Balzac: Beyond the Darkness
2003
Misfits Records
Format I own it on: Compact Disc
Track Listing: 1. Thirteen 2. Day The Earth Caught Fire 3. Wall 4. Into The Light Of The 13 Dark Night 5.Black Light Shines In '99 6. Nowhere #13 7. Yami-No Mukou-No Subete-Wo 8. Out Of The Blue II 9. In Your Face 10. The Silence Of Crows 11 .Tomorrow 12. Vanishes In Oblivion 13. The End Of Century 14. Monster II 15. Beware Of Darkness 16. Violent Paradise 17. Bleeding Light 18. Diabolos (live bonus track) 19. 13 Ghosts live bonus track) 20. Day The Earth Caught Fire (live bonus track)
This is (as far as I know) the first US release by the Osaka, Japan Horror-Punk band Balzac. It's was released in 2003 on Misfits Records and consists of re-recordings of songs from the band's extensive Japanese back-catalog.
Musically (and visually) it's very reminiscent of punk legends the Misfits, being an especially close relative of that group's post-Danzig output. They replace the Heavy Metal aspect of the Misfits' sound with slightly different influences, namely Scream-o and rackety industrial noise, but otherwise the dark subject matter and catchy "Woah oh oh's," are unmistakably Misfits. I swear every single song is loaded with "Woah oh ohs." This record is pretty much "Woah oh oh" porn.
They have the songs too! "Wall," "Violent Paradise," and "The Day the Earth Caught on Fire," stand up next to their forbear's best tracks, and for Misfits die-hards this is probably the best album to start with, since it's the one that resembles that band's output most closely. This band is always ridiculously generous with their output too...I think every Balzac album I own runs about the 80 minute mark, some of them feature multiple discs and usually a DVD of videos...The length and relative same-ness of the material sometimes make it hard to digest it all in one sitting, but for those moments where you've played all your Misfits albums to death, you're going to be thankful that there's so much of this...
In Japan the band is famous for their marketing, which includes limited album pressings, toys and clothes...I love this kind of stuff...Let's check out some of their merchandise...
Balzac Figure Collection....
"Atom age Vampire in 308" Vinyl model...
"Paradox" Color Vinyl
"Bag-Head' figure...This guy probably has a name...if so, I don't know it...
Misfits/Balzac split single vinyl cover...
Skull-Shaped picture disc...
Balzac picture disc...
"Ogon Skullman" figure...
Alright...Time to put the toys away and listen to "Wall" by Balzac...Enjoy...
This is good! I will check more of their stuff out.
ReplyDeleteJoe...I just got the CDs you sent me! Thank you very much! Tonight I'm going to pound some beers and listen to them all!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I hope you like them! Let me know what you think. We saw Ryan Bingham last night at the Magic Stick in Detroit and it was incredible!!
ReplyDeleteJoe , I got to check out the CD's. Tons of good stuff...I take back what I said about Ryan Bingham's Han Solo suit..He was good...I liked the "Western Shore" song..."Icebreaker" by Ryan Adams rocked...It was also good to hear Paw and Hum again...I haven't listened to either in a really long time...I think it inspired me to pick up a copy of "Downward is Heavenward" this weekend...
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked them! You know how I go through music so you'll get new one's often! Katie posted some pic's and a video of the Ryan Bingham show we went to on facebook. You'll have to check it out!
ReplyDeleteMan, I can't wait...I go through music at an incredible rate also...I did check out Katie's myspace...I haven't watched the video yet, but I will...After hearing those one of my big plans this weekend is to check out more of his music...Thanks for showing me that... The Gaslight Anthem spinoff songs were cool too...I wasn't aware that he had a side band...Those songs on there were just as good as Gaslight anthem, I thought...
ReplyDelete