REVIEWS:

"It would have been better to pass the CD off to our music reviewer Shane,
but I was not giving up my Johnny Gruesome CD because simply put
I love it... it is the kind of music that makes you want to jump into your
bitching Camaro, pick up your girlfriend Crystal, and drive to the Jersey
shore. Its something you would drive fast to, or when no one was looking,
might even pump your fist in the air and make the devil sign... In short
“Gruesome” would get an “A” if I gave out ratings."
Click to read the full review -- Horror YearBook

“Opening with an appropriately moody reading from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner,” Johnny Gruesome kicks into overdrive with the raucus rocker “Rigor Mortis.” This disc, which is something of a concept album, was created as a tie-in to a novel of the same name (to be released by Bad Moon Books this fall), with roughly half the tracks taking their lyrical cues from the story. Easily classifiable as straight-ahead horror rock, with one or two swampier moments including “Graveyard Blues,” the subject matter includes monsters, murderers and dismemberment, with kitschy Day of the Dead nod “Aunt Alicia” and the sad ballad “Mary Whispers” breaking up the otherwise up-tempo effort. The songs may not always hoit their mark musically, but the lyrics are dead clever and so damned much fun, it’s easy to imagine this blasting from the stereo of your souped-up hearse. MSK (3 ½ Skulls)”
-- Rue Morgue - August 2007 Issue #70

"Bottom line, the GRUESOME CD is a diverse mix with a solid backbone of hard rock that will definitely appeal to the target audience of people who enjoy the novel."
Click to read the full review -- Horror World

"...I know what I like and this CD is AMAZING! Giasone and Marcy Italiano are the artists who put this together and they couldn't have done a better job. From the opening with an ominous passage from The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner, the CD launches into some great rock and roll and never lets up. While not all songs are based on the Johnny Gruesome character, they're all amazing, with Rigor Mortis, Monster, Gruesome and Sorry Mary among my personal favorites. Every song has a great beat, driving guitar and a hook that will have you singing along before you’ve finished hearing the song for the first time!"
Click to read the full review -- Rogue Cinema

"Don't look for mega-heavy down-tuned guitars, or super power vocals here; nor will you find speedy tempos, or black metal keyboard overtures. None of those elements were common to old school hard rock, and would be very out of place here. What you will get is some ghoulishly fun songs, served with catchy choruses guaranteed to have you singing along after the first listen."
Click to read the full review -- FearZone.com

"The production is simple and uncluttered by excessive sound effects, and there's a storytelling quality to the writing that keeps it real... It's an ambitious approach that promises wicked-cool fun for broad-minded adults who never outgrew their teenage addictions to heavy metal, horror comics and splatter flicks..."
Click to read the full review -- FearNet.com

Translation from the German online magazine METAL COVEN (http://www.metalcoven.de/reviews/gruesome-johnnygruesome.htm):

"Johnny Gruesome" is the name of the main character in the like-named book by Gregroy Lamberson, am ambitious american author, who presents with the story of "Headbangers from Hell" his second work after the noted successful "Personal Demons". (Then it talks a little about the premise.)

Greg Lamberson has not only filmed a short film with Erin "Misty Mundae" Brown in the leading role, with zombie masks and cool comical show, but also Canadian Songwriter and Music Pair Giasone and Marcy Italiano under the name Gruesome have brought in a real genius Shockrock CD, that in showy-beautiful-Gruesical-Form processes the story of "Johnny Gruesome" musically.

After a voicy, short intro follows immediately one of the biggest highlights of the CD, namely the uncomfortable cool rocking "Rigor Mortis", which for me sounded a little as though the Canadian Rock Warrior Jon Mikl Thor of the night ambled over a ghostly graveyard while warbling a Billy Joel song. Completely crazy and definitely with gigantic catchyness.

With the unholy hard rocking "Over the Hill", "Monster," "Aunt Alicia" and "Gruesome" is it not less groovy, they altogether likewise have inspired awesome refrains, engaging melodies and a whole particular morbid charm.

From Alice Cooper and Kiss over Twisted Sister and WASP until to the Ramones and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the influences seen here are enough...
With "Graveyard Blues" follows then a snotty-amusing blue number, that also could have come from Ghoultown or the Coffinshakers and with "Mary Whispers" there is again an unsettling, small interlude to hear, before the CD gets to its big finale in the form of the energy-laden "Sorry Mary"and the hauling-monster "Death Mobile" get going!! These two tracks unite once again all preferences and qualities from Gruesome and belong beyond-doubt to the best tracks of this thoroughly husky (?) CD!! The one criticism about Johnny Gruesome's foray in the dirty world of Rock'n'Roll is in my opinion that this trip has fallen a quite short... two, three additional songs, at least to come to a play time of 35-40 minutes, would have not hurt.

Despite the tidy playing time, no potential buyer should be deterred from purchasing, because for one the price of 16$ including shipping and handling (stuff in brackets about buying in europe), accordingly fair and to others makes the 10 tracks on "Johnny Gruesome" inspire any amount of moods and arrives absolutely super for all friends of moody and macabre Rock-, Metal- and Punk sounds!!

If you are also always on the search for the right soundtrack for the next drive/jaunt in flossy (?) "Death Mobile" or you are in the mood simply for just a pair of banging hard rock numbers that awakes in truest sense the "Monster" in you, then the "Johnny Gruesome" CD is exactly your thing!!

"Great Horror Concept Album - Dark and Funny!
This album is inspired by the horror fiction JOHNNYGRUESOME - a novel and character invented by author and screenwriter Greg Lamberson (you can sample the work at www.slimeguy.com), which now has become a full fledged multimedia platform for horror, with this CD and a comic book and Halloweeen mask spin-off.
The concept is about a teenager who comes back from the dead to get vengeance on those who have wronged him, and if the idea sounds lifted from those horror films of the 1950s ("I Was a Teenage-") it is because Lamberson and crew are self-consciously and nostalgically riffing on "horror high" vibe with much flare.
Here the hard rock musical stylings of G and Mary Italiano really bring this dead guy to life with a decidedly non-50's, even post-Ramones and post-Cramps, sort of bent, updating these tropes while keeping nostalgia (in this case, by tapping into the metal scene of the late 1980's or early 90s). And in my opinion, it really works! The hard guitar-driven songs (as well as a few bleusy numbers) on this CD are just a lot of fun to listen to. The singing is both earnest and tongue-in-cheek, rife with subtle ironies that many horror movie fans will enjoy. [Example: You'll do a double-take and then laugh out loud at the pure genious of the song, "Over The Hill," when after a series of dismemberments by a woman is outlines, the chorus finally cries, "How could you, Mrs. Dick?"]. The whole album is good natured like this. The solos are strong, and the songs are well-composed. The song "Death Mobile" is probably my favourite, with its headbanger chorus and audacious lyrics, meant to either be blasted out of your hot rod or to be chanted in unison with... I dunno... a motorcycle zombie gang or something. Download these two songs to get a taste, but also be sure to get the whole album" (Five Stars!)
-- Mike Arnzen of gorelets.com

Nick Kaufmann he had this to say on his Live Journal:
"If you've got glamberson, gsguitar and/or marcy_italiano on your Friends List, you've no doubt been hearing about the Gruesome CD for months. Well, I finally got my hands on a much anticipated copy during MarcyCon, and I have to say it does not disappoint.
I've had the pleasure of watching Giasone Italiano come a long way as a musician and songwriter. I own a number of his earlier CDs, and while they're all very good, none have quite the power on display here. Marcy Italiano's lyric work here is outstanding, too. I think they've both found their calling in crafting hard rock horror-themed songs. My favorites on the disc are "Monster", "Gruesome" and "Death Mobile", since they not only rock the hardest but also have the catchiest tunes ("Gruesome" is one of those songs that stays in my head for hours after I listen to it). "Graveyard Blues" is up there too, along with "Aunt Alicia" for its very funny nod to Bub from Day of the Dead. You can find out more about the whole Gruesome project, including the CD, the Halloween mask, the music video, the trading cards, the comic book, and of course Greg Lamberson's soon-to-be-published novel that started it all, at www.johnnygruesome.com."
-- Nick Kaufmann

"After a spoken word intro pulled from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the album kicks off with “Rigor Mortis” which establishes the template for the album: a hard but loping beat, a throbbing rhythm guitar, and a memorable chorus. The songs are built around the vocal line and lyrics, and do not go in for much instrumental exploration. So the songs are surprisingly accessible, like hard-rocking sing-a-long numbers. This description works for more than half the album with the title track “Gruesome” standing out as the most successful.

But there are a few variations: “Aunt Alicia” is actually a music hall number that starts out like an early century popular song but accumulates dissonant guitar picking, off-rhythm drumming, and a layering of moaning groans and screams. “Graveyard Blues” is just that, a standard bar-band electric blues number. And “Mary Whispers” is a Gorey-esque fairy tale sung-spoken by Marcy Italiano from the point of view of a girl who has committed suicide. These pieces make the album richer with their differences, but all the songs are held together thematically by the images of death and desperation, whether the songs are centered on the Johnny character or not."
Click to read the full review -- Big Ole Face Full of Monster Music Reviews

"Definitely recommended for hard-rockers, headbangers and hellions of all stripes."
Click to read the full review -- Skullring.org

"Based on a novel by Gregory Lamberson, Johnny Gruesome tells the musical tale of an undead rock musician whose rotting corpse roams the dead of night. The retro-style songs are a throwback to the rock songs of the 1950s with lyrics that center around graveyards, morgues, serial killers and zombies. After a spooky introduction amidst a thunderstorm, "Rigor Mortis" kicks in with heavy guitar riffs and a narrated autopsy of the title character. Giasone Italiano's gritty vocals sound like George Thorogood, especially on the aptly titled "Graveyard Blues." The eerie "Mary Whispers" contain a nursery rhyme from the ghost of a young girl who committed suicide. Gruesome offers a bone-chilling tale of rock'n'roll horrors from beyond the grave with music to wake the dead."
-- Richard Pickman, Dark Realms Magazine

"Hard, sleazy, and infectious, 'Gruesome's' got a wicked, irresistible vibe."
-- Brian Keene

"'Gruesome' screams to be played at top volume while driving at a dangerously unsafe speed down a dark bumpy road, taking out a pedestrian or two during each chorus. You'll wanna rock to this one until blood sprays out
of your speakers."
-- Jeff Strand, author of PRESSURE and THE SINISTER MR. CORPSE

"This original rock CD, written and recorded by Giasone Italiano and his wife Marcy, offers listeners eight tracks of in your face music primarily based on the characters and concepts from the novel. Fun, loud, and pure rock, if the comics don’t hook your interest, the CD will."
-- HELLNOTES (http://hellnotes.com/index.php?tag=johnny-gruesome)

"I love this (Gruesome) song! G really tapped into his Alice Cooper influence and recorded a piece that perfectly captures the feel of Greg's new novel."
-- Steve Wedel author of SHARA

"I have been listening to the Johnny Gruesome CD and so far I have heard two remarkable songs "Death Mobile" and "Over the Hill". Please tell your musician friends that they are top notch songwriters and performers."
-- Richard Wicka from Think Twice Radio

"GRUESOME is a very rockin' tune that I wish could be heard as one opens the cover of Greg Lamberson's book---it'd be like a cooler version of one of those lame Hallmark sound cards! A very catchy chorus should help put this one on any rocker's "25 most played" list on their ipod!"
-- Nick Yak, The Horror Fiction Review

"A perfect rock-opera companion to the illustrious career of Gruesome’s multi-media amalgamation."
-- Withersin, click to read the full review.