Everybody in the metal, rock, punk and overall music community has heard about Glenn Danzig, yeah, the 5’ 5’’ weightlifter man who can sing as Jim Morrison and Elvis just with more feeling and technique. Other than that, Danzig is known from his influence on the punk and dark rock influences; but, why he is so respected at the metal community? Well this album isn’t 100% metal, but it sure started the whole thing.
In 1988, the rock-metal scene was a bit separated, if you wanted to hear dark, violent, erotic or political themes; you have to listen a metal band; rock was a bit soft in his content, many bands like Guns N Roses and Motley did use some violent and darker themes in their music but it has nothing compared to the metal scene. Here’s when Danzig entered, as his music nature was based on dark, explicit and bizarre themes and with the company of three hard rock oriented musicians, Danzig created one of the most experimental albums in dark rock-metal history.
Here’s how it goes;
THE BAND :
Glenn Danzig -Vocals: The main brain of this album, his vocal style was definitely
unique; sure, it sounded like a mix between Jim Morrison and Elvis, but once you put attention to the vocals in this album, you can really feel the deepness of his vocals in every song.
John Christ -Guitars: To be honest, John isn’t the best guitarist, his playing isn’t what I call innovating or inspirational, but he is an important part of this record some guitar riffs are played with some bluesy feel , quite find to hard in any other metal album.
Chuck Biscuits-Drums: The role as a heavy metal drummer or as a hard rock drummer doesn’t fit well on Chuck, he can play simple and fast beats, nothing really spectacular but fairly executed.
Eerie Von-Bass-Von is an average bassist, but he can play some acid and distorted bass lines, although his work on bass isn't great he managed to keep the rhythm with the band.
THE MUSIC
If something’s worth to mention about this album, is the big variety of acid and heavy riffs, just by hearing the first riff on
Twist of Cain you could really experience a different kind of sound coming from a Metal band, many of this acid type of rhythms can be found at songs like
Not of this World which is probably the worst song on the album, consisting in a repetitive guitar riffs with a depressing drum beat, considered by many boring;
Possession is also a song that consist in an acid rhythm, it is very repetitive, as many songs in the album, it doesn’t have I call an interesting work on the guitar, the drums are one of the most interesting performance in the record, in a nutshell this song was saved by the incredible voice of Danzig, which it made the chorus really catchy. Another example of this kind of rhythm is the last song,
Evil Thing , another song with great drumming, the instrumental part of the song isn’t great, the guitar riffs and the bass are really good, but it’s a bit annoying hearing some of the verses with no music; sure, Danzig voice is great, but it’s sound better with the instruments.
Now, what makes this album heavy-metal? First, some songs have the orthodox structure of heavy metal, one of them is
Am I Demon , which reminds me to some old Venom songs, it is very repetitive and the only instrument that stands tall is the guitar. Another song that can be classified as heavy metal, is the pop-single
Mother , to be honest, this song is very good, the vocals, the drums and the guitar sound like good old heavy metal, sure this song can be considered as a Power Ballad, but the solos are heavy enough and the drumming during the last solo can be one of the best in this album.
End of Time is the only song that sounds different to the others on the album, although it defines perfectly what the sound of the band is, the apocalyptic vocals sound like a sad lament coming from a powerful man, the drums are very simple, as the guitar and the bass, still this is the most obscure song in the album.
What I like about this album was the bluesy and heavy guitar riffs,
She Rides , a song that sounds like a mix between Steppenwolf and Samhain, is about the longest and most catchy song on the album, the slow tempo of the song and the distortion on the guitar make a great musical ambient, other than the songs mentioned before,
The Hunter a great cover, originally composed by guitar legend Albert King and
Soul on Fire, are the bridge between heavy metal and hard rock, both of the song have that old feeling of blues and hard rock, but as the songs progress some distorted guitar riffs and heavily bass lines make you think about the great versatility of the music.
THE THEMES
Danzig, as a songwriter has always impressed me, the complex of his lyrics are nothing spectacular, but the themes are unexplored by other artists. That makes Danzig lyrics more interesting and unique.
Mother
Can you keep them in the dark for life
Can you hide them from the waiting world
Oh mother
As you can see, most of the lyrics aren’t what I call a genial work, but when it comes to finding it a meaning is a bit hard, take this strophe from Mother for example, easily makes a reference to the cold hearted world that waits for us and the role as protective figure; but, many people have also consider this song as a bad seed to the society, and acclaimed that Danzig was a bad influence to the society by being some kind of perverted musician. Many of the themes of this album can be open to different interpretations, that’s what’s make, the themes of the album great.
Conclusion : A good album that mixes Hard Rock, Blues and Heavy Metal with a load of dark themes.
Pros:
1. Excellent Vocals
2. Variety of Music styles.
3. Good Production
Cons:
1. Repetitive Songs
2. Bad instrumentation
Notes:
°Produced by Rick Rubin.
°James Hetfield did backing vocals on Twist of Cain and Possession.
°Basically is a half rock half heavy metal album.
