Danzig Circle Of Snakes CD

Danzig: Jerry Montano (bass guitar); Glenn Danzig, Tommy Victor, Bevan Davies.
Personnel: Glenn Danzig (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Tommy Victor (guitar); Bevan Davies (drums).
Audio Mixers: Glenn Danzig; Chris Rakestraw.
Recording information: Ocean Studios, Glendale, CA; Paramount Studios, Hollywood, CA.
Photographer: Nick Infield.
Glenn Danzig returns to his immediate post-Misfits roots with the stripped-down Circle of Snakes, an 11-track chunk of brutality that forgoes the murky alt-metal and industrial meanderings that marred many of his mid-to-late-'90s offerings. The revival of the four-piece basement-heavy attack of his 1988 solo debut is a welcome one, and fans who went willingly with the artist after his controversial punk departure will find solace among familiar "comic book" themes -- and very Misfits-esque titles like "Skull Forest" and "1000 Devils Reign." Tommy Victor's heavier than seems humanly possible guitar works serves as the bedrock for Danzig's Jim Morrison on "Bald Mountain" croon, and when they find their groove, like on the needle-in-the-red "Night Besodom" and "Black Angel, White Angel," and the riveting title track, the results are electrifying. Where the album fails is in its formulaic songwriting. Danzig's lyrics have always worked best when the beast he's battling grins back at him, and the "so morose they're bland" themes of death, evil, and "blazing skulls" are in such abundance here that one yearns for the appearance of a flesh-eating zombie, blood-soaked wolf, or sexy vampire dominatrix to break the first-person gloom of it all. Circle of Snakes is definitely a return to form, but it's also a retreat from the sinister and cerebral punk metal stylings of the era it's trying to emulate. ~ James Christopher Monger
A creeping funeral-rock dirge ushers in the 2004 offering from Danzig, commanding both elder disciples and the uninitiated to join in on another journey down the darkened path. The procession is led by heavy metal's own Man in Black, Glenn Danzig, whose previous exploits in the Misfits and Samhain have defined death-rock, changed the face of punk, and created a dark musical empire of which he is king.
Danzig's seventh album offers a welcome return to form after a flirtation with industrial music that colored much of the band's late-1990s output. That influence has all but disappeared, and CIRCLE OF SNAKES burns and blisters with tight, intense, low-end blues-metal that resembles Danzig's '88 self-titled debut, and reaches even farther back to the raw, unbridled occult bedlam of Samhain. Here more than ever, Danzig's from-the-bowels-of-hell croon seems genuinely tortured, now backed by the powerful guitar work of Tommy Victor (ex-Prong). Demonic imagery and gruesome themes abound, and the group still has the charisma to pull off catchy, powerful choruses. Listen and become one of the initiated.CMJ (p.18) - "[T]he band continues to release solidly sinister hard rock."