Danzig: Deth Red Sabaoth

To Danzig’s credit, his band has fattened up its sound with its ninth full-length, Deth Red Sabaoth. Galloping, walloping, and raw, the instruments benefit from Danzig’s thrown-back analog production, a nod to the warmer studio tones used by ’70s heroes like Black Sabbath. But besides sounding better than any disc the group has released since the Rick Rubin-produced 4, Deth sports some of Danzig’s best songs in a long while—at least when Danzig himself isn’t smothering them. As usual, his unholy voice floats like that of a spectral, smoky Elvis over steak-thick riffs, but where that voice was buried under sludge on the group’s last album, 2004’s Circle Of Snakes, here it’s pushed to the fore—at times painfully so, especially when his melody completely wanders away from the chords. Guitarist Tommy Victor hasn’t lost his annoying need to punctuate almost every riff with a pointless, ear-piercing squall, but overall, the guitars are godlike in their vastness, even while they’re locked into the songs’ brutally hypnotic undertow. After having worked out some of his (hopefully) passing interests in industrial and classical music over the past few years, Danzig has finally come close to once more nailing what he’s known for—sick, spooky rock ’n’ roll that isn’t afraid of a little croon.