Two years ago I posted a review of “Initium Meets Earth AD” by Bloodsong, an album that so perfectly replicated The Misfits and Samhain that I could only hope that one day I, Misanthrope – the sole force behind Bloodsong – would do an entire album of original material.
Well, fiends, that day has come – and ironically enough it’s around the same time of year as when I discovered Initium Meets Earth AD. Namely, right around my son’s birthday. Just as I recall going back home after an exhausting day of hosting my kid’s sixth birthday party and relaxing to the soothing strains of Bloodsong’s awesome Initium-styled rendition of Earth AD’s “Death Comes Ripping,” so too did I find himself mentally humming along to Bloodsong’s “Life Is Fucking Cold” this year while hanging out with my kid at the Crayola playground on his eigth birthday.
Once again Bloodsong captures the mood, style, and vibe of mid-‘80s Glenn Danzig, to the point where this stuff would’ve blown my mind if it had come out on cassette tape circa 1989. And speaking of which, what this – and all of Bloodsong’s material – needs is a cassette release! In one of those “you’d never in a million years believe this would happen” scenarios, cassette tapes are back in these days, especially with younger people. As a coworker of mine quipped, “Have these people ever heard a cassette?”
Also in true Danzig fashion, the album is short! Season Of The Dead is essentially an EP, comprised of eight tracks, each of which are just a little over three minutes long. And tracks 5-8 are remixes of tracks 1-4!
“Cold World” starts the proceedings, with its memorable chorus of “It’s a cold fucking world.” This one sounds so much like Initium that you could swear it’s an outtake. Opening with heavy chords and those “Taco Bell commercial” synth-gongs, this track is crazy in how it so perfectly captures the Samhain sound. This is the one I was humming to myself while my kid created his own crayon at the Crayola factory – nothing like bopping your head to “It’s a cold fucking world” while kids are happily running around a crayon playground. Of course I was wearing earphones at the time.
Title track “Season Of The Dead” follows; it starts off with more of a dirgey nature, before going into a metallic onslaught. Complete with those Taco Bell gongs, which I love to death, as well as unearthly growls buried in the mix. Lyrically this track is very in-line with mid-’80s Danzig, concerning witches and “malicious spirits.” I especially appreciate the multi-tracked “Yeahs” that puncuate the end of the track; very goth-punk.
“Psychofuck” is the mosh track; faster than the previous two songs and all scraped metal chords and pounding tribal drums. Ironically it’s this track where I feel I, Misanthrope most replicates the sound of Danzig’s voice, muted and buried in the mix during the verse but belting out wails in the chorus. There’s a cool part midway through where the track comes to a stop…and then starts back up again. I could really see the 15 year-old me banging my head to this one in 1989.
Last is the mega-awesome “I Want Your Blood (2025),” which received its own single release the other year, albeit in different form (as noted below). This one really sounds like the actual Samhain…I mean they all do, but this one could fool even a diehard. It’s another piledriver of heavy, punk-metal guitar riffing, with speed metal drums straight off of Earth AD (but better produced, as befitting Samhain!). A minute in we get into a cool bit of Danzig-esque experimentalism, with the tribal drums panning back and forth across the stereo spectrum and a chorus of I, Misanthropes intoning “I just want…your blood.” Super cool and so perfectly done. This section comes back at the end of the song, where it’s more prolonged and even cooler; I also love how the track ends, with a lone guitar offset by more of those unearthly growls.
“Side 2” commences with a “Dark Cloud Mix” of “Cold World,” which runs a few seconds longer than the original mix. It’s a more experimental take than the original, opening with FX’d growls, and more focus on those awesome Taco Bell synth-gongs than the guitars. I, Misanthrope’s voice is more buried in the dense mix, again giving it the sound of a cassette. This mix would probably have given my kid nightmares if I’d been playing this on speakers instead of headphones; the focus is more on hellish din, with the growls often overtaking the music entirely. Yet at the same time it really sounds like something Danzig might’ve put on Unholy Passion.
The Dark Clouds Mix of “Season Of The Dead” follows the same path – the howls and growls are panned up and the music is murky and buried beneath them. There’s also a headfucky chorus with a demonic voice whispering overtop I, Misanthrope’s voice. In some ways this one’s almost a dub mix; about the most we hear from the instruments is the kick drum and scraped guitar strings, with the focus on demonic sound effects.
Seventh track “Psychofuck” also becomes a demonic nightmare in its Dark Clouds Mix; I, Misanthrope’s voice is amped up but at the same time sounds far away, like he’s up on stage at an outdoor festival in hell and we’re all the way back in the cheap seats, getting poked by demons with pitchforks. Once again the instruments are all meshed together into a blurry sonic wail, with screams and wails taking precedence over the music. The “mosh” nature of the original is somewhat lost, yet at the same time the track is so crazy sounding that you can’t help but laugh like a madman. This is truly music to lose your mind to. In a good way, of course!
Final track “I Want Your Blood (2025)” follows the same path as its three predecessors in its Dark Clouds Mix, though this time the guitar is brought up a little. Otherwise the main add to this mix is a lot of murk and demonic growling, but really it doesn’t sound drastically different from the original mix. There’s just more hellish FX added to it, so like the previous Dark Clouds mixes it’s basically a more experimental, more “evil” take on the original mix.
That’s it for the Season Of The Dead album, but over the past few months Bloodsong has put out a few other digital releases; I’ve just been too lazy to write about them until now!
On Halloween of this past year, Bloodsong released the single Season Of The Dead, topically titled “Halloween ’24 Mix.” Per the notes, this is a demo mix of the eventual EP mix, but is not lacking any of its power. If anything this early version just sounds a little more barebones, almost like a live run-through of the track (impressive, given that Bloodsong’s a one-man band!).
In September of 2024, Bloodsong’s first release of original music came out – titled Glub, it was comprised of two versions of the title track. First was the “Mannyfield Version,” dedicated to Manny Martinez, the recently-passed first drummer for the Misfits, followed by the Original Version of the song.
“Glub” is inspired by the very first Misfits releases, “Cough/Cool” and “She,” particularly the former track. “Cough/Cool” was a smoky, jazzy number that had nothing much in common with later Misfits material, and Bloodsong stays very true to that vibe here. Like its inspiration source, “Glub” is a piano-driven lounge sort of tune; the Mannyfied Version lives up to its namesake with a lot of snare fills throughout the tune.
The “Original Version” is quite similar. The snare fills are brought down a little, with the kickdrum getting more focus. Otherwise there isn’t much difference between the two versions that I could detect. Of the two, though, I’d say this one sounds the most like a lost number from the original Misfits sessions. Kudos to Bloodsong for trying to replicate the sound of this early, mostly-forgotten incarnation of the Misfits, though.
In closing, Season Of The Dead comes off as highly recommended for anyone out there who likes the Misfits and/or Samhain (I only ever knew one guy who liked Samhain better than the Misfits, by the way – a guy I knew in college back in the ‘90s who not-so-coincidentally was also a total nutcase). Bloodsong hits the ball out of the park in his recreation of mid-‘80s Glenn Danzig music, and I had a blast listening to these songs.
But what we really need is a physical release, like ideally on a neon orange cassette tape, similar to how Danzig’s own Black Laden Crown was recently released!
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