Danzig Album: “Danzig”

After listening to the Misfits collection 1 back in 1988 or 1989 I immediately tracked down this self titled cassette from Danzig. What you get is a stripped down blues metal album with demonic overtones. I personally love the production that Rick Rubin gave this album. This is the first album that Glenn Danzig appeared on that really brought his vocals to the front of the mix. Glenn has a deep bluesy sound but his voice has a great range. The drums from Chuck Biscuits are awesome. You hear every hit he makes and it thunders in your chest. Chuck knew how to really add drums to Danzig rather than just following the simple rhythm. John Christ has great guitar tones that are truly unique and compliments Glenn's vocals perfectly. There is not one bad song on the album. The album starts with Twist of Cain which sets the mood well. The album varies in tempo from the slower "She Rides" to the faster pace of "Mother". If you like dark music with a hard edge (this is not GOTH) then I highly recommend you pick this up. As a long time Danzig fan, I still revisit this album often but Lucifuge is still my favorite Danzig album!

I've never been much of a Misfits fan, but having heard a few songs from them, I can honestly say that this eponymous band of Glenn Danzig, the singer of that famous punk rock group, is far better. I've been getting into Danzig's for a few months now, buying each album in order to hear the progression they've made. And indeed, with each album, they get better and better (so far, DANZIG III: HOW THE GODS KILL is the best - review to come!). Here, this album is a little rough around the edges, but it is undeniably a great piece of laid-back hard rock.

Glenn Danzig is a very talented singer. He has a powerful voice that carries a sort of Mississippi Delta/New Orleans twang, which complements the bluesy feel to the songs. He's an interesting, if not original, songwriter, most of the songs seeming to gloat how he is evil in one way or another, but with a sort of smirking, sexual, yet altogether tongue-in-cheek crooning. It's like Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison meet Christopher Lee...if that makes any sense.

The riffs and patterns are simple, the subject matter dark and somewhat silly, but this is very good stuff from a fairly straightforward hard rock band. There is a distinctly bluesy feel to the album and many of the songs. Take, for instance, "Twist of Cain." Such a simple and repetitive song, but I'll be damned if it isn't catchy ("Yea, twist of Cain, yeah, drives my brain, yea..." - with the blues rhythm and voice, how can that NOT be catchy?!). Also, "She Rides" is especially bluesy. And of course, there's the now-classic hit "Mother" (which would not gain fame until 1993), with its brief but dazzling solos and, of course, catchy chorus. Just about every song on here is catchy.

In some ways this particular Danzig album reminds me of the Doors (a la the crooning) and AC/DC (the bluesy but heavy rock). However, unlike the latter band, most of Danzig's songs aren't clones of one another.

This is a terrific album. It's catchy and fun; evil at its best.

I have been a danzig fan for years, every band he has been in has been great from Misfits, Samhain to Danzig, I own every danzig album, I have not been disappointed with any of them. The best Danzig albums are Danzig II: Lucifuge, Danzig IV. This album is very good it has one of my favorite songs, Twist of Cain, I enjoy at least 90% of this album, it is a very strong album. Danzig has a great voice and awesome lyrics..Enjoy

This is the 1st Danzig lp with the "new" name. Taking

Eerie Von from Samhain, John Christ on guitar- who made

a guest appearance on Samhain's finale "Final Descent",

Chuck Biscuits formerly of Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and

other seminal punk act;on drums and of course ol' Glenn himself

on vox. THis is a different sound for Glenn seeing as

Glenn made a career out of horror-punk. While the subject

matter stays true to form- the music takes on a classic

metal/rock approach. Crossing over to the 70's metal of

Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin while mantaining simplicity

in riffing and arrangments. There's plenty of guitar noodling

courtesy of John Christ who unlike players from Glenn's past

is more than just competent at his instrument. Chuck also

fine tunes the rhythm section while Chuck isn't playing thrash

drum lines he shows more than once he has chops more so than previous

drummers of Danzig. What about the vocals you ask?

Well- they are still pretty true to form of Glenn sounding at

times more like Morrison than ever. Most people will get this

because Danzig's top 40 track "Mother" is on here. But there are

some other killer songs: "TWist of Caine", "End Of Time" so forth. Perhaps the track that sticks out the most is "Possession"

which sounds like Samhain could've easily done the song.(And they did I come to find out!) Are there things that bother me about this release? Yeah the guitar could use a little more gain at times it sounds like John is using the clean channel and just

decided to crank the gain instead hitting overdrive. John distortion is your freind! Otherwise this is worth picking up.

Danzig has never topped his debut album. He has equalled it, but never topped it. This is the cd that will make you a Danzig fan, not any of his later ones. This one is just simple bluesy metal- no razzle dazzle, no B.S. And I believe this cd has a record number of "yeahs" on it. A few years back during one of my dating dry spells I had nothing better to do than count the number of times Glenn said "Yeah" on this album. It's been many years, but I believe the number is either 68 or 63. And contrary to some beliefs, I don't find this album boring at all. No matter how hard I try, it just doesn't bore me. I had the pleasure of being corrupted by this album at the age of 12 when I caught the video for She Rides. My knowledge of metal was limited back then and I can still remember being confused by the video. I see this musclebound Conan-looking dude singing like Elvis Presley with girls dancing all around him and I thought to myself, "Who the hell is this guy?" I'm glad I explored that further coz I became a huge Danzig fan after that. That is up until his ego kicked the band members out. I liked these band members, I liked John Christ just as much as Danzig. Then Glenn thought he could just record any crap and his devoted fans would buy it. Not this fan, NOSIREEBOB. My advice to a newcomer is to grab this cd first, then work your way up to Danzig 4, then for god's sake leave them alone! Go back and get Misfits and Samhain albums. But there's no denying just how great this debut is. If you really want to treat yourself to something special, get up off your Hostess behind and get this sucker.