Revisiting the Album "Danzig" the Musical Work That Is the Creation of Famous Rock Vocalist Glenn Danzig

"Danzig" the Album Songs List

1. Twist of Cain
2. Not of This World
3. She Rides
4. Soul on Fire
5. Am I Demon?
6. Mother
7. Possession
8. End of Time
9. The Hunter
10. Evil Thing

Danzig is the album of the same name of Glenn Danzig’s started solo band. This does not mean that this was the first ever musical thing that he was involved in but that this is the time that he started to make a name for himself. The riffing and guitar playing isn’t overly complex but it is GOOD! The songs "She Rides" and "Mother" are this album’s two most famous songs mainly because of the appeal and coverage that they got on MTV back in the day. This blues and rock style album gets its influence from artists such as Black Sabbath because the album has doom metal influences in it as well. But we’ll get to the importance of that shortly. "She Rides" is a simple but catchy song about a creature that travels throughout the night. She can get into a human’s skin literally. However, this is different from the Night crawler creature that Judas Priest makes reference to in 1990.

We take a look back at this landmark 1988 release in this review. How has the album Danzig stood the test of time?

One interesting thing that some people may not notice is that this album has guest vocal contributions by James Hetfield on the songs "Twist of Cain" and "Possession." What hasn’t James done for the music industry? However, because of the contractual obligations that Hetfield had at the time, he could not be given credit in the album booklet. Nonetheless, the contributions add a little bit of aggression and tougher feel to the album. The bass guitar by Eerie Von can be heard along with the guitar work. It is really impressive that Hetfield even had the time to do these backing vocals because he was busy working on Metallica’s 4^th album ...And Justice for All which is one of the greatest albums in the history of melodic thrash metal.

And it may sound funny to actually say this, but with this release, Danzig comes alive with their style of blues oriented rock.

"Soul on Fire" has an atmospheric doom metal feeling that you will notice in early Black Sabbath releases. Then comes the very good song "Mother." It has a noticeable riff that sounds like it is being played one note at a time. Possession is a song about a sort of parasite that attaches itself to a host, wanting to get inside that host’s soul and crawl around in their brain. “The Hunter” is a cover song that Danzig did. It is a blues song originally written by Albert King in 1967. Danzig is considered to be the album that did the best for the band in terms of sales. Is it the band’s finest work? I don’t think so but it is really good for an album with such simple riffing and song structure.

One song that we totally didn’t mention in this review for analysis purposes is the one called Am I Demon? The song has that sort of repeating rock kind of riff that will be memorable to you if you listen to it enough times. In terms of the guitar sound and production, this debut album by Danzig is quite good for the time in which it was released as well, making it a stronger album for some fans. In this 5^th song, we will begin to see the early attempts by Glenn Danzig to use his signature high vocal yells if we can call it that.

Final Thoughts About the Self-Titled Album "Danzig"

The final score for this album Danzig will probably get a score of 90 out of 100 points just for the fact that is so well-written! The importance of Danzig to the blues-rock genre is still being felt even more three decades later. These songs are still memorable and even Glenn’s yells which are sometimes excessive really don’t detract from the quality of the songs. One trait that is on this first album by Danzig that deserves praise is musical consistency compared to its style. This blues rock influenced album has every single song being at least good and you don’t find that on every single metal album. Another interesting quality is the sound of the bells at the end of the song “Twist of Cain.”