Music Connection, 7/15/90   
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DANZIG - Santa Monica Civic
By Scott Schalin

   Thank god for Glenn Danzig. He is one the few artists who thankfully 
streches the boundaries of heavy metal and, in so doing, creates a unique 
identity that's sort of like Elvis meets Morrison at the gates of hell.
   Opening his Santa Monica show with perhaps his strongest track yet, 
"Long Way Back From Hell." from the excellent Lucifuge LP, the intense 
pitch of the evening was quickly set. With two fine albums now under his 
belt, Danzig has a plethora of strong material that made a lengthy set 
speed by. New cuts like "Her Black Wings" and "Devil's Pllaything" stood 
beside the older musical pilgrimages like "Am I Demon" and "Twist of Cain."
   Danzig has been so clever in flexing and bursting the limitations of 
the genre that he can even play the moodier, melancholic laments like "Pain 
In The World" and actually gain momentum where other metal acts would lose 
it. Like Metallica, Danzig trusts his creative instincts to take him to an 
artistic plateau to which his audience is open-minded enough to follow. 
While some have written off Danzig's tales of Biblical evil as simple odes 
to Satan, there's actually a great deal of soul searching underneath the 
metaphors, questioning not only religious doctrines but how they relate 
to us on the reality plane as well.
   Though this show was the first of what will be a long tour, the band 
proved surprisingly cohesive. The band's excellent musicianship erases 
another misconception about Danzig being simply a one-man show. John 
Christ's guitar pierces and shreds like the crown of thorns upon the head 
of Jesus. The drumming of Chuck Biscuits also merits special mention for 
its passion and aggressiveness.
   But perhaps most interesting was the sold-out proof that Danzig has 
become one of those bands that has achieved an immpressive fan following 
while giving a big middle finger in the eye of both MTV and consumer radio.