Unitron Danzig's self-titled album perfectly combines the groovy energetic and gloomy mood sides of early metal, with Danzig's Elvis meets Jim Morrison vocals backed by the sounds of Black Sabbath and Buffalo. His first three albums are all fantastic and perfect that sound, and while Danzig II is pretty close, Danzig's debut has always been my favorite (though tied with November Coming Fire as favorite Danzig relate album in general). Punchy opener Twist of Cain, Am I Demon, classic Mother, and swaggering Evil Thing are some particular favorites, but She Rides takes the stage as the best. The slow lumbering drums and beautifully melancholy mood makes this blues metal perfection.

Danzig's songwriting style and atmosphere is like no other band, and this is its best display.

UMUR "Danzig" is the eponymously titled debut full-length studio album by US heavy rock act Danzig. The album was released through Def American Recordings in August 1988 (it was the first release on the then new Rick Rubin owned label). Danzig was formed in 1987 by lead vocalist Glenn Danzig after his former act Samhain disbanded. Before Samhain, Glenn Danzig was the vocalist in horror punk act The Misfits. Samhain bassist Eerie Von is also a member of Danzig. The remaining part of the lineup consists of guitarist John Christ and drummer Chuck Biscuits.

"Danzig" has a pretty interesting release history, as it was initially relatively commercially successful, but 5 years after it´s release sold even more copies due to a live version of the track "Mother" being included on the "Thrall: Demonsweatlive (1993)" EP and a video version of the track receiving heavy rotation on MTV.

Stylistically the music on the 10 track, 40:56 minutes long album is a departure from both the sound of The Misfits and Samhain as all punk/hardcore influences are shed and instead a blues based hard/heavy rock sound is introduced. Glenn Danzig more than ever before sounds like a combination of Elvis and Jim Morrison and his voice and singing approach suits the music perfectly. The music is dark, heavy, and hard rocking and the often occult subject lyrics provide the album with an even more gloomy atmosphere.

No less than four videos were shot for the tracks "Twist of Cain", "She Rides", "Am I Demon", and "Mother", which probably make those tracks the most known tracks off the album, but there are several other quality tracks featured on this debut album like "Not of This World", "End of Time", "Possession", and the cover of the blues standard "The Hunter". The tracks are relatively simple vers/chorus structured songs with a few riffs, a powerful catchy chorus, and a guitar solo. So there are few revolutionary ideas here, but the combination of the basic elements including the occult subject matter and the generally dark atmosphere of the album are what makes the difference.

The musicianship are also on a high level. Glenn Danzig´s distinct sounding vocals are defining for the band´s sound, but the powerful organic drumming by Chuck Biscuits and the skilled and inventive guitar playing by John Christ are also worth a mention. The latter´s guitar solos are for example absolutely killer. Eerie Von is a bit more anonymous in the soundscape, but he gets the job done. Rick Rubin´s organic and stripped down production job is another great asset, which makes the album shine, and upon conclusion it´s a high quality release of dark heavy rock and considering that it´s a debut album it´s a very strong first statement by the band. A 5 star (100%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Black Laden Crown" is the 11th full-length studio album by US heavy rock act Danzig. The album was released through AFM Records/Nuclear Blast Records in May 2017. "Black Laden Crown" is the first Danzig album featuring new original material since "Deth Red Sabaoth" from 2010. The two albums are however bridged by the covers album "Skeletons" from 2015. The material on the 9 track, 43:11 minutes long album were recorded over the course of 3 years, with the initial recording sessions starting in February 2014.

Vocals, rhythm guitars, some bass parts, and some drums were performed by Glenn Danzig, while lead guitars and the remaining bass parts were handled by Tommy Victor. In addition to the drum parts that Glenn Danzig performs, no less than four other drummers were involved in the recording of the album: Joey Castillo, Johnny Kelly, Karl Rockfist, and Dirk Verbeuren.

Stylistically most tracks on the album can be described as a heavy and dark type of doomy rock. Most are slow and atmospheric tracks, but "Eyes Ripping Fire" and "Devil On Hwy 9" are slightly more hard rocking with a heavy bluesy edge. Not completely unlike the musical direction on the early albums by the band. It´s obvious though that a lot of water has run under the bridge, and in the intermediate years Danzig changed their sound and added industrial elements and generally had less focus on the bluesy heavy rock side of their music. On the last couple of albums the latter style has crept back into the band´s sound though, and "Black Laden Crown" is a combination of the various elements the band have picked up over the years. The material are generally well written and fairly memorable, although a bit more variation could have made the album more interesting.

The musicianship is solid, although there´s little here which requires great (technical) skill to play. Glenn Danzig was born in 1955 and is not a young man anymore, and while he still has a powerful and distinct sounding voice, said voice has changed a bit and has become a bit more hoarse on his older days. "Black Laden Crown" features a sound production which unfortunately takes away some of the power of the music. The instrumental part of the music is often a bit low in the mix, while the vocals are placed unnaturally high. The latter are also produced with an effect, which makes them sound a bit like they were recorded in an empty bathroom, and that´s not particularly pleasant to listen to.

Despite some elements of the album not quite reaching the expectations, it is nice that the tracks generally work well and "Black Laden Crown" is overall a decent quality release. It would be fair if some listeners had their doubts regarding the project after the minor catastrophy of "Skeletons (2015)", but thankfully Danzig make a decent return to form on "Black Laden Crown". The album doesn´t exactly reach the heights of the band´s iconic late 80s/early 90s releases, but less will do and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Warthur I guess everyone who follows Glenn Danzig's career eventually reaches a point where his "undead Jim Morrison impersonating Elvis in a leather vest" routine stops being fun and starts being samey. Some never took to it even in the hardcore punk glory days of the Misfits; some were put off by the terror-stricken deathrock of Samhain; some simply didn't dig the "Danzig croons over what is basically well-produced but otherwise rather rudimentary bluesy hard rock" formula of the first Danzig album.

For my part, I like all those phases of Danzig's career, but I find that a little goes a long way. I really liked Static Age, but never felt like any of the Misfits' other releases seemed particularly necessary next to it; likewise, I dug Samhain, but on balance I think it's probably best that project was as short-lived as it was. And whilst I liked the first Danzig album, I find myself feeling that one album in that particular vein is quite enough. This release basically offers more of the same as the debut, except "Mother" isn't here, and without "Mother" what's the point?

UMUR "Skeletons" is the 10th full-length studio album by US hard/heavy rock act Danzig. The album was released through Evilive/Nuclear Blast Records in November 2015. It´s the successor to "Deth Red Sabaoth" from 2010. "Skeletons" is however not the next Danzig album featuring original material, but instead an album with covers of artists that Glenn Danzig grew up listening to and who have inspired him over the years. Glenn sings and plays most intruments himself (including drums on about half of the tracks), but has enlisted Tommy Victor (Prong) to play lead guitars (and some rhythm guitar and bass too), and Johnny Kelly (Type O Negative) to play drums on the tracks where Glenn doesn´t.

The 10 tracks on the 33:51 minutes long album are covers of artists like Davie Allan & The Arrows, ZZ Top, Black Sabbath, and The Everly Brothers, so the original material comes from many different sides of the musical spectrum (there´s of course also a cover of Elvis Presley featured on the album). The cover of "N.I.B." by Black Sabbath is by far the most metal oriented track on "Skeletons", while the rest are more rock or punk oriented. Danzig of course puts his own spin on the material and it´s clearly audible at any time during the album that you´re listening to a Danzig release although there are more than a few nods toward his former act Misfits too. Especially the cover of "Devil's Angels" by Davie Allan & The Arrows has that punk meets 50s rhythm´n´blues that Misfits often played.

The material is a bit up and down in quality, or maybe more correctly, some tracks suit Danzig better than others. I was for example a little surprised at how limb the cover of "N.I.B." sounded, while the above mentioned "Devil's Angels", which opens the album, is an almost perfect fit and one of the highlights. There are a couple of pretty major issues regarding the album, other than some tracks not being the perfect match for the band, and that´s the almost constant use of pinch harmonics and the rather weak sounding production. The former is of course courtesy of Tommy Victor and has been a trademark in Danzig´s sound since he joined the lineup. It´s never been a feature that I felt enhanced the band´s music and it´s even more inappropriate here. The sound production is as mentioned also an issue as it sounds rather muffled and weak. Often resembling demo sound quality. It really is quite underwhelming.

So other than some relatively good quality tracks that Danzig successfully put their own spin on, "Skeletons" is far from being the interesting covers album it could have been. It´s not a bad quality release either though (although the sound production is of a rather questionable quality on some tracks), and there is some entertainment value hidden around the release, so a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.