Danzig

Though Danzig is perhaps best remembered as the original singer of the horror punk group the Misfits, it was his second group Samhain, which acted as the basis for his future musical endeavors. The band Danzig formed in response to Rick Rubin’s excitement with Samhain’s final performance. After Rubin saw the show he was set on signing lead singer Glenn Danzig to his record label as a solo act; however, Danzig refused to sign on unless he was accompanied by Samhain bass player Eerie Von. Ex-Samhain guitarist John Christ and Chuck Biscuits from D.O.A., Black Flag, and Circle Jerks also joined the line up in 1987.

Danzig took the gothic theatrics exhibited throughout his previous career to new heights with the release of his self-titled debut. The album was produced by recording engineer mastermind Rick Rubin and put out on his Def American Recordings label. The album is the band’s best selling album and since its release date it has reached Platinum status. The album was also garnered with critical praise; however, it did take a few years for the record to catch on with the public. Five years after its release the song “Mother” became a huge hit on MTV and it has since gone on to be featured in various video games such as “Guitar Hero” and movies like “The Hangover Part III”. The album has also been a major influence on a wide range of artists such as James Hetfield of Metallica, who provided backing vocals on a few of the album’s songs and cult folk musician Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, who performed a cover of “Am I a Demon”.

Danzig’s next album “Danzig II: Lucifuge” was released in1990 and featured concepts heavily extracted from historic blues artists such as Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson. The album fixates on themes of mortality, evil, the supernatural, and darkness.

By the release of the band’s third album Rick Rubin’s involvement in the group began to diminish and Danzig took greater part in the production of future album releases. Rubin was involved with all the group’s studio albums up until their 1994 release “Danzig 4”. This record contained the semi-hit “Cantspeaak”, which became a MTV favorite as well as the only single other than “Mother” to make it into the Billboard charts.

After this release Danzig left Rubin’s label to join Hollywood Records and put out a 5th studio album entitled “Blackacidevil”. This release not only saw a departure form Rubin’s idiosyncratic production work, but also one from the classic Danzig lineup. The only original member left in the group at this time was lead singer Glenn Danzig. “Blackacidevil” was largely seen as a solo release from Glenn Danzig. However this was not his first solo attempt. In 1992 Glenn Danzig put out an entirely instrumental full length entitled “Black Aria”. The album though instrumental displayed strong religious themes concerning Lucifer’s descent from god and its musical nature was haunting and atmospherically heavy. Despite the stylistic change, the album managed to do commercially well relative to its genre and entered the Billboard Classical Charts at No. 1.

On Danzig’s sixth studio album “Satan’s Child” he went in a more industrial direction and recorded the whole thing digitally. “Thirteen” (a dark bluesy ballad originally written for Johnny Cash) was a standout on the album. It was featured in the movie “Hangover” and was later covered by Mark Kozelek of Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon.

The 2000s were marked by three full length releases from the band: “Danzig 777: I Luciferi” (2002), “Circle of Snakes” (2004) and “Deth Red Sabaoth” (2010). Also Glenn Danzig released “Black Aria II”, the follow up to his debut solo recording. A year later Danzig worked on compiling a 26 song retrospective of lost material spanning the band’s entire career.

Around this time Danzig stated that he had grown tired with the cyclical system of widespread tours and resultantly opted for more localized and smaller scale tours. However for the band’s 20th anniversary he embarked on a lengthy US tour that also stopped off in Mexico and Canada.

Danzig has played many notable festivals over the years including the “Download Festival” and “Nova Rock Festival” alongside acts such as Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, and System of a Down.