PLAN 9

Playing blatant tribute to your idols with original compositions is a risky proposition, especially when the object of praise is a revered group like the MISFITS (Danzig era, of course). Surprisingly, San Francisco's PLAN 9 pull it off reasonably well with "Manmade Monster", which consists of 13 original tunes and four covers (including a hidden lounge version of "Skulls"). It will matter little to the diehard fans, as "Manmade Monster" will piss off some of them. But stepping back and realizing that PLAN 9 is about as close to the real thing as you're going to get will make enjoyment of the disc a whole lot easier.

So the first question is how closely does PLAN 9 come to replicating the sound of the original MISFITS? The answer is pretty damn close. Vocalist Aaron Fuller's Glenn Danzig impression is nearly spot-on — perhaps a little less grit, but with all the smooth tunefulness of the original. From an overall sound and songwriting standpoint, the act pretty well nails it. Whether it is the vocal patterning, guitar riffs, or backing shouts, one could almost imagine tracks like "13 Shades of Black", "Revenant's Rise" or "God Told Me to Kill" being included on, for example, "Walk Among Us", albeit without the same violent attack. The fact of the matter is that this is a very catchy collection of well-written songs. The formal covers ("Archangel", "Samhain", and the combined "Teenagers from Mars/We Bite") are, of course, well done, if rather unnecessary in the larger scheme of things. Collectively, the disc flows well from start to finish and there are no real stinkers in the batch.

As an old-school MISFITS fan myself, I'd be the last person that would have expected an album like PLAN 9's "Manmade Monster" to work. Heck, I'll even admit to feeling a little uneasy at times, that is when I realized it was actually PLAN 9 bringing the horror punk and not the MISFITS themselves. This is a fun album and PLAN 9 does the style justice, even if it feels slightly awkward at times.