Like most fiends I can listen to The Misfits anytime of year but for some reason when that autumn chill starts coming in and the leaves begin turning red, orange, yellow and brown I feel compelled to listen to Legacy of Brutality.

A few years after Glenn ended The Misfits (October 29th, 1983) he inked a deal with Caroline Records (1985) to release future Misfits albums and Legacy of Brutality would be their initial Misfits release.

Glenn had been using Reel Platinum studio since August 1983 (for Samhain) and he used them to work on the tracks for the upcoming compilation.  He took several songs from The Misfits first album, Static Age, which had sat on the "shelf" since its recording in January-February 1978 and wouldn't see official release until 1995.

In Black Market Press #6 (Fall 1986) Glenn spoke about the unreleased Static Age; "...we didn't like it at the time, Now I remixed alot of it, laid new tracks on it and the stuff sounded alot better.  At the time it was also money too, we didn't have that much money to work with.".

Static Age, TV Casualty, Some Kinda Hate, Hybrid Moments, Come Back, Angelfuck, Theme For A Jackal, She and Spinal Remains were all taken from the unreleased album to which Glenn overdubbed the guitar and bass tracks.  He would also use unused versions of Who Killed Marilyn? and Where Eagles Dare from a C.I. Recording, Inc session (January 26th-February 5th, 1979) that featured Joey Image on drums and Bobby Steele on guitar.  Halloween came from a Master Sound Productions session (August 5th, 1980-September 5th, 1980) that featured Doyle on guitar and Arthur Googy on drums.  He closed the album with the rockabilly track, American Nightmare from a Newfound Sound Studio session (June 1981); Glenn provided guitar for this track and it featured Arthur Googy on drums.  The entire band, along with Jerry and Doyle's brother Ken “Rocky” Caiafa can be heard clapping along to the beat.

Metallica's manager (at the time), Cliff Burnstein, actually provided the money necessary for Glenn to master Legacy of Brutality.  Caroline released the album in September 1985 on both vinyl and cassette.

"Well the band might be dead, with no hopes of a rising in sight, but a new vinyl release bears the header of the Misfits, a band high in cult status.  What we have here are 13 unreleased tracks, some originally slated to be the Static Age LP and various other numbers including one written for The Cramps.  Entitled Legacy Of Brutality, this is prime Misfits' goodies for all you ghoulies.  Most were recorded before Walk Among Us in the late 70's, a bit from the vaults of horror you might say.  Quite a haunting as these cryptic selections slide into your dusty atmosphere, remove those white sheets, throw back some of those cobwebs and prepare for "Spinal Remains", "Some Kinda Hate", "Static Age", "Theme for a Jackal" and different renditions of "She" and "Halloween".  Glenn Danzig at the forefront croons out those creeping melodies with the eerie ensemble of Misfits' musical prowess keeping it in that spooky tempo.  During the long period when the Misfits performed they showed a variety of styles, all leading the way in the horror department, and this Lp's contains some of their finest efforts before kicking up the tempo into theardcore vein.  Now the Misfits are gone, a tombstone casts a dark shadow in New Jersey, but always the records remain giving you that lasting impression.  Heads off to the Misfits, always a bone to crush."~Thrasher (Summer 1985)

The song mistakenly noted as being "written for The Cramps" mentioned in the review is American Nightmare; this may have just been the reviewers observation on the songs rockabilly style.  American Nightmare was done in one take; Arthur Googy followed Jerry's head nods as a cue as to when to drum.

"The Misfits' Legacy of Brutality is cut from the same vein of granite.  Made up largely of tracks recorded for a projected LP in '78, this is the sound of the East Coast's finest before hardcore took over and "Speed Before All" became their credo.  On it, Glenn Danzig's great cartoon-horror lyrics are clearly audible, and the massive guitar licks that crash through the blood-soaked landscape can be fully observed before they go flying off to sow chaos elsewhere.  Danzig's sustained yowl was meant to be heard at this pace and people only familiar with the band's fine--but too swift-- later work oughta have their heads take cleanly off by the revelations contained hereon.  It rips.  Fuck collectors.  This stuff shoulda always belonged to anybody with a taste for brain-crush.  Now it does.  Hooray for you."~Byron Coley, Forced Exposure (Summer 1985)

The release of Static Age in 1995 rendered Legacy of Brutality largely obsolete, though it is still the only way to get American Nightmare; besides tracking down the Boxset sampler cd (February 8th, 1996)...but for me the album still sets the perfect atmosphere for that chilly-dreary autumn day.

“[Legacy of Brutality] That's an abortion.  The Misfits had distinct eras, Tyrannosaurus Rex did not eat the Dimetradon because they didn't live in the same million year span.  We have our own eras.  The "Static Age" era had Mr. Jim on the drums and Franché Coma playing guitar.  That was one era.   Then after that you had the Googy and Doyle era ("Walk Among Us").  Then you had the Doyle and Robo era ("Earth A.D."), so it was pretty much based upon drummers, which is not a very good way to substantiate different points of origin on, but that's pretty much what ended up happening [Jerry forgot to mention the “Horror Business” line up~zh].  When Glenn went to deal with Caroline he just took enough stuff to fill up the CD and really put no thought whatsoever into packaging.  It was just like let's get another Misfits release and put it out on the counter, the last one sold good [The Misfits last release prior to this was the Die, Die My Darling 12” EP~zh], let's put out another one.  It's a shame cause out of all the bands in the world we've got a soap opera as far as band members and things that happened in our career.  To take things out of context in our band is like really making a mess out of everything, I mean you can't put it back together.  I would have never put that album out the way it was.  It has good songs, but no thought behind it.  It's an abortion of Misfits stuff all stuffed into one can.  Don't buy it.”~Jerry Only, Maximum RockNRoll, December 1995