Ever since his split from American Records and Rick Rubin, Danzig has been all over the place in terms of the soundf and style of his records. From the Industrial sounds of V:Blackacidevil, probably the two heaviest titles in the Danzig catalog 6:66:Satan's Child and 777:I Luciferi, and the more gothic sounding Circle of Snakes. Danzig has now returned to the sound he is best known for with his latest release Deth Red Sabbaoth.
Taking some of the best elements from his first four albums, Danzig seems to have pieced together a very heavy and well rounded album. From the opening track Hammer of the Gods (Self-Titled influenced), to the first two singles from the album On A Wicked Night and Ju Ju Bone (II:Lucifuge influenced) and songs like Rebel Spirits and Night Star Hel (III:How The Gods Kill/IV:p influenced), intentional or not he seems to have come the closest in a while to harnessing the sound he pulls off best and the fans know best.
It helps also that Danzig is backed once again by a band of metal alumni, Tommy Victor (Prong, Ministry) on guitar/bass and Johnny Kelly (Type O Negative, Seventh Void) on drums. It also appears that Danzig's popularity hasn't faltered much as Deth Red Sabbaoth sold 11,700 copies its first week of sale in the US to land at No. 35 on the Billboard 200 charts.
Not a perfect album by any means, as Danzig is still fine tuning his producing abilities, the production quality is a vast improvment over the mixing of Circle of Snakes. It is refreshing to hear Danzig returning to the sound he is known best for and after hearing Deth Red Sabbaoth I looked forward to what the future holds for Danzig.
Beyond the regular CD version of the album, there has also been three limeted edition vinyls released: black vinyl (2000 copies), red vinyl (1000 copies) and a picture disc (2000 copies).
Shane's Verdict: 7/10
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