Black Laden Crown

Personnel: Glenn Danzig (vocals, guitar, piano); Tommy Victor (guitar).
Audio Mixers: Glenn Danzig; Chris Rakestraw.
Recording information: East West Studios, Hollywood, California.
The first collection of new original music from the punk-metal legend since 2010's Deth Red Sabaoth, Black Laden Crown follows a surprisingly busy three-year stretch that saw Glenn Danzig issue a covers album (2015's Skeletons), reunite with Jerry Only and Doyle for a pair of Misfits reunion shows, and appear on an episode of the sketch comedy TV series Portlandia. Black Laden Crown is the 11th studio long-player from Danzig (the band), and it marks a return to the brooding, largely midtempo, blues-based biker horror jams of yore, with a smattering of doomy, Samhain-era malevolence tossed in for good measure -- the latter Danzig iteration looms large on the sludgy, nearly six-minute title track. Black Laden Crown is at its best when the band keeps it slow and low, as they do with great success on workmanlike candelabra-burners like "Last Ride," "Skulls & Daisies," and "Pull the Sun," and it's in those solemn moments of churning, Jim Morrison-esque torment and woe that Glenn Danzig sounds the most sinister and at ease. ~ James Christopher Monger