Danzig
Dethred Sabaoth

We can't pretend otherwise, the best of Danzig's solo work has already been heard, and we continue to listen to it in his first four albums. Danzig is one of those figures you either love or hate, for better or worse, and he thrives on that. After leaving the Misfits, who became cult figures in the early eighties punk history, he managed to be reborn artistically, first creating the less fortunate Samhain and then forming the formidable Danzig, which soared high for 6 years. Following trends, however, cost him dearly. The fifth album "Blackacidevil" from 1995, leaned a bit too much towards industrial, and the resulting songs lost that hard-blues magic and warmth that permeated the previous albums. It was a total disappointment and marked the beginning of a decline in style and popularity that Danzig seems to only sporadically recover in the albums that followed.

"Dethred Sabaoth" was released exactly six years after the last studio album, that "Circle of snakes" which seemed, thanks in part to the help of Tommy Victor, leader of the great Prong, to indicate the right musical path to follow. In between was a nice box set, thought up for fans with numerous unreleased songs, which perhaps hinted at a return to certain sounds.
From the graphics and typeface alone, there’s an intention to look back to the more distant Misfits-branded past. However, the content bears more resemblance to the initial sound of Danzig than anything heard in the past fifteen years.
The production entrusted to Danzig himself is deliberately raw, dirty.
Accompanying him is only Tommy Victor on guitars and bass and Johnny Kelly, drummer from Type O Negative. For the rest, mister "Anzalone" does it all, even playing drums on "Black Candy".
The pleasure lies in rediscovering, first and foremost, that voice, often compared to a Presley-Morrison mix, deep and captivating. It's found especially in tracks like Rebel Spirits and On a wicked night, where the melodic initial arpeggios are accompanied by the pathos of his voice, only to explode musically and vocally.

In short, songs with a pleasant air of déjà vu that at least approach memorable compositions. Far from becoming the new "Twist of Cain", "Mother" or "Anything" but at least distant from the industrial repetitiveness of the recent past, which still lingers in some of Victor’s guitar riffs like in "The Revengeful".
We meet a dark and malevolent Danzig in the Sabbathian blues-doom of "Night star hel" and in the final "Left hand rise above".

A classic album for those nostalgic for early Danzig. Now it's to be assessed whether this return is the result of inspiration or a necessary act after the last decade of decline experienced by our artist. I would position myself in the middle; after all, the album is listenable and that is already a step forward... towards the past.