I was somewhat apprehensive about this album. I have not really picked up on much of Danzig's stuff since the Thrall-Demonsweatlive EP, but Danzig was one of the artists that made me a metalhead. Back when I was in middle school, Danzig's live "Mother" video was played on MTV in regular rotation. That seems weird now to think about. I loved that song and my older brother bought the EP. He eventually gave it to me when he stopped listening to metal. Over the years, I had picked up the three previous albums and even a Misfits CD. I really liked Danzig's voice, a demonic crooning that calls to mind Jim Morrison or Elvis Presley. Unfortunately, Danzig released some subpar albums after that and the magic appeared to be gone.Until now.
I was convinced to pick this album up after reading Kelly's review. It does sound as if Danzig is back on this album. The album sounds like a continuation of the classic Danzig era. His voice sounds weathered, but still potent. As a man in his mid-50's, he should not be expected to still be able to belt out the crooning from his earlier days.
As far as the music goes, Glenn Danzig has surrounded himself with Tommy Victor from Prong on guitar and Johnny Kelly from Type O Negative on drums. Both fine musicians. The album starts off extremely strong on opener "Hammer of the Gods", and keeps this going for some time. The album kind of starts to drag after a little while. Danzig uses the same basic song structure throughout, making many of the songs a little simple. The lyrics are a little silly at times such as those on "Ju Ju Bone" and "Black Candy" which features the line "Black candy is so hard to find" which isn't even remotely true.
Still though, all those things are pretty much par for the course for Danzig. I'm just glad he's back.
I'm glad you agree!
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