Danzig
“777: I Luciferi”
(Spitfire)
Evil imp Glenn Danzig, alleged son of Roy Orbison, comes at us in his new Nu-Metal, Marilyn Manson type style. It’s true that Glenn has gone through many stylistic changes over the course of his career from howling, fast paced, surf influenced odes to B-grade horror flicks and conspiracy theories as the frontman for the Misfits to the doom drenched dirges of Samhain to the blues loving, Satan’s buddy solo project Danzig. And again Glenn has changed his overall musical direction, but has kept the name of the project, Danzig, intact. Now we find Glenn having torn asunder the blues influences of the early Danzig albums to revel in a more straightforward nu-metal drudgery.
The beauty of Danzig has always been his comic book persona, his full-blown orgy with Succubi fantasies and general silly macho-evil man. Sure these elements are still to be found on an album with an obvious title like, “I, Luciferi,” but the fun, which is essential to Danzig, is lacking.
One sure fire killer to the joyous evil revelry of Glenn is to bury his voice in the mix, which is precisely what Glenn (who is credited as one of the mixers) has done to himself. Glenn is also credited as the producer and has taken to playing guitar and keyboards on the album in addition to his former vocals only duty. Perhaps the man who many have called Hellvis has fallen in love with the sound of his guitar, a Les Paul, he only plays Les Paul (see the 1989 Danzig video) and doesn’t want to give the fans the wicked soulful wailing they’ve all come to love. It might be time for Glenn to take a long hard look at that which makes Glenn, Glenn.
