Band:	Danzig
Album:	Danzig II - Lucifuge
Style:	Hard rock
Release date:	June 26, 1990
Guest review by:	Doc G.

01. Long Way Back From Hell
02. Snakes Of Christ
03. Killer Wolf
04. Tired Of Being Alive
05. I'm The One
06. Her Black Wings
07. Devil's Plaything
08. 777
09. Blood And Tears
10. Girl
11. Pain In The World

Any Danzig fan who has Danzig loving friends has to experience the ongoing argument; "Danzig I", or "Lucifuge"? I thought I was pretty convinced on which one was my pick, until I studied "Lucifuge" to write this review...now I'm very conflicted.

I push play...in comes a slide down the fret board, followed by a few chords struck, it sounds as if we're about to spiral down into something dark and sinister. Enter in the fast paced high hat strikes, quickly followed by a steady chugging bass line, that's when you know this opening track is about to break into a driving hard-rock work of art. This has to be the perfect intro for this blues-soaked heap of dirty rock n' roll that's about to be thrown at you.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty, let me discuss some of the progress Danzig has made between the debut and the album at hand. In the first Danzig album we seemed to find a heavy sound of punk-influenced hard rock, with this album the punk is toned down and almost completely taken over by blues-riffage. The "stripped-down 4-piece idea" that Rick Rubin had planned with the first album is thrown out the window, production is a lot more meticulous, and far deeper sounding; in return the band sounds a lot tighter.

Each member has a unique sound; Christ has a punky-blues sound in his playing (he could've played with Motörhead and would have sounded right at home), Biscuits is explosive and ballistic, yet controlled, with a presence that could be described as a simpler Keith Moon. On the other side of the rhythm section is Eerie Von, a very chilled-out bottom end, which unfortunately tends to follow the guitar too closely at times to fully hear Eeries potential. Laid on top of all of this...well, do I really need to describe the one and only Glenn Danzig? The chemistry is simply incredible in this album (as previously stated, the band sounds very tight). What's the result of this incredible chemistry? Another good handful of rock anthems like 'Her Black Wings', 'Devil's Plaything' and the laid back track made for sitting back and bobbing your head to: 'Killer Wolf' (just to name a few). Much of the former punk influence I think is lost with song structure, unlike most punk, the song writing is slightly more complex, a few good transitions here and there which really shows how the band has matured.

The album sounds almost flawless...the key word is almost. Like a good majority of albums on this planet, we run into the dilemma of filler songs. The album starts going downhill at 'Blood And Tears', an almost 50's sounding ballad, which gets boring halfway through. The two songs following that are forgettable at best.

Overall an incredible album, deserving of possibly a 9-9.2 if it ended at track nine, but unfortunately filler tracks are almost inevitable it seems. Recommended for anyone who enjoys blues influenced rock/metal.