Glenn Danzig is one of the more bizarre personalities in metal today. Clearly a nerd with short man's syndrome, Danzig is extremely muscular, temperamental, and did I mention short? He's also big into comic books and has built up an impressive library of occult books. It's tough to tell what part of Danzig's public persona is real, and what part is an act. However, I can judge his music.Danzig's music in the early days took influences from hardcore, metal, classic rock, and the blues. He mixed and matched and came up with an impressive amalgam of some sort of gothic doom metal. Danzig was originally the singer for The Misfits, one of the few punk bands that I have any interest in whatsoever (and that is mostly because of my interest in Danzig). He took their well-known affinity for horror stories and darkened the music. Danzig's songs are mostly about occult themes, odd sexuality, horror stories, and other dark topics.
The music is exceptionally dark, with ominous atmosphere, and heavy riffs. This album features one of his better known songs "Dirty Black Summer", which has an amazingly catchy opening riff. The album also features the haunting "Sistinas" and several other more hard hitting tracks.
Danzig was one of the first metal bands I remember enjoying. MTV used to play the live video for "Mother" frequently and this song attracted me to the band. Danzig's Doors-esque crooning vocals grabbed attention, and the anger was enough to attract the attentions of listeners. Unfortunately, after this album and the following EP, Danzig started to go into a different direction. Soon after, he began to lose his trademarked vocal style. While he has returned to this sound, somewhat, the magic is gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment