Metal Martyr

Danzig | A Downhill Discography

by Scott on January 20th, 2008

You ever buy a brand new car and it’s really cool for the first two years or so and then it loses it “Thing” after awhile. So you try to spice it up with some new rims or something to try to make it flash again. You get back into it for a short period just to realize that it’s the same old car and it may be time to move on and remember the good ole’ time you had when you first got it. Thats how I feel about my Danzig collection. Let us begin…

Danzig (one) was their first big label sign with producer Rick Rubin at the helm. With better production settings and a good producer Danzig took the sound that was Samhain and molded it into a heavy rock groove. With songs like Twist Of Cain, She Rides, and lets not forget Mother, this record was a great start for the Danzig Legion and followers clinging to his coat tails since the Misfits era.

Danzig II Lucifuge. In my opinion Danzigs best work, Lucifuge brought more blues driven metal to the fans with songs like Killer Wolf and I’m The One while keeping the groove heavy and hard with Long way Back From Hell and Devils Plaything. Satan was evidently present during recording sessions now and was an avid listener of Danzig’s music. Blood And Tears took a 50’s/ 60’s ballad sound and showed and soft yet dark side of the band.

Danzig III How The Gods Kill was a slight change but still a great record starting off with Godless, which starts off heavy and slows down to the beat of the sound of pounding nails that are supposed to be depicting the nails being driven into the hands and feet of Christ on the cross. The title track How The Gods Kill starts off really soft and delicate and then BAM! it kicks in, the best track on the cd. Sistinas is yet another 50’s sounding ballad that just shows you that that’s where Glenn get a lot influence in his writing. Heart Of The Devil shows once again that the blues are alive and well in Danzig at this point and his vocals are a well oiled machine during this recording.

Danzig 4 id where we all noticed some kind of change going on. It wasn’t so blatantly obvious but we knew something was happening. The sound started to change a bit. Tracks like Can’t Speak, Bringer Of Death and Sadistikal were having this weird industrial sound to them. However there was still hope with songs like Until You Call On The Dark, Let It Be Captured and I Don’t Mind The Pain. in typical fashion there was that usual ballad of Going Down To Die which was a killer track and probably the best on the cd.

The First four Danzig cd’s were produced by Rick Rubin and as we all know you can’t go wrong with Rick. Unfortunately for a lot of Danzig fans,Glenn started producing his own records after Danzig 4. He changed the line-up drastically and the music started to have a more industrial sound to it. Lets move into the new era of Danzig.

Danzig 5: Backacidevil. You can’t blame the guy for trying to keep things fresh with a new sound but this was every Danzig fans biggest disappointment. If your a hardcore Danzig fan and you say you were not disappointed with Blackacidevil then your just lying to yourself. With such an industrial turn to the music a huge line up change and Glenn producing the record everything took a turn for the worse. 7th House is just an annoying wall of noise In fact this whole CD is just terrible and I don’t even want to talk about it. Even the Hand Of Doom Black Sabbath cover was bad. It has you thinking ‘This Is Danzig?”

Danzig 6:66 Statan’s Child was a turn in the right direction. returning to a better sound yet still not traditional Danzig sound. Five Finger Crawl was a mediocre track, much better than anything from 5. Even thought this album was better than Danzig 5, it’s still an easily forgettable recording. The best song on the CD is Thirteen, which Johnny Cash did a great cover of. I tried as hard as I possibly could to get into this cd, but just couldn’t do it.

Danzig 777 I Luciferi brings yet the same style sound from Danzig 6:66. Overmixed guitar also drown out a lot of the Vocals on this record. Kiss the Skull has a really heavy yet Marilyn Manson Beat to it, bland sounding vocals a chorus that becomes annoying after the first Wo-oh. Dead inside has Danzig slowing things back down to ballad form for a second however his vocals are weak at first and then song kicks in heavy and he sounds raspy. Another yet disappointing addition to the legacy.

Danzig: Circle Of Snakes doesn’t do much better. Hollow sounding snare, squeely/crunchy guitars become redundant. 1000 Devils Reign has a cool beat and sound to it, but it can’t hold everything together on this record. Most of the record sounds like garbage with the exception of Black Angel, White Angel which has a cool rhythm and overall sound to it. By this time Glenn’s voice is sounding old and horse. Obviously he has strained it over the years touring and recording.

Lastly The Lost Tracks Of Danzig. This 2 disc compilation of hits that didn’t make it, covers, or remixes is good for the price. The ballad Cold, Cold Rain on disk one is great but could have sounded better. The mixes of When Death Had No Name are pretty cool and even the cover of T-Rex’s Buick McKane. You should be dying is also a real cool tune on this set. The biggest downfall of this release is disk two. Disk two is where it all goes downhill and has all the stuff that didn’t get released while Danzig was producing. It’s mainly Industrial sounding. So not a bad addition to the collection and a much smaller disappointment.

In closing this is what I have to say if your now a Danzig fan but have heard a few songs and liked them. Don’t taint your interest by buying anything after Danzig 4. In fact you could probably do without 4 as well. Stick to the first three and if your really interested in the history of Danzig pick up Misfits Collection1 and 2 and Samhain Final Descent.

I didn’t include any live releases in this discography because I wanted to just generally cover studio recording and typically Danzig is Shitty live. Even if the live CD’s sound good, it’s only a few tracks. Danzig is not one of those bands that sound really great live…never has been.

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POSTED IN: Danzig