Despite the rise, the tension and disapproval within the ranks was starting to reach its crescendo. Various interviews state the supposed fact that Danzig and Christ rarely see eye to eye when it comes to the music and the decisions around the band. Danzig was quoted in interviews at the time that he wrote the majority of the guitar parts himself, and would then produce the songs from that and the solos that Christ would then offer as his parts, while Christ seemed to tow the line in this regard, but wanted more for his guitar to be able to do, both on the album and live on stage. This was their fourth album together, and it looked as though those tensions were wearing very thin. Drummer Chuck Biscuits left the band once the recording of the album was completed, a couple of times in fact, but was replaced forever prior to the tour to promote the album was begun. John Christ and Eerie Von had also made their decision to move on from the band, but ended up remaining until the tour was completed.
The writing credits on the album are all to Glenn Danzig which was to become an even more regular thing, and even though music was in flux during the 1990’s, it is not hard to notice the rapid change in the stye of music Danzig the band released beyond this album, with the complete change of personnel.
The album opens at a cracking pace and style with “Brand New God”. Fast and furious, hard hitting drums from Chuck Biscuits, and jiving along before it slows for the middle section, and a change up with that awesome riff through the middle ground of the track by John Christ while Glenn croons perfectly over the top, and then we return to the same pace as the start to close out the track. It’s a terrific start to the album. “Little Whip” changes things up immediately, falling back to an almost funereal pace and style before breaking out with Chuck’s thumping drums and Glenn’s forceful vocal to get the song moving in the right direction. “Cantspeak” is one of two singles released from the album, neither of which recaptured the magic of what “Mother” had done on the charts. This dominated by Glenn’s vocal, almost spoken word throughout with muted accompaniment from the instruments. Then comes the positively wonderful “Going Down to Die”, which channels an old blues style with a simple riff and drum pattern as Glenn moves from sweet to full blown vocals as only, he can in the most terrific way. His vocals here create such an amazing emotional reaction to the track and the lyrics and drives all the energy of the song simply with his voice. This is followed by more death with “Until You Call on the Dark”, driving down the same course and tempo.
“Dominion” rocks up a little harder, and features a terrific solo from John, one that lights up the track even further, with Eerie’s bass line underneath bringing forward in the mix a much better collaboration between the two guitars. “Bringer of Death” is a ripper track, combining John’s riffing guitar and piano, and Glenn spitting out lyrics in fabulous style. It gains in speed throughout and captures the mood of the lyrical output perfectly.
“Sadistikal” is the second of three almost spoken word tracks on the album, dealing with themes of pain, suffering and sadism. Accusations about the imagery of parts of this album trending towards satanism could be partly traced to this track as well as the final hidden track on the album “Invocation” which is more or less the same style. Are they necessary on this album? Are they all a part of the theme as written? There are several arguments that can be made about that.
“Son of the Morning Star” follows and channels “How the Gods Kill” from the previous album, with its slow heartfelt beginning before breaking into the heavy blanketed second half of the song with John’s striking solo leading it out. “I Don’t Mind the Pain” moves back into a mid-tempo pace drawn along by Glenn’s vocals leading the atmosphere of the song. “Stalker Song” is another beauty, moving in and out of that slow maudlin tempo again, the great combining of guitar and bass here with the perfect input of drums helps give Glenn a terrific base on which to croon at his best throughout.
“Let it Be Captured” backs back into the low-tempo track, which is interesting because of the fact that, inspired by accusations that their songs contained hidden Satanic messages, the guitar tracks for "Cantspeak" are those of "Let It Be Captured" played in reverse. John Christ explained in an interview how Eerie Von had the idea of playing one of our songs backwards, but in the end, they became so obsessed that they were trying to play "Let It Be Captured" backwards, which ended up creating a whole new song, "Cantspeak". Well, that’s one way to do it!
Those first three Danzig albums were enormous to me when they were released. In a music world that was changing from the time the debut came out in 1988, and up this one when it came out in 1994, those three highly unique albums with a solid core of musicians made such an impression by sticking to their formula, which was quite an amazing thing. Having been introduced to the band by one of my best friends in 1990, he again came to the party when this album was released, furnishing me with a C60 cassette that managed to fit the album on just about perfectly.
And I was excited to hear it. The previous album “How the Gods Kill” had for me been an absolute revelation, and then the EP “Thrall-Demonsweatlive” had been spun to death in my CD player on its release. I had even been able to see them live at Selina’s in eastern Sydney in one of the best concerts, still, that I’ve seen. So I was ready for something truly spectacular when I first got this album. Perhaps as a result it isn’t a true surprise that I was slightly underwhelmed when I first listened to it. I really had built it up in my mind, and while I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it either. 1994 and 1995 was a bit like that for me in music. I was expecting different things and rarely got what I expected. I put the album back in the glove box of the car, and though I’m not certain of the timeline, it wasn’t until a couple of months later that I was rummaging around and found it again, and decided to put it in the tape player. And THAT moment is what sticks in my mind, because once the album started THAT time, it was Danzig, and it was “wow, this sounds great!” And I was away. It stayed in my car’s tape player for ages, and I finally found what I was looking for. It is amazing with music that at times, you just need the right moment and place for an album to begin to truly find what you like about it. And my car’s stereo over the years has been that place for many albums.
So “Danzig 4” is a beauty, but it was to be the end of that era, and the loss of John Christ, Eerie Von and Chuck Biscuits meant that the albums going forward would be of a different style. There was more good music to come, but the consistency that had come from the band’s first four releases would not be repeated again.
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