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Play any of the first four Danzig
albums today and you’ll be blown away by the timeless
quality and power of utterly spelling binding music.
Put on Danzig 5: Blackacidevil, the next Danzig album,
and be blown away by an album that has to rank as one of
the very worse metal albums ever recorded. To say it is
garbage is an understatement, to say it’s a
disappointment is like describing a nuclear explosion as
a little loud. It is mind-boggling to this day just how
awful Danzig 5 is, it makes Metallica’s St Anger sound
like Holy Diver or Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. |
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This was the first Danzig album
following Danzig’s departure from Rick Rubin’s Def
American, later American Recordings. So, a different
record label, and no production involvement from Rubin,
who, while he coasts on his reputation today, and puts
his name to mediocre albums like Death Magnetic (Kerry
King once described Rubin as The Invisible Producer due
to his minimal involvement with the acts he produces,
which explains how he can produce so many bands), was
nevertheless, in his prime, a fantastic producer,
producing ground-breaking records for Slayer, Trouble,
and The Cult.
In a further Lemming-like (not Lemmy, who really is
smart) stroke of genius, Danzig dispensed/drove away,
the three talents who had made the first Danzig albums
so special, Ex-Samhain bassist Eerie Von, modestly
monickered guitarist John Christ, and drummer Chuck
Biscuits.
The goal thing about this uh…pyrrhic victory was Danzig
can take all the blame of Danzig V himself, as it is to
all intents and purposes, a solo album. He was joined by
Joey Castillo on drums, and once Joseph Bishara provides
keyboards and programming (and those two words are very
much the kiss of death to any music with feeling. Jerry
Cantrell of Alice in Chains supplies guitar on See All
You Were, a pointless and awful cover of Black Sabbath’s
Hand of Doom, and a track called Come To Silver, which
was originally intended for Johnny Cash, but that plan
went west when Rubin and Danzig fell out.
To this day, why one of the all time great rock voices
would distort and compress his vocals has not been
answered. It was poorly received, and is as much a
rip-off as Metallica’s St Anger (I would still like my
money back, Mr Danzig, though I gave the copy I bought
to a charity shop many years ago, where, no doubt, it
may still lie). |
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As an amusing postscript to this
story, Danzig signed to Hollywood Records owned by
Disney, where his image and lyrics would cause a lot of
friction. This friction came to a head with Tower
Records’ Pulse magazine producing a cartoon of Dnazig
and Disney CEO Michael Eisner shaking hands in front of
Danzigland, complete with fanged and horned Mickey
Mouse. Hollywood never supported the album (and who can
blame them!) and they never worked with Danzig again.
Personally, I think it shows Danzig has a sense of
humour (albeit one at the expense of his own fans and
career!).
Or maybe he did it just to get the Danzigland cartoon!
(Maybe in some parallel universe there really is a
Danzigland!) |
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