Danzig and I, Part 1: It's Coming Down

In 1988- 89 I got a copy of the self titled debut by Danzig on cassette. This is the same copy I wrote about in my blog a few days ago. I thought the album was amazing. It was dark and subtle in its approach. It truly was unlike anything I had heard at the time and it got repeated plays on my walkman. I can't explain how, a mere year and a half later, when I saw the video for "Killer Wolf" the vastness of my disappointment was. At the time, I was listening to more aggressive music than I had when I bought the first Danzig outing and jingle- jangle blues jams just weren't what my ears wanted to hear. I remember walking down Robinson Rd in my hometown talking to my friend Bob about how much I thought it was terrible. I wrote the album off and Danzig got no love from me for the rest of my high school career.

In 1995, I moved into my first apartment; a practical flop house with 11 rooms and 14 roommates nicknamed "Headquarters." No one ever did the dishes, we stayed up ridiculously late and most of the time I lived there, we didn't have cable. However, aside from the usual UHF channels and major networks we did get a pay-by-phone music video request channel called "The Box." On Occasion, one would be lucky enough to catch a Slayer video, but mostly it was whatever songs were popular in the inner city at the time. One afternoon while eating whatever awful vegan meal I had just prepared, I saw a music video that grabbed me and didn't let go; it was dark, a little twisted and sounded like it had come from the sleazy depths of hell itself. That video was "Until You Call On The Dark" and it's still one of my favorites to this day.

I couldn't believe how amazing the song was and THAT NIGHT, I went to every record store I liked in the city and picked up everything I could by Danzig: The 4p 12", the Mother 12" on purple, The Mother '93 cd single and the original inverted cross cd version of "Lucifuge." I was a little upset about abandoning the band 4 years prior and reveled in the music I had rediscovered. I needed to repent and luckily that time was at hand, the following month Danzig and company were going to play in Rochester, NY a mere hour away!

A week later, I went to purchase a ticket so I could just see these amazing songs live and the woman at the ticketmaster booth destroyed my dreams. That's right, the show was CANCELED.I found out months later, that it was because both guitar player John Christ and Bassist Eerie Von had quit the band. It would be a few more years before I saw Danzig, but that was ok because the Misfits were back, right?

Well, not quiet, but I was at that show and had fun, the "Newfits' hadn't written new songs yet and M. Graves just aped Glenn Danzig's moves and sound the whole night. Like I said, It was great, as was the show I saw them play a few months later in Toronto. After that, it was all downhill, but thankfully I found out that a new Danzig album was coming out and that he was coming TO BUFFALO!

I went to the Tuesday release for Danzig 5; "Blackacidevil," got home, popped it into the CD player and was DISGUSTED at what I heard. It is one of the worst albums I have ever purchased by an artist I love. Those Blayze Bayley Iron Maiden albums are pretty bad, sure, but at least they're still attempts at playing their style. Danzig 5 is a complete 180, an abomination of songs that I STILL cannot abide. Nonetheless, I went and saw the new Danzig band play that February 2, (1997) and it was decent. I remember at one point turning to my friend John and saying "this riff sounds like Sabbath?!?" To which he reply "It is!" apparently it was "Hand of Doom" but it was just barely recognizable. Like I said the show was nothing to write home about but it wasn't terrible, just not what I really wanted. I don't really like electronic music aside from some Devo and very little industrial so the new songs didn't do much for me. I will admit that the song "Deep" from the X-files soundtrack that preceded Danzig 5, I do like. Eh, sue me.

1999's "Satan's Child" was an improvement and I like some songs off the album, especially "13" which is now a minor hit thanks to the movie "The Hangover." But that wasn't the surprise Danzig had in store for the end of the 20th century. A bigger, more massive announcement was coming; a simple, unthinkable onetime rebirth of an evil classic known simply as "SAMHAIN."

March 1984: a brief reflection on my experience with Michael Jackson.

Off and on in the 80's and 90's, my youngest aunt lived with my parents, brother and I and thus was obligated to buy me birthday gifts. For my 10th day of birth,I begged, I mean BEGGED her to get me Motely Crue's "Shout at the Devil." Now, knowing my aunt and how she is, a perceived satanic heavy metal record was never an option for her to purchase. She mentioned Michael Jackson and I begged her again not to get me "Thriller" and at the very least I would take VH's "1984." Of course, she gave me Thriller for my 10th birthday and I can't explain how disappointed I was. I don't know if my relationship with my aunt ever truly recovered and I know I hated MJ then as I hate him today, a year after the day of his death.

Pop music, in general, has always been something I don't enjoy. It seems forced, molded and soulless to me. Successful pop stars are those who can project emotion into emotionless, prepackaged junk. I have to wonder if for them, it's fame that eventually crushes them or if it's that when they fake emotion with every "ohh baby" a part of them dies, leaving a void? Maybe it's some weird musical karma, or maybe were all damaged by the soul sucking jobs we eventually come to hate? Either way, I know one thing: even though I have my separate issuse with his career much later, "Diary of a Madman" by Ozzy Osbourne, which came out a year prior to "Thriller" spoke more volumes to me when I was young than the king of pop ever could.