The Devil's Rain is the seventh and most recent studio album by horror punk band Misfits, released October 4, 2011, through the label that the Misfits own, Misfits Records. It is the band's first album in eight years, following 2003's covers record Project 1950, and the first of original material since 1999's Famous Monsters. It is also the only release by the band's lineup of Jerry Only, Dez Cadena, and Eric "Chupacabra" Arce. The Devil's Rain was produced by Ed Stasium, who previously worked with the band on Famous Monsters.
The album is titled after the 1975 horror film of the same name and features cover artwork by Arthur Suydam, who previously did the cover of the band's 2009 single "Land of the Dead". Both songs from that single—"Land of the Dead" and "Twilight of the Dead"—were re-recorded for The Devil's Rain, and "Twilight of the Dead" was released as the album's lead single, with "Land of the Dead" as the b-side. The Misfits supported the album with tours of the United States and Australia from September to December 2011.
Background
Like previous Misfits albums, The Devil's Rain includes references and homages to many past works of horror and science fiction. The title track is based on the 1975 film The Devil's Rain, while other tracks reference the films The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964), The Black Hole (1979), and Land of the Dead (2005; Twilight of the Dead was this film's working title). "Dark Shadows" is based on the gothic soap opera of the same title that aired from 1966 to 1971, while "Monkey's Paw" is based on the 1902 short story and its various adaptations. "Vivid Red" is inspired by the opening scene of Dracula (1992), which depicts Vlad the Impaler in battle.
Reception
The Devil's Rain sold 6,000 copies in its first week of release and debuted at number 70 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album. It received a mixed critical response: at Metacritic, the album has an average score of 46 out of 100 based on 11 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Keith Carman of Alternative Press commented that "The sinewy guitar progressions and coupling of cryptic lyrics with floating melodies is admirable and occasionally infectious" and remarked that the production values mimicked those of the band's 1990s albums American Psycho and Famous Monsters, giving the tracks "brightness and color". Nevertheless, he called the album "far from a classic release", complaining that "an overabundance of half-time pacing has all but eliminated the hard, aggressive edge the Misfits were once revered for" and concluding that "The Devil's Rain yields little more than incredible frustration, a mixed bag with some great tunes worthy of inclusion in the Misfits' second generation yet sorely lacking in primeval vitality." David Buchanan of Consequence of Sound described it as "less than amicable and lacking a certain sense of evil pre-Michale Graves, though The Devil's Rain is definitely still in a campy, late-Misfits state of mind." He remarked that "shorter moments in 'The Black Hole' and the screamingly fast beginning pace of 'Jack the Ripper' remind listeners who exactly the Misfits used to be", but noted that as the album plays on, "semblances of the Buddy Holly-era musical muses and B movie inspirations that mutated into early Misfits material fall completely off the radar", saying that some of the album's updated elements might confuse the band's longtime fans. He concluded that "The Devil's Rain feels like a 50/50 shot-in-the-dark project, starting in a place unsure of its own existence and finishing strong with the uncompromising 'Death Ray.