Danzig - Biography
By Scott Feemster
Danzig is primarily the outfit that singer Glenn Danzig formed around himself after the demise of his first two hugely influential bands, horror-punk icons The Misfits, and the darkly, more experimental post-punk Samhain. Danzig has become just as influential in forging a link between the dark metal of such early fore bearers as Black Sabbath and later gothic and post-punk influences.
Glenn Danzig, born Glenn Anzalone in 1955, grew up in New Jersey as a comic book junkie and self-described outsider. After starting off as a drum roadie and then bass player in some local bands in the early 1970's, young Anzalone became enamored of the rising punk sound, and started The Misfits in 1977, changing his name to Glenn Danzig, and starting his own sub-genre of punk many have come to call horror-punk, which brought in camp elements of imagery and lyrics from old horror movies and television shows. In 1983, Danzig broke up The Misfits due to constant band in-fighting and his dissatisfaction with the members' commitment to the band and their lack of musical ability. Danzig then formed the group Samhain with bassist Eerie Von, and where The Misfits were much more camp in their embrace of horror, Samhain was much darker, and Danzig and Von brought in more elements of gothic rock and heavy metal into the sound of the band. The group went through several membership changes, and by 1986 were running out of steam as a band. At what would turn out to be their final show in July of 1986, one of the members of the audience was producer Rick Rubin, who was looking for more metal and punk-influenced bands to sign to his record label, Def Jam. Rubin knew about Danzig and his career, but was blown away by how powerful a live performer he was, and after the show, offered to sign Danzig to a recording contract, initially just by himself with the intention of building a “supergroup” around him. Danzig, though, insisted that bassist Von be involved. Von and Danzig soon recruited guitarist John Christ and ex-Black Flag and D.O.A. drummer Chuck Biscuits to form a new line-up of Samhain, but once the group started writing songs, both Danzig and Rubin realized they were forging something different, and so the band took on the name Danzig. (Reportedly this was also done as to avoid any legal difficulties with Samhain's former record label.)
The group worked closely with Rick Rubin on coming up with a stripped-down, more blues-based brand of dark heavy metal, and finally released their debut album, Danzig, in 1988 on Rubin's newly formed Def American label, (later renamed as American Recordings). In addition to the band having a much more metallic and darkly swinging sound reminiscent of early Black Sabbath, another change was obvious in the way that Danzig's vocals were front-and-center in the band and were the obvious focal point of the group's songs. Danzig kept the dark imagery started in Samhain, and the group managed to not only bring along old fans of The Misfits and Samhain into the fold of the new band, but managed to reach out to metal fans who missed dark, stripped-down, doomy metal that hadn't really been done in this matter for quite a few years. The debut album sold moderately well, and established Danzig as a new force in both alternative and metal music. The group also cultivated a reputation as a captivating live band as well, most likely helped by the visual image of three shirtless, muscular, long-haired musicians cranking out low-end metallic sludge behind an equally shirtless, muscular, and charismatic singer who bore more than a passing resemblance to a young Jim Morrison. The band returned to work with Rubin again for their second album, 1990's Danzig II: Lucifuge (Def-American), which delved deeper into the band's fondness for the blues, including one tune that was played on the slide guitar. Danzig seemed to be bringing back the connection between hard rock and the blues that was forged by such bands as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Mountain. The album and the subsequent tour further solidified the bands following, and the group returned in 1992 with their third album, Danzig III: How The Gods Kill (Def American). By now Rubin's role, and relationship, with the band was starting to fade, and he was listed as only a co-producer, along with Danzig, of the album. Danzig III was something of a return to a much more metallic and doomy sound for the band, and featured cover artwork adapted from a painting by acclaimed Swiss artist H.R. Giger. To show what a potent force the band was live, the group released the Thrall: Demonsweatlive EP (Def American) the next year, which included live tracks taken from a 1992 Halloween show the band performed along with three new studio tracks. One of the live songs, “Mother”, a song originally on the band's debut album, started to get airplay on some hard rock stations, so a video was made for the song that included footage of the band playing live. Both the song and the video, which got heavy play on MTV, became a surprise hit, and launched Danzig into the consciousness of more mainstream music listeners. With pressure from record company executives to produce another hit on the magnitude of “Mother”, Danzig and his band entered the studios in late 1993 to work on a follow-up, this time with almost no involvement at all from Rubin. In late 1994, Danzig 4 (Def American) was released, and it marked a further change in the groups sound, this time incorporating more atmospheric and experimental touches to the group's pummeling assault. The group scored a minor hit with the song “Cantspeak”, and the album sold moderately well, though not on pace with what the band sold of Thrall: Demonsweatlive. Shortly after the band finished recording the album, drummer Chuck Biscuits left the band, reportedly because of disagreements about what royalties were being paid to him. He tried to return again to the band, but was fired by Danzig, and was replaced by drummer Joey Castillo. Following an almost year-long cycle of touring in support of the album, both guitarist John Christ and bassist Eerie Von left the band the next year, both reportedly upset about the journeymen roles they had been given in the band by Danzig. Danzig later contended that he had meant all along for the band to be a revolving cast meant to support whatever he wanted to do, though many consider the first four Danzig albums to be the “classic” line-up of the band. Since that time, all of Danzig's albums have featured a different band line-up.
Danzig's relationship with Def American and Rubin also soured around the same time the original version of the band was breaking up, and so Danzig signed on with Hollywood Records for his next album, 1996's Blackacidevil. Blackacidevil was definitely a shift away from the established sound of the band towards more of a metallic, industrial rock sound. Left pretty much without a band, Danzig, along with Castillo on drums and help from Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell on three tracks, played pretty much all of the instruments on the album himself. Many fans of the group were disappointed with Blackacidevil, though some fans of Danzig's Samhain era saw some of that bands influence start to surface again. Glenn Danzig spent the next few years tied up in legal skirmishes with Rick Rubin and American Recordings, trying to win back rights to the band’s unreleased material they had produced while on Def American. When Danzig won the case, it afforded him time to complete a new Danzig album, 1999’s 6:66 Satan’s Child (Nuclear Blast/E-Magine). With the help again of Joey Castillo on drums and new bass player Josh Lazie, Danzig sang and played all the rest of the instruments on the album. The album was in much the same industrial-metal vein as Blackacidevil, and, like the previous album, received mixed reviews from critics and the band’s fans. During the tour in support of 6:66 Satan’s Child, Glenn Danzig put together a new line-up of his old band Samhain, along with original members Steve Zing and London May, with help from guitarist Todd Youth. Danzig had been without a stable line-up for a few years, but that changed in 2000 when Glenn Danzig recruited former D-Generation members guitarist Todd Youth and bassist Howie Pyro. This new line-up of Danzig, along with drummer Castillo, recorded and released the album Danzig 777: I Luciferi (Evilive/Sanctuary) in 2002. The record was hailed as a return to Danzig’s “classic” sound, that is, dark, low heavy metal played by a real band with Danzig’s theatrical vocals out in front. The line-up of the band stayed stable until the end of the tour, when Youth, Castillo and Pyro decided to leave the band to pursue other musical projects. Danzig then built a new version of the band with help from former Prong guitarist Tommy Victor, which also included drummer Bevan Davies and bassist Jerry Montano. This version of Danzig recorded the album Circle Of Snakes (Evilive/Sanctuary), released in August of 2004. The new group kept up the heavy sound of I Luciferi, but the addition of Victor brought an even heavier emphasis on guitar in the band. To promote the album, the group, now with drummer John Kelly from Type O Negative replacing Davies, set out on the package tour Blackest Of The Black, set up by Danzig to promote his projects and to give other dark and heavy bands a chance at wider exposure. During the tour, Danzig was joined by Misfits guitarist Doyle, and the two and the rest of the band treated their audiences to a set of Misfits songs. Word soon spread about Doyle joining the band, and many of the rest of the shows on the tour were sold out soon after. Glenn Danzig later remarked that that was about as close as anyone was going to get to a full fledged Misfits reunion.
Glenn Danzig stated in 2006 that he was getting tired of going out on long touring cycles, and would now limit his live dates to small, short tours. The group, now with Samhain bassist Steve Zing replacing Montano and adding second guitarist Kenny Hickey (from Type O Negative), set out on a shortened Blackest Of The Black tour in 2006, after which Glenn Danzig announced he was going to take some time away from the band to complete some projects he had been working on for some time. In October of 2006, he released his second solo album, Black Aria II (Evilive), a darkly ambient suite of songs meant as the follow-up to Danzig’s 1992 faux-classical solo debut album Black Aria (Plan 9/E-Magine). He also spent time working on the packaging and production aspects of the double-CD collection The Lost Tracks Of Danzig (Megaforce)(2007), which compiled unreleased tracks from all of the different versions of Danzig. Since that time, Glenn Danzig has reportedly made plans to record a “dark blues album” with either Hank Williams III or Jerry Cantrell, and has also announced that Danzig will embark on a North American tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band. A ninth Danzig album is also reportedly in the writing/planning stages.
