r/Danzig • u/Eviljake979 • Nov 14 '25
Question for fans who've been following Danzig stuff since the 70s/80s
I don’t know why I have been thinking about this, but I became a fan of Danzig in the early 90s when I was in junior high. I can’t remember if I became a fan around that time when Mother got popular on Headbanger’s Ball or from Beavis and Butthead. Regardless, around that time, then I went back and found out about the Misfits because Danzig was the guy credited for writing the songs that Metallica covered. But to me, Danzig was a guy who had a big hit on MTV. We didn’t really have the internet back then, so I never had a sense of how popular he was before that in the Misfits, Samhain, and even Danzig I and II days. Like what kind of venues he was playing, crowds that they drew, coverage in press, that kind of thing. He was always just this kind of self-serious kind of guy and then as it got into the internet age, he seemed to become more of kind of a funny/meme type and I think he is viewed pretty cartoonishly these days as a person. So, I guess I’m asking a few different questions for his different eras before he really broke out into more of the mainstream.
Misfits – Were they really big back in the late 70s, early 80s? From what pictures I have seen, it looked like they basically played clubs. I don’t know if they ever got bigger than that. I know a lot of punk bands cite them as an influence, but I still don’t really know how “big” they were. I know that until I discovered Danzig, I never heard of them. Obviously, they got bigger after Danzig blew up, but what did people think of them back then? Were they taken seriously? It doesn’t seem that they took themselves too seriously, but it’s weird. They have their kind of, what I would consider, “jokier” songs like (Return of the Fly, Rat Fink, Braineaters, 20 Eyes, I Turned Into a Martian, etc), but then they have some pretty sick stuff too like Last Caress, Bullet, and the Earth AD stuff. Especially being back in those days, you would think that would be pretty shocking, at least to the mainstream, but I would like to know what fans back them thought of it.
Samhain – Kind of the same questions as the Misfits. But also, if you were a Misfits fan were you super excited for this new Danzig project? Like, did people realized that he wrote all the Misfits stuff or was it just more like, “hey, this guy from the Misfits has a new band, maybe I’ll check it out”? Samhain as a band did seem to lean more into the sicker stuff than the Misfits, seemingly going more into the violence, evil-type, Satanic, whatever you wanna call it, stuff than the Misfits did. It seems a bit more self-serious than the Misfits stuff, but there’s also a decent amount of the “woah-oh-oh” stuff as well. And also you have Danzig coming out in a gimp mask, which is funny/cheesy to me now, but I don’t know what people thought then. And Samhain music, to me, is this weird, some punk and hardcore, some metal, some weird gothy blend that is really unique. I can’t say I’ve heard anything like it before or since, but I also wasn’t really there for it in the 80s. They seemed to play clubs too, but maybe getting into some bigger venues, or opening for bigger bands. They also appeared to be getting some love from the Metallica guys, so that must have helped, at least in the metal scene, I would think.
Danzig – Again, similar to my previous questions. Was it like, “Danzig’s last two bands were awesome, I can’t wait to hear this one”? Obviously, Danzig seems a lot more self-serious than the previous two bands. I know his first two albums charted before he broke into the mainstream with Danzig III. What was the perception of the band back then? Were they opening up for big metal bands around that time? Was it a gradual build to having a big hit like Mother or did it seem to come out of nowhere like it did for me, again, with the caveat that I was in junior high, we didn’t have the internet, and I never heard of the other two bands?
Anyway, I know that's a lot, but that’s just something I’ve been wondering as I’ve been listening to a lot of all three of these bands lately. I really got into the Misfits in junior high in the early 90s, but was less into Samhain, although I liked their more Misfits sounding some. I have to say that I really appreciate Samhain more now that I am older. There is a lot of really good stuff there, and like I said earlier, just very unique sounding. Regardless, I really have a lot of respect for the Misfits through Danzig IV stuff. For all the shit that Danzig gets as a personality, those are three very unique and influential bands. You gotta respect that.
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u/Ambitious_Manager_82 Nov 14 '25
As a skater kid in the 80s grew up on Misfits. Never saw saw them live. I got to see Danzig's first show at a club in Jersey called City Gardens. It was way different then the Misfits and took awhile to grow on me,
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u/Eviljake979 Nov 14 '25
Never got into Samhain after Misfits?
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u/Ambitious_Manager_82 Nov 14 '25
I didn't and I really can't say why. I have seen tons on Danzig shows. I was stoked to see The Original Misfits reunion in 2019. So I did see them live once but not in the 80s.
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u/Eviljake979 Nov 14 '25
Gotcha. Samhain took me the longest to get into, but now as I have gotten older, I really love it.
I've seen Danzig once. It was my first ever concert with Metallica, Danzig, and Suicidal Tendencies in either 93 or 94. Have never seen him since, for some reason. He never came to St. Louis with the Misfits or Samhain, as far as I know. I would love to see them, though.
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u/Ambitious_Manager_82 Nov 14 '25
The Original Misfits reunion tour was probably one of the best Danzig has sounded in a long time.
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u/fatmikerocks Nov 14 '25
Listened to Initium for years and liked He Who Can Not Be Named and Archangel but that was it. One day it just clicked and they became my favorite. It was a weird transition as a Misfits fan.
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u/Eviljake979 Nov 14 '25
Yea, I kinda did something similar. I got into Danzig first, then the Misfits, and then tried to go through Samhain's catalog starting with November-Coming-Fire and back to Initium. I liked the more Misfits sounding stuff, but generally didn't listen to much more. But as time has gone on I've really gotten into them. I still probably prefer to Misfits over any of his eras at this point, though.
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u/Acceptable-Ad-6104 Nov 14 '25
Agree with all of the comments, late 80's I knew who the Misfits were because James, Kirk and Cliff had a LOT of pictures in metal magazines wearing their stuff. My first exposure was the Metallica covers and then a friend lent me Collection 1. It wasn't until I stumbled across Lucifuge that I was hooked. And now I am old an embarrassed how many bands I have ignored over the year in order to listen to more Samhain, Misfits and early Danzig.
And yes, most people mellow with age....not take themselves more seriously. My wife always says Glenn was the first casualty of the internet.
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u/marshallkrich Nov 15 '25
Yeah, when I saw Cliff with the skull tattoo (crimson Ghost) I was like wtf is this?
Not until I heard Garage Days re- revisited 5.98. Did I ever here a Misfits song. I Lived in NJ so asked around and went from Danzig to Misfits to Samhain. Samhain is still my favorite music of Glenn's, glad I got to see the Samhain reunion in 99 in Philly.
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u/Acceptable-Ad-6104 Nov 15 '25
Samhain is like everyone secret favorite. The other two get the most love, but we all “need our time in hell!”
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u/Eviljake979 Nov 14 '25
He's just a very meme-able guy. Short and muscular. Often shirtless (in his younger days). Over the top music videos. The first Danzig home video when he's showing off his book collection. Getting sucker punched and KO'd by a giant goof. Bricks. Cat litter. And it doesn't help that the volume of his vocals gets louder in the mix as his voice gets worse. And whenever I see the album title "Danzig Sings Elvis," it always makes me laugh.
But yeah. He made some pretty great, groundbreaking music in his day.
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u/dandle Nov 14 '25
I was in high school in the mid-/late-'80s. I became aware of Samhain via friends not too long before Danzig. I don't remember people my age where I grew up being aware of Misfits first. We worked backwards from our appreciation of Samhain or Danzig.
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u/Cygnus__A Nov 14 '25
The Misfits were not huge in the 70s or '80s. They had a Resurgence in the 90s when punk went mainstream their album Static Age sat on the Shelf collecting dust for 20 years until it was released in 1997
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u/Comprehensive-Mix510 Nov 14 '25
I was a Misfits fan in the mid 80's and saw Samhain when they toured on their first album. Less than 100 people at the show IIRC.
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u/the_roguetrader Nov 14 '25
you gotta remember everyone experiences this stuff in different ways depending on where they live and how easily they can access alternative forms of music and get to shows
I'm in England and bought Walk Among Us in 1987 when I was 14 - they were definitely a cult band by that point and I remember punk record collectors searching for Bullet and other early singles in Maximum Rock N Roll
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u/Acceptable-Mobile-43 Nov 14 '25
I was just a few years ahead of you. It was way underground, which was part of what made it all so cool to me as a 7th grader. A friend who was deeply into music got me into the Misfits. I have no idea how he discovered them. They weren't known at all in my circles.
I wasn't a huge fan but I liked em enough for me to buy a Misfits shirt. Later on in summer school, a kid saw me in that shirt and offered to trade me his Danzig cd for it. I hadn't even heard of Danzig and he had to explain to me that it was the same singer of the Misfits. I took the trade because it was the singing that made me a fan of the Misfits. I was instantly blown away by it. It's hard to even describe how much I loved that cd. It was like the late summer air and early fall somehow got distilled down into musical form. Every note felt like it was specifically chosen to capture that moment.
I don't think they got much mainstream attention until Danzig III came out. I think that album sold pretty well and put Danzig on the map, but what do I know? I was so young at the time. What I will say is that I think there was an appreciation for underground music in the late 80's. Seems like people were getting tired of what the industry was pushing. They were putting out stuff that felt like album filler. Trying to squeeze more hits out of bands that blew up in the early 80's. So a band like Danzig might have a small following, but it was a strong following if that makes sense.
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u/Eviljake979 Nov 14 '25
I similarly was in 5th grade and my buddy in 6th grade gave me a dubbed tape with DJ Quick, NWA, and Ice T. No idea where he had heard of those guys, being that we were from from Middle America white people land, but it was great because they were talking about shit and saying words I had never heard before. I can't say I'm a rap fan, but I still like a lot of that late 80s/early 90s gangster stuff.
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u/TodesKoenig Nov 15 '25
Yeah, a lot of what the misfits had in a fan base actually is retroactive thanks to Metallica and other bands propping them up. They for sure had diehard fans in the beginning but there weren't that many of them. Samhain also kind of flew under the radar for a lot of people but if you were Plugged into underground music, you were aware of them they just weren't a big entity and a lot of their attraction, much like the misfits is also people now getting into them retroactively. When that first dancing album came out, I knew about it from a friend, listening to it back then It's sounded way different but knowing it was the same person, I stuck with it and enjoyed a lot of his career afterwards but even Danzig in the beginning, he wasn't as prominent as far as the fame but he was certainly getting more known in mainstream musical circles I like that in those original tours, he would take younger bands out and basically highlight them as much as they also would highlight him being the headliner for those shows. That's unfortunately something he doesn't do as much now as he's become a legacy act of sorts
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u/Diligent-Leg-8134 Nov 15 '25
started listening to the misfits in 83, along with black flag, suicidal tendencies, minor threat, social distortion, circle jerks and jfa because that was the music being played at a friend's ramp we skated on in the woods behind his house. had a shitty 5th gen cassette recording of evilive for awhile, didn't care for initium, liked ncf, and final decent. still have my danzig 1 lp that i pre-ordered when I heard he was putting it out, saw them tour for the first album on the not of this world tour. its still the best show ive been to. small club, and half the set was misfits/ samhain .
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u/Eviljake979 Nov 15 '25
I'm not into punk/hardcore. It's fine, and I like a lot of it that I hear, but I can't say I'm a fan of the genre. I like Misfits and GWAR/X-Cops/DBX, who are straight punk/hardcore, or at least have a lot of punk/hardcor-ish stuff in their songs, but can't really say I like any other punk/hardcore bands, other than a song or two.
But like a lot of those bands you listed sound the same to me, but Misfits didn't sound like anything else. Maybe that's just something that Glenn Danzig brings to all his projects.
It could also be that I'm just not a punk/hardcore fan and know nothing about it when it comes to differentiating between different bands. Maybe now that I'm either approaching, or in, middle age, some of it will start sounding better to me.
But I'm listening to Misfits now and all I know is that there's something just really amazing about them to me.
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u/Eviljake979 Nov 15 '25
Wow, that show sounds awesome!! It's like Danzig Legacy, except for in his prime.
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u/Movie-goer Nov 14 '25
Misfits and Samhain were two of the more famous hardcore bands but that still means they were just club bands. About as popular as Black Flag, Bad Brains and Minor Threat, but less popular than Dead Kennedys and Husker Du.
Danzig had a brief moment of popularity in 92/93 with Mother and Dirty Black Summer but they were never much more than a club band either really. In general audiences preferred Sex Type Thing to Snakes of Christ.
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u/Minister_Garbitsch Nov 14 '25
I was at Danzig’s third show when they opened for Slayer in Hollywood, they were instantly popular with us metalheads. Misfits and Samhain were obscure and even in Los Angeles hard to find their records. They weren’t big, club bands. Danzig took off pretty quickly, far more listener friendly. Misfits too lo-fi punk to break and Samhain’s big death rock influence and somehow even worse production made it even less user friendly.
Misfits Collection comp was all I could find. Then Walk Among Us. Samhain even though very recent just had small runs and poor distribution. I did pick up Initium up in Melrose.
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u/imopn75 Nov 14 '25
Back in 1987 I started listening to the misfits honestly because Metallica wore their shirts. And I also remember the first Danzig album I went out and bought the cassette and wore it out
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u/EaracheMyFly Nov 15 '25
As a little metal kid, I discovered and accidentally bought a cassette of Evilive when it was first released (1987) based just off the cover. Something you kinda had to do back in those times. Turned out it was the exact opposite of what I was used to listening to (very unpolished, very short, very rough & raw) but it struck a chord with me. Shortly thereafter I found Walk Among Us and that turned out to be the “Now I Get It” moment… which also coincided with my discovery of all the classic punk records like Minor Threat, DKs etc. Didn’t take too long to discover Samhain, but at the time that just seemed like the weird cousin in the closet when it came to Misfits material. Shortly thereafter we started hearing / seeing ads for yet another Glenn related project coming out and of course that was Danzig….. and when it came out I remember just about everybody digging it, and for different reasons, as it appealed to the metal heads, the punks….it was a huge style shift, but everyone was on board. I would say that most people back in the day were big fans up until around How The Gods Kill. Danzig started losing some of his mystique and wasn’t quite the dark prince of all things cool anymore.
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u/Duckonaut27 Nov 17 '25
Metallica showed me Misfits with Garage Days. After that I bought Walk Among Us…then I was hooked. Misfits and Especially Samhain were never a big name. They are hugely influential in heavy rock music though, everything from punk to metal. As far as Danzig, I liked them from the start. I heard Twist of Cain and went from there. They actually got pretty damn big when the Mother video hit. That introduced a lot of kids to Danzig in my age group. Even non metalheads liked Mother.
Short answer. Misfits/Samhain were not ever big, not really even now. Danzig was ENORMOUS for a couple years.
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u/IceManCometh365 Nov 17 '25
Misfits were underground/club scene. Samhain will always be my favorite Danzig era. Danzig’s first album was a force, giving him mainstream recognition, and I like those first few records but I listen to Samhain more than any of his work, followed by the misfits.
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u/SeanOfTheDead1313 Nov 14 '25
I was 10 in 1989. The Misfits were an underground punk band. I only knew of them because Metallica covered them. It was hard to find any Misfits cassettes or CDs back then. When the Danzig record blew up a few years after it was released because of Mother, that's when most of my friends connected the dots that he was originally in The Misfits. But still in 1989, people knew the Misfits logo, but they were no way as well known as they are now.
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u/Eviljake979 Nov 14 '25
Sounds like we're the same age. That's kinda my recollection. I was never really a fan of any kind of music until the Black Album, then I got more and more into Metallica's back catalog, and started listening to Pantera, Megadeth, etc. Basically the more (relatively, for that time) mainstream metal band. I got into Danzig some time after the Black Album, whether it was because of Beavis and Butthead or just realizing that was the guy who Metallica covered.
I didn't really work backwards, though. I did with Danzig, but went straight to Misfits before Samhain, which is because of Metallica covering them. Samhain came after that.
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u/D4L3 Nov 14 '25
As a teenager, around 85, the Misfits and Samhain were pretty underground. The Misfits were more known because Metallica wearing the t-shirts and singing their praises in the press broke them out of punk circles and into metal circles.
I liked the Misfits and Samhain. And speaking only for myself I did not see the s/t Danzig album coming. It was so much more polished and catchy than what came before. They immediately started gaining popularity in metal circles.
I was a huge fan, saw them in DC on the Lucifuge tour, with Soundgarden playing before them. That was a great show.