With his dark imagery and titles such as 6:66 Satan's Child, he operates in the Horror Rock genre that was pioneered by Alice Cooper, Kiss and Black Sabbath and has been continued by White Zombie, Godsmack and more recently emo bands such as My Chemical Romance.

The hardcore music scene has undergone many changes since Danzig co-founded the Misfits in 1977. In his various bands he has seen styles come and go, from punk to goth, grunge, metal, rap metal and emo. He seems to be in a better position than most, then, to comment on the current state of hardcore music.

"The mainstream has definitely got lamer," he says with a sigh.

"Most of the stuff that is getting played is just watered down versions of music they would never play before. It's pretty much exactly the same as it was: the mainstream is scared of extreme kinds of music, but if someone does a softer, more politically correct version of it, then they might play it."

Danzig was happy playing his uncompromising music to his hardcore fan base when he almost accidentally broke through into the mainstream in 1993 after MTV started thrashing the live video to his four-year-old metal anthem Mother.

Since then, his career has taken some unexpected twists and turns, contributing the song Thirteen to Johnny Cash's 1994 American Recordings album, and releasing the classical album Black Aria.

But having turned 50 last year, he has given up extensive touring and now embarks only on limited short tours.

"I've retired from touring, so we're just doing a few shows. I don't think the Misfits ever played Australia, so we wanted to bring the show out. I've been really lucky that people have liked what I've done and I get to tour every record, but it gets tiring after a while."

The weightlifter, martial arts expert and collector of rare Japanese toys and animal skulls is a man of many tastes and talents. But it is his dark bluesy metal, churned out by his best-known bands the Misfits and Danzig, for which he is most famous, and fans will be anticipating generous lashings of both at the Palace tonight.

Expect to hear the Danzig classics that rang out every Wednesday night in the '90s at Chasers' Hard 'n' Fast nightclub in Prahran - Mother, Dirty Black Summer, 777 - plus Misfits classics (with Misfits guitarist Doyle on board for the show, it will be the closest fans will get to a reunion of the band Danzig left in 1983).

Danzig fills the gap for discerning music fans who love the dark, bluesy, brooding baritone of Presley and Jim Morrison, but with a heavy metal base.

"Neither of those guys did anything really heavy so I suppose I fill a void," he says. "No matter what I sing on, it's a bluesy vocal. Even the way I arrange my songs is like an old blues guy, even though it's heavy. I actually got up the stage with Hank Williams III, we did a heavy bluesy version of his grandfather's song The Angel of Death, and then the Alkaline Trio guys came up and we did a version of the old psychobilly song American Nightmare. So my music is pretty steeped in the roots."

And what does he think of the Evil Elvis nickname? "I'm flattered by that. It's better than being called the Evil (Journey frontman) Steven Perry."

Danzig played the Palace last night.