I WANNA BE YOUR MISERY
I WANNA BE THE WORLD YOU FEAR
I WANNA BE YOUR EMPTINESS
I WANNA BE THE GOD WHO KILLS
Danzig 4
also titled
Danzig 4P,
is the fourth studio album
by American
heavy metal band
Released in 1994,
it was the band's
final album on
American Recordings,
and the last to feature
the original lineup of
John Christ
(guitar),
Eerie Von
(bass),
and
Chuck Biscuits
(drums).
Danzig 4
followed 1993's
highly successful
Thrall-Demonsweatlive EP
and singer
Glenn Danzig's
1992
instrumental
solo effort,
Black Aria.
Album title
In various 1994-95 interviews,
Danzig explained that he
did not wish to give
the album a title,
as he felt that a logo
or printing would ruin
the artwork,
which he wished to stand
on its own.
After pressure from representatives
from American Recordings,
who did not want to
release an unlabeled album
for fear that sales would plummet,
Danzig relented and allowed a
sticker reading
"Danzig 4"
to be placed on the album's
cellophane wrapper
in both the
vinyl and CD formats.
To the right of the
"4"
is a tiny uppercase letter
"P",
in reference to the
Four P movement.
The following information
was supplied by
American Recordings in 1994:
"The Four P movement is an alleged Satanic cult operating throughout the United States. An offshoot of the notorious Process Church of the Final Judgment, the Four P movement takes its name from the Process' original sigil: a swastika-like form composed of four interlocking Ps. The Four P movement was supposedly begun in 1967, and has been connected to a number of ritual killings across the country, including the Son of Sam killings in New York and the Manson Family murders in California."
In interviews the band members themselves
usually refer to the album simply as
Danzig 4,
which is printed on the CD itself,
the inlay spine,
and the labels on the vinyl LP.
In the liner notes to the
2007 compilation
The Lost Tracks of Danzig,
however,
Glenn Danzig
refers several times to
Danzig 4P.
Production
Danzig 4
was recorded at
Ocean Way
and
Sound City Studios
in California.
During the song writing process
for the album,
Glenn Danzig
recorded his basic ideas
onto a microcassette.
The process continued with
Glenn Danzig and John Christ
working on guitar parts,
before the next stage of
Eerie Von and Chuck Biscuits
working out their parts
of the song arrangements.
The band introduced
different instruments
and used a few
industrial sounds
in the background of some tracks.
Christ explained
"We wanted to introduce some
new textures into the band,
so we experimented with several older,
exotic acoustic instruments,
including a harmonium,
a recorder and wind chimes."
Christ also experimented with
his guitar sound:
"The big difference on this album
in terms of my playing is
how I use sound and texture.
I experimented with
several different types of
stereo chorusing and pitch-shifting.
For example,
my tone on
"Son of the Morning Star"
constantly evolves
throughout the song."
Biscuits preferred the drum sound
captured on
Danzig 4
to the drum sound on his
previous Danzig recordings:
"I've had problems with
the drum sounds on
previous records.
They've been too flat,
too controlled.
In the past,
Rick [Rubin]
has been into that dry,
tight AC/DC sound.
This one was looser,
with more spaces,
more noise."
The CD release ends with
an unlisted hidden thirteenth track.
According to an interview
with Glenn Danzig,
the track is titled
"Invocation"
and is
"about a demon fucking somebody."
The song is inspired by a
black mass Danzig claims
to have heard at the
Magickal Childe occult emporium
in New York.
"Invocation"
includes a Gregorian chant,
and instrumental tracks
that are unique
to the song,
but reversed,
as is Glenn Danzig's
spoken introduction:
"All right, let's hear it back".
The track has been described
as sounding like a
demonic ritual,
and Christ described
the motivation behind
the recording:
"People give us a hard time about
the 'Devil thing',
so we figured,
'Let's give them something
to really talk about'."
There are several blank tracks before
"Invocation",
so that it is numbered track 66.
CD players that display the
"current track number"
and
"total disc time elapsed"
in minutes thus read
66 61:38
on the display
as the final track starts.
This is perhaps an
intentional reference
to The Number of the Beast
and the song
"We Are 138"
that Danzig wrote during
his days in the Misfits.
"Invocation"
is not included on
the cassette or
vinyl versions
of the album.
*Here It Is Track 13
Although the songs
"Crucifixion Destruction"
and
"White Devil Rise"
were mentioned in
interviews and articles
throughout 1994,
with Danzig even discussing
the latter in some detail,
neither song
was included on the
final version of the album.
Along with another
outtake from the same sessions,
"The Mandrake's Cry",
these were finally released
in 2007
on the first disc of
The Lost Tracks of Danzig
(with "Crucifixion Destruction"
under its correct title,
"Satan's Crucifiction").
Musical style
The album is more experimental
than its predecessors,
and Glenn Danzig
described it as
"A very challenging record,
philosophically,
vocally and musically."
Inspired by accusations
that their songs contained hidden
Satanic messages,
the guitar tracks for
"Cantspeak"
are those of
"Let It Be Captured"
played in reverse,
as Christ explained:
"Eerie Von had the idea of
playing one of our songs backwards...
we recorded whole guitar solo
and drum parts backwards
in the songs on this record.
In the end we were so obsessed
on this that we were trying
to really play the whole song
"Let It Be Captured"
backwards.
Therefore,
a new song was created
"Cantspeak"."
Artwork and packaging
The album cover features artwork
by Glenn Danzig.
Glenn Danzig has referred
to the symbols on
the album cover as
"Vehmic runes"
that spell out
"Danzig".
They were taken from
the alphabet of a
secret tribunal group
from Medieval Germany
called the
Vehmgericht.
The liner notes contain
a panoramic picture
of the four band members
in propped up coffins,
flanked by Secret Service men,
as a Bill Clinton impersonator
shakes hands with a
police officer wielding a shotgun.
The photo is reminiscent of a
19th-century photograph
of dead outlaws
on display.
Glenn Danzig would later reveal
that the FBI considered him
a threat to Clinton,
the American President
at the time of the album release.
The liner notes also include a
yin yang symbol
incorporating the
Danzig skull,
by artist
Michael William Kaluta.
The first pressings of the album
were sold in a distinctive cardboard sleeve,
which Glenn Danzig claimed was
more like that of an
old-fashioned LP
and more environmentally-friendly
than the common
plastic CD jewel case.
Since this initial release of the album,
its cardboard packaging
has been replaced by
the jewel case.
Like Danzig's previous three albums,
Danzig 4
has been labeled with a
Parental Advisory
originally in the form of a sticker
until the repackaging in the jewel case
since its initial pressings,
despite the absence of
common profanity.
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