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The Blackest Of The Black Tour started in 2003 with Danzig headlining his own festival in the tradition of Ozzfest but without the corporate backing and b.s. It is also a chance for smaller bands to cut their teeth and get noticed on a larger scale. In the beginning, the Phil Anselmo (formerly of Pantera)-led Superjoint Ritual and the excellent ethereal Italian sextet Lacuna Coil opened. The talent has watered down a bit since then but that is probably more indicative of metal’s overall suffering popularity. In spite of that, Blackest Of The Black is still a great night out for those who crave their ears to bleed.
This tour is the opposite of Ozzfest in more than just corporate financing. At Ozzfest, the rest of the bands are there to satisfy the crowd because Ozzy simply can’t hack it anymore. I saw Ozzfest in ’97 and he could barely sing then. I can’t imagine that the last 13 years have seen some kind of voice rejuvenation. At BOTB, the openers have never been the cream of the crop, thereby propping Danzig up further into metal god status. Withered and Marduk really were just noise, to my ears, as the drums were being pounded so ferociously and relentlessly that I couldn’t hear much of anything else. It was like watching the finale of a fireworks show if you were blind. Sounds loud, but no payoff. Toxic Holocaust was so generic they were the Safeway brand Slayer. They were the ultimate doom metal cliché. They had, get this, a song called “666,”. How original? Possessed was the best of the undercard and possibly the best BOTB band I’ve heard at this festival (having seen Lacuna Coil on their own, they were incredible). Any part of their set that can be considered dated makes perfect sense since they haven’t released a full-length studio album since Reagan was president. On a couple of side notes, they are the only metal band I’ve ever seen with a wheelchair bound lead singer and Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde is a former member.
My issue is that Danzig doesn’t need any propping up. He doesn’t need four supporting bands to whet the crowd’s appetite. This is my fourth Danzig show and I have never seen any other band more than twice, so you now know what regard I hold him in. The rumors of his voice deteriorating are mostly unfounded. At 55, that he can do live what he does vocally is impressive. Having listened to enough live material of the Misfits and Danzig, I can say, without a doubt, that if his voice has fallen off, it’s only marginally. He does cut syllables off of words but he did that on Evilive too. This setlist was the second best out of any of his prior show (the best contained the mini-set of Misfits songs performed with Doyle, so that’s not really even fair).
In support of 2004’s Circle Snakes, the set had a lot of songs from that album, as to be expected. All of the songs were actually performed from most recent and ending with the first, eponymous album. This made sense because everything from Danzig 4p to Circle Of Snakes didn’t really fit in with the older material with 5: Blackacidevil and beyond being not quite up to snuff (evidenced by the fact that I have never heard anything from Blackacidevil live; I Luciferi also was ignored this time around). With this year’s Deth Red Sabaoth (which I like more and more with every listen), though, that old Danzig swing returned. You know what I’m talking about. And in this set, Glenn cherry picked the very best tracks. After starting off with slightly stiff renditions of “Skincarver,” and the usually incredible “Twist Of Cain”, the band (featuring Tommy Victor on guitar, whom I have seen too many times to count now in Danzig as well as Ministry) roared to life and ripped through the latest Danzig classic, “Hammer Of The Gods,”. Live, these new songs are even better because the guitar sound is consistent with the rest of the setlist and no studio effects are getting in the way of Evil Elvis’s croon.
In the middle was a pocket of How The Gods Kill featuring standards “Her Black Wings”, the title track, and the never-heard-live-before-by-me “Do You Wear The Mark,”. The other new set addition and special treat was “Thirteen,” a song originally written for and performed by Johnny Cash and, most recently, was heard in the opening of the massive comedy hit The Hangover. Personally, I’m glad for every bit of mainstream exposure Danzig gets because he is truly a legend and an American original. The show’s closer, “Mother,” is the ultimate crowd pleaser but the highlight for me always comes in the encore with “She Rides”, also from the debut. The precursor to the last song created bit of a strange feeling in the audience as Glenn gave them a choice as to what they wanted to hear next: “Snakes Of Christ,” or “Long Way Back From Hell,”. As if dumbfounded by the opportunity to voice their opinion, the crowd gave a muddled response and Danzig chose for us. It’s just as well as you couldn’t go wrong with either song. Or most of the set, for that matter. Or a huge chunk of his catalog. I’ll stop now.
Setlist:
Wotan’s Procession/Skincarver
Twist Of Cain
Hammer Of The Gods
Deth Red Moon
Tired Of Being Alive
Her Black Wings
How The Gods Kill
Do You Wear The Mark?
On A Wicked Night
Ju Ju Bone
Thirteen
Bringer Of Death
Black Angel, White Angel
Mother
Encore:
She Rides
Long Way Back From Hell
