I have mixed feelings about Glenn Danzig. Undoubtebly, he has been a trailblazer with the Misfits, Samhain and his own band. On the other hand, his Evil Elvis / Jim Morrison impersonation is a love- it- or- hate- it affair and it really gets on my nerves (it doesn’t help that I am not a fan of either Elvis or Jimbo). In interviews, he often comes across as a self- important jackass and he seems to be taking himself way too seriously. I mean, when your lyrics are mostly in the vein of: My daddy was the Devil / My momma was a she- wolf / Look out woman cause I bear the mark of Cain, … blah, blah, blah, … the angel of the seventh dawn… blah, blah… Lucifer Morningstar, …. blah, it’s really hard to be taken seriously, unless:

a) You have a sense of humour

or:

b) Your name is Bo Diddley

Everybody else sounds a bit silly trying to convince us they are eviiiiiil (and yes, that includes whatever CVLT Scandinavian black metal band was considered dangerous in the 90s, no matter how many churches they ‘ve burned). Still, if you are into horror like me, it’s difficult to resist all the gothic imagery that goes with the hard rock riffs. Also, the early Danzig albums with Rick Rubin’s bone- dry production and John Christ’s guitars were truly awesome. Deth Red Sabaoth is a partial return to this style. It sounds more vintage than  usual (although it does suffer from the usual sound compression that plagues all modern albums) and boasts a bunch of cool songs- all of which are about Lucifer, Pagan rituals, big- breasted Demon babes, etc., etc (some things never change). If you have been dissapointed with Glenn after his then- fashionable industrial experiments and goth operas, give it a go. In fact, if you like Danzig even a little, you will probably enjoy this quite  a lot.

(-Dimitris Kontogiannis-)