two notes, appears in ‘Hate breeders’, track number six.
The instrumentation at this point is wildly rapid with the aggression building when Danzig is growling in ‘Mommy, Can I Go out and Kill tonight?”
The music has no tempo cool down in sight when the hungry zombies are born and start to stumble around.
Danzig starts howling “I want your skulls, I need your skulls.”
Inspired by Astro Zombies, a cult horror film produced in 1968, the Misfits ghoulishly create a song about zombies that are sent to the land with the intention of exterminating the entire human race.
By the end of the album there’s a calmness in the instrumentation and the zombies at this point are tired of feasting on brains and request guts instead.
Walk Among Us is an excellent introduction into the horror punk scene.
The album stays energetic and sets a standard for what fans of the Misfits can come to expect.
This album shouldn’t be slept on, and would make a great addition to your Halloween play list.