A Devil's Possessions

A fixture on the Los Angeles punk scene in the early 1980s, 45 Grave disbanded in 1985, but regrouped (with a mostly new lineup) in 2004. A DEVIL'S POSSESSIONS commemorates the band's revival by collecting rare demos and live tracks from between 1980 and 1983, capturing the band's edgy, mercurial energy when they were at their peak. It's all here: the creepy but tongue-in-cheek deathrock themes, the grand sweep of punk's early experimentalism, and Dinah Cancer's chilling vocals on cuts like "Violent World," "R2D2 Is Buddha," and perhaps the group's best-known tune, "Party Time." (The remix, which appeared in the film RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, is included here too.)