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Metal/Prog Metal CD Reviews

Danzig

6:66 Satan's Child

Review by Steve Colombo

Danzig's new album, 6:66 Satan's Child, is excellent. Danzig just keeps on getting better and better with each successive album. It is everything we love and expect to hear coming from this master of darkness. Heavy, gothic, industrial, Danzig keeps on building and improving. Due to legal problems with record execs, Danzig was held up in limbo after signing with Hollywood records, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Co., who objected to Danzig's image. After a vicious two year battle, Glenn Danzig formed his own label, partnered with E-magine Entertainment, and blasted out this record.

The whole tone of the album from the songwriting and instrumentation to production is slick, tight and packs a punch (and a lot of crunch)! At it's core is the basic sound we have heard on everything that the Danzig name has been attached to, but this record takes on another dimension. The whole disc is punctuated with effects and background sounds coloring in the backdrop for that up front and in your face gothic rock guitar/bass/drums grind. In some ways this one has a bit of a Nine Inch Nails influence especially with the bass guitar. Josh Lazie really puts a unique slant that is most often overlooked on this important instrument. Joey Castillo's drumming is very funky and groovy, almost like a techno dance beat that really adds to the tone and feel of the record. Glenn Danzig's and Jeff Chamber's guitars are so heavy and thick that it makes you want to cry. And that voice…man, that voice! Glenn Danzig has to be one of the best and most powerful voices ever heard in rock. Sensual, passionate, much like the Doors Jim Morrison. Everyone that likes dark, heavy rock should have this in their disc collection.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: The Early Years Volume 3 at garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-The-Early-Years.

Track by Track Review
Five Finger Crawl
A very heavy, fast, metallic cruncher, when I hear this song I think of an H.R. Giger painting, slick and shiny, but with a pulse and vibrancy of feeling. The rhythm is like a cybernetic heartbeat which is enhanced by the effects on Glenn's voice, giving the song an overall tone and feeling like that of being inside a giant metallic womb.
Belly of the Beast
This song reminds one of the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath album. It has that slow, down-tuned crunch similar to that of Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. Slow and hypnotic and punctuated with audio effects whooping and sweeping in the background like there are spaceships firing back and forth at each other from overhead. In the fadeout Glenn chants the chorus to you like you are standing next to him inside a dark, magick circle.
Lillin
This track reminds one of Danzig's earlier works like "She Rides" from the self titled Danzig album only more so. It features more distortion on the guitars and a more powerful bass punch. Lyrically it is a demonic love song which Glenn Danzig has been writing so well since his early days as the leader of the legendary Misfts.
Unspeakable
A fast rocker, my favorite thing on this track is a deep pulsating bass line which is reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails. This one is definitely one of my faves on this CD.
Cult Without A Name
Starting out slow and spooky, this one quickly kicks it all on into a classic Danzig hard rocker for the verse and then brings it back down again. This piece is a great study in contrasts which too many songwriters don't do, especially in this kind of music. Danzig has always excelled at that, never fearing to take chances or risks and blend different elements into one song.
East Indian Devil (Kali's Song)
Starting and ending with a backwards recording of a woman chanting this jumps into another great Danzig rocker. Really great effects on Glenn's voice makes it sound indistinct, watery and mystical.
Firemass
This song is mid-tempo and has a really groovy beat to it. The drums really drive the cut and steer it home. If features a very nifty sound in the intro like a giant gong ringing and swelling into the guitars.
Cold Eternal
Slow and mystical, another of Glenn's great techniques in this one is not quite belting out the words but almost whispering them to you. The effect is like a dark, Satanic lover. This one will get inside your skin and run slowly up and down your spine. This would definitely be a great tune to play at midnight underneath a full moon.
Satan's Child
A stuttered guitar riff punctuates this song along with that bass sound that is on "Unspeakable". A great title track, this really sums up many of the elements that dominate the whole sound and feel of this record.
Into the Mouth of Abandonment
"Into the Mouth of Abandonment" is a real standout on the record. Slow, pretty and sweet parts of the song really stick out, but fit well within the context of the disc. The cut includes a crashing main riff that is close to, but not quite "Twist of Cain" from the first album.
Apokalips
Dark and creepy, this is another one that reminds me of Sabbath. This tune has some of the heaviest elements that I have ever heard.
Thirteen
The sound of the wind opens this one and it ends the album well. Glenn singing "the wind blowin on my back" evokes the feeling of the old bluesmen like Robert Johnson, who according to myth sold his soul at the Crossroads for a life of easy money and easy women. It takes no stretch of the imagination to picture Glenn tracing those infamous footsteps…
 
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