So the other night I got drunk and decided to re-visit an old album that I had immediately despised when it came out and had never given another chance to . . . . for anyone interested:
DANZIG 5 – BLACKACIDEVIL – Full Review by Gunnar
7th House" – I’m not gonna lie. I’m diggin’ it. It’s raw. It’s noisy, and it makes me wanna rock the eff out. It really makes me think of “Dark Side of the Spoon” (Ministry) in that it’s uncomfortable but catchy at the same time (i.e. Supermanic Soul).
“BlackAciDevil” . . . . this and the first track are really what killed Danzig for me when I heard this album on its release, but I"m all in at this point. The drums are SICK!!! Just crusty as all Hell! Not that crappy pre-programmed bullshit that you’d expect from this industrial jibber jabber. It is kind of ahead of its time in that this is SUPER St. Anger’ish in the drum attack. And now there is very wild noises and effects in the background that actually ADD to the song instead of just come across as noisy and gimmicky.
“See You All Were” – this one is starting off as pretty generic and lame. I’m hoping it’ll get a kick in the ass and bring me back to where I was a few minutes ago. It’s not awful, but . . . . yeah, whatever. Nothing happening here. I may as well just talk about whatever at this point — We have NOT had any legit “Danzig” singing yet. In the first two tracks it wasn’t missed, but in this song because it’s so vapid you just hear Danzig with a shitty distortion and you wish you could at least hear his voice. How much time is left on this one anyway? Minute and a half left. Sonuvabitch.
“Sacrifice”: YES!!! This was the closest he had to a “hit” from this album. At the time I just poo poo’d it, and I still don’t think that was necessarily a bad call. The video is cool for this, but it is basically a knock off of NIN’s “Wish” or any other generic Industrial shred that came out around that era. But at least it has Danzig in it and he finally sounds like Danzig in the verse parts and the chorus parts make you wanna get aggro. This is decent.
“Hint of Her Blood” Weird trippy music, but DANZIG vocals on the intro. Let’s see what this leads to . . . so far a lot of waiting . . . . come on Glenn, rock out, dammit . . . UGGGHHH!!! It keept sounding like it’s gonna break into something big but it doesn’t. Some weird stuff on this track. Pretty trippy. This whole album, probably, is for people that do drugs. Maybe I should do drugs so these tracks wouldn’t suck so bad. This one . . .yeah, it’s kind of tedious. Sort of interesting, but not interesting enough to keep me from getting bored. This isn’t a monster track you wanna rock out to. It’s scene music . . . like maybe some weird scene in True Detective where Matthew McConoughey is at a party and he just did a bunch of coke and then . . . oh, good, it’s over.
“Serpentia” – Boring. This is exactly the type of mid-90’s crap that was being trodden by RUBY and Portishead or some other mid-90’s stuff. It’s tired. There’s a little bit of Danzig’ness, but it’s kind of overshadowed by sounding like something else that someone else already did. Whoa! This sounds kind of neat now . . . there’s a definite “vibe” to this song. It’s actually really “organic” and I mean that in the most literal sense. Like it is the sound of a giant breathing creature with blood and guts and whatnot. I think this one would probably become more precious to me with multiple listens. Definitely not something that you’ll take to in the first 20 seconds. But I think I dig it. I don’t know how else to put this, but . . . this is a sex song. Yeah, if you’re gonna do some sex stuff with a chick that won’t just run away for putting on a Danzig song . . . this would be a good track.
“Come To Silver” – This is a weird track. It meshes that old Delta boxcar Willie type of stuff with some triphop industrial 90’s thing. It’s really hard to tell if I like this one or not. It’s “challenging” to say the least, and it is definitely eclecting in that you have some traditional guitar solos over weird ass industrial beats and then you got a hollow-distorted Danzig chanting in the back. At the threat of sounding cliche, this track was probably ahead of its time. I’m just not sure if that time has arrived yet . . . . it might still be ahead of its time.
“Hand of Doom” — Well, first off, he changes the lyrics. It makes it hard to chew on. Because you want to hum or sing along to it, but yeah, he took that away from us. The music . . . . I don’t know. It’s not doing a whole lot for me. In fact, I’m looking forward to this one ending. It might sound all right for someone who hasn’t actually heard the original by Black Sabbath. It probably does not help that “Hand of Doom” is my favorite Sabbath song.
“Power of Darkness” – I feel like I’ve already heard this song on this album. I don’t feel like going back, but this is nothing special. If this song came before whatever songs sounded like it earlier I’d probably like it a bit better. I think this is supposed to end soon. It said 3 minutes or something when I started it. Oh, thank God, it’s over.
“Ashes” – Oh, this is cool. So far. Got a cool funeral dirge lead in. And DANZIG singing!!! Okay, good start! Not a rocker, but it’s a cool track. It’s another sex song too (sorry). I don’t know why I keep apologizing, though. I mean, come on, Danzig writes a bunch of sex music. That’s a fact. Take it back to the debut, even. Did we forget about “She Rides”. Anyway, this is a sexy song. Danzig should probably release a compilation called, “Music For Doing The Sex Stuff . . . by DANZIG!!!”
Okay, so that’s it, Kids! I made it all the way through, and it really wasn’t half bad. Is it as good as any of the first four albums? NOT A DAMN CHANCE ! It does not come close to the majesty that is the classic Biscuits-Christ-Eerie-Glenn lineup, but overall, it’s not terrible. I don’t think I’ve ever given a number score to an album, but I guess I’d give this a 6/10. For reference purposes Lucifuge and How the Gods Kill both get 10/10 and Danzig I and Danzig IV get 9/10.