45 GRAVE

Pick Your Poison

45grave.net

One generation’s devil’s music is another’s easy listening, and while the return of L.A. “death-rock” pioneers 45 Grave—back after a 27-year hiatus—won’t mean much to today’s bloody-eared extreme-metal fanatics, there’s plenty here to recommend. Like a West Coast cross between the Misfits and New York Dolls, the band does trampy, campy psychedelic bar rock, gobbling up Halloween clichés like so many fun-size Snickers bars. Leading a lineup that now includes Adolescents guitarist Frank Agnew, founding frontwoman Dinah Cancer reprises her role as hammy horror vixen—the perfect character for songs like “Sorceress,” a daffy pop-metal groover about zombies rising from the ground. One good resurrection deserves another.