They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well then I guess that The Misfits should be humbled when they hear Arizona's Calabrese.

Consisting of the three Calabrese brothers (Dave, Jim and Bobby) this twisted punk trio has taken everything they love about the Glenn Danzig fronted Misfits and cranked-out six tracks clocking in at about fourteen minutes covering grave robbing, vampires, hot rods and general horrific goodness. And damned if they don't do it all convincingly and with enough talent and HorrorRock swagger to make it a great introduction to the band that leaves you wanting the feature length CD they're currently recording.

The standout tracks, for me, are the brief blast of "Come Alive" (with the catchy chant, "monster, monster, come alive!" during the chours) and the closer "Blood In My Eyes" - two tracks that could easily find heavy radio play thanks to their pop-punk sensibilites and sing-a-long chours'es.

In fact, Calabrese have all the elements that make any punk band following in the footsteps of The Misfits any good: Danzig-like soulful punk vocals, a nice steady groove, a peppering of handclaps and teen angst lyrics with a horror twist. And it's done so well that there's little here to complain about it.

This is fourteen highly listenable minutes that'll have you jamming along - and it puts a lot of independently made albums to shame because not only is it well produced (by the band themselves) but as a unit, Calabrese are tight musicians who obviously have a passion for the genre they've chosen.

Visit the Official Site for more information. (Chris Hartley, 6/28/04)

Produced By: Calabrese.