Danzig

My copy of Skeletons finally arrived last week and I'm sorry to say, it's sorta on the disappointing side of things. The entire thing, packaging, liner notes, production, etc. just feels cheap as hell.

I get it. In this day & age, musicians don't make squat and corners must be cut, but this is just piss poor. Cheap cardboard packaging, bare-bones liner notes, no booklet, no band photos. Then there's the music.

I'm not usually one to criticize production values, so you know it must be bad if I notice. Glenn's vocals sound all echoey and too loud. The instruments sound all muddy and vary in loudness from track to track. It's evident that these tunes were recorded at different times with different musicians and maybe places too. No consistency. I'm sure he (or rampant fans) will try to pass this off as "trying to recapture the old sound of the Misfits", but in 2015 it sounds like crap.

As for the songs, some work better than others. The lesser known ones of course sound cooler if you have nothing to compare them to. I will say that on even the better known songs, he does give them enough of a Danzig spin to make them his own. No problems there. But on the ZZ Top song 'Rough Boy', he interjects a few f-bombs in there that make it sound like that scene from 'Old School' and the Dan Band. You know the one I'm talking about...



It's 10 tracks that go by pretty quickly and it doesn't overstay it's welcome. So there's that. I won't say that I hate this or that it's unlistenable. It's interesting enough and I do like cover albums. But for a guy like me that lost track with Danzig some time ago, I wanted this to be a great comeback album that rekindled my interest for the man and his band. And that's where it failed. If this is indicative of what he's up to these days, I'll pass.

Yea, the whole thing just feels so darn cheap. From the packaging to the demo-like quality of the songs. I was at a record show Thanksgiving weekend and I almost bought this for $15, thinking it might be hard to come by. Glad I waited.

And I think Glenn needs to step back from the production console and let someone else offer up an opinion or 2. Sometimes you need that outside voice to step in and say "Hey, let's try it this way" or "This could sound better if you tried this". He's doing the lion's share of the arrangements, instruments, production, etc. and it shows.

I've heard samples, and it sounds awful! Worst production I've heard in a while...
Not to mention his lackluster vocal performance.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

But for a guy like me that lost track with Danzig some time ago, I wanted this to be a great comeback album that rekindled my interest for the man and his band. And that's where it failed. If this is indicative of what he's up to these days, I'll pass.

I don't know exactly when you lost track with Danzig, so maybe you have heard this album or not, but he made that comeback album with 2010's Deth Red Sabaoth, in my opinion. So if you haven't, I'd at least give that a shot. Unfortunately, it seems that comeback was short lived.

As far as I'm concerned, Danzig's discography beyond Misfits/Samhain, may as well look like this:
-Danzig
-Danzig II
-Danzig III
-Deth Red Sabaoth

The first 3 Danzig albums are excellent! After that lineup broke up, I lost interest...

John Christ and Chuck Biscuits were essential to the classic Danzig sound.

Troublezone wrote:

The first 3 Danzig albums are excellent! After that lineup broke up, I lost interest...

John Christ and Chuck Biscuits were essential to the classic Danzig sound.

The fourth one wasn't too bad either, but after that one, with the start of Blackaciddevil, the combination of losing the original band members and experimenting with a more industrial sound was more than I was willing to listen to.

I had heard that he got over his NIN-phase and was back to guitar/bass/drums on the last few albums, but by then I had moved on. It's unlikely I'll be tracking down anymore Danzig albums. Plenty of other stuff I'd rather listen to nowadays. I was really hoping that this new covers album would re-spark an interest, but it fell way below expectations.

I'm a Danzig fanboy, so it's no surprise that I like this. It sounds like the production on the first Samhain album. I'd rather this low budget sound than some slick Andy Sneap sounding recording. I didn't really care for the Sabbath cover. It sounded out of place & was probably put there to appease the metalheads (although Sabbath was no doubt an influence on him).

Standout tracks for me were Devil's Angels, Let Yourself Go, Girl Like You, & Find Somebody.

mc666 wrote:

I'm a Danzig fanboy, so it's no surprise that I like this. It sounds like the production on the first Samhain album. I'd rather this low budget sound than some slick Andy Sneap sounding recording. I didn't really care for the Sabbath cover. It sounded out of place & was probably put there to appease the metalheads (although Sabbath was no doubt an influence on him).

Standout tracks for me were Devil's Angels, Let Yourself Go, Girl Like You, & Find Somebody.

Oh my God, you're back. Yes, we've been placing bets on whether you would ever return.

How you doing mc? We haven't heard from you in a long ass time!

Troublemagnet tried to have me killed. I had been hiding out in witness protection until his capture. They last had me in disguise as a black man working at Amazon. Some guy called me a racist name & I blew my cover by being overly sensitive. Everyone knows MC is a delicate flower.

mc666 wrote:

Troublemagnet tried to have me killed. I had been hiding out in witness protection until his capture. They last had me in disguise as a black man working at Amazon. Some guy called me a racist name & I blew my cover by being overly sensitive. Everyone knows MC is a delicate flower.

mc666 wrote:

Troublemagnet tried to have me killed. I had been hiding out in witness protection until his capture. They last had me in disguise as a black man working at Amazon. Some guy called me a racist name & I blew my cover by being overly sensitive. Everyone knows MC is a delicate flower.

mc666 the King of satire! As much as I missed your thoughts on musical topics, this is where mc666 shines.

I've been revisiting Skeletons the past few days and I am really digging it a lot more than when it was released last year.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I've been revisiting Skeletons the past few days and I am really digging it a lot more than when it was released last year.

I re-visited it fairly recently and while I still stand by my initial criticism, I didn't hate it as much as I did when I first got it. I've warmed-up to it. A little bit.

New album coming mid-May. Black Laden Crown.

Saw that yesterday. Hope he can make this one as good as the last one. Deth red sabaoth was a great album IMO.

Shouldn't she be wearing a black crown? Or presenting one? Or a crown somewhere on the cover? Judging from the artwork, the album should be called Ouch! My Hands Are on Fire!!. Or Get this Bat Off My Tits!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

New album coming mid-May. Black Laden Crown.

All grown up since the last time we saw her...

Always stoked for more Danzig. I can't find much info on it but I'm curious to see the lineup.

metalinmyveins wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

New album coming mid-May. Black Laden Crown.

All grown up since the last time we saw her...

That's awesome!!

New song...


Wow. Glenn sounds like he's losing his voice. Like he just got over a cold or something. The music's cool, but those vocals?

I don't think the vocals sound bad, but they definitely need a better mix. The song sounds good though. Reminds me of something from Danzig III