AMG Review of Respect the Dead

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

Hardcore punk fans of a certain age will be flipping over the Stellar Corpses' debut and peering at the small print at the bottom of the back cover, but remarkably, this six-song, 14-and-a-half-minute EP was not in fact released by SST Records circa 1982. A Santa Cruz quartet with a taste for Misfits-style comic book horror-themed lyrics -- besides the title track, songs include "Cemetery Man," the chainsaw-themed "Pieces of You," and the Patsy Cline pastiche "Stalkin After Midnight" -- the Stellar Corpses also deliver a bracing line in old-school first-generation California hardcore à la Descendents, early Social Distortion, and their brethren. Brashly melodic with just a hint of rockabilly, and featuring ex-Chop Tops leader Dusty Grave as their ghoulish but essentially good-humored frontman, the Stellar Corpses are a goofball hardcore delight, although it's certainly a point in their favor that Respect the Dead is over in just under a quarter of an hour. This sort of thing is best appreciated in small doses.