Mnemic

Back in 1988, Danzig was the dog’s bollocks for yours truly. The self-entitled debut by former Misfits mainman Glenn Danzig drew my attention away from the speed of Metallica and Iron Maiden’s gallop for a while. To me, this pit dark rock’n’roll was new and fascinating.

My love for Danzig’s comic book music never really faded away, especially not with killer releases like “Lucifuge” (1990), “How the Gods Kill” (1992), “4” and then again, after the mishap called “blackacidevil” (1996) and a break of a couple of years, “Satan’s Child” (1999). The penchant for dark rock is consistent in Evil Elvis’ music, and I can’t help loving it. After all these years, I finally get to see the man in action, and it is therefore with great anxiety I get in the car and take my friend Jesper to Aalborg to see Danzig’s only appearance in Denmark on this tour (and I believe in a long, long while).

Danzig is not the name he used to be, and the place is not sold out. In an attempt to draw more local fans, Mnemic have been pulled in to do a half hour support gig. Despite the lukewarm reaction from crowd and bad sound, the band show that the excessive touring with Machine Head, Fear Factory, Soilwork and others has paid off – a short, professionally resolved gig with a handful of great songs.

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Danzig

When the hymn of “Wotans Procession” from latest offering “Circle of Snakes” (2004) begins, my expectations have reached the boiling point.

This is finally it!

And great is my disappointment when the sound turns out to be really bad. It is hardly possible to tell what Evil Elvis sings – and this is fairly important when we’re talking Danzig !

Luckily, the soundman soon gets to grips with Studenterhuset’s acoustics and even though Glenn is not the greatest singer in the world, the sheer joy of hearing classics like “Twist of Cain”, “Bringer of Death”, “Snakes of Christ”, “How the Gods Kill”, “Her Black Wings”, “Satan’s Child”, “Mother” and newie “Black Angel, White Angel” makes the whole dang thing worth our while.

Where Glenn himself is a comic book character made flesh (and even a fairly old one at that…), his backing band (consisting of Tommy Victor of Prong fame and Johnny Kelly of Type O Negative ditto) are there to kill and bounce around constantly. Victor is used to be on the stage, and there’s little doubt that he enjoys every second of it. I have no idea who the bass player is, but he seems amiable and is doing a fab job as well.

After “Dirty Black Summer”, the band retires and leaves a happy crowd who just had their share of dark rock classics. Not necessarily perfectly executed but, damn, the level of nostalgia shouldn’t be underestimated!

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Attending: Thomas & Jesper