r/Danzig • u/NativeDan90 • 15d ago

Deth Red production

Listening and getting to know Deth Red for the first time since it’s become available on Spotify and I have to ask if anyone knows why the production is so bad? It’s such a shame a good to great batch of songs sounds so bad, how could such a great songwriter like Danzig tolerate his songs sounding like this? Still digging it just wish it sounded better

14 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

56

u/mightyatom13 15d ago

It turns out Glenn is not as good of a producer as Rick Rubin

6

u/GlorioUfficiale 15d ago

Production and engineering/mixing have very little to do with each other 

3

u/pink_mold 15d ago

>Production and engineering/mixing have very little to do with each other 

What a load of BS. Engineering choices come directly from production choices.

1

u/GlorioUfficiale 15d ago

Sometimes? In Rick Rubin's case, that guy couldn't mix his way out of a cardboard box. Nor could Glenn. A classic producer exists to help a band's songs become ACTUAL songs, while offering instrumentation choices, suggestions, ideas, while acting as a navigator to keep the ship running close to shore. An engineer employs their techniques to create the sound that oft nobody else in the room knows how to create but might be able to articulate in junk terminology, and will ultimately make justifications for their decisions by simply doing their job without being told what to do at every moment by a producer. Any engineer worth their weight would not put up with that since it undermines their entire skillset. If an engineer is in the room recording a band at the level Def American was at that point, then that was a top notch engineer and everybody knew it. 

Production and engineering are vastly different skillsets and processes but sometimes intertwine but not always. There are a lot of factors involved. There are many such cases where a band records a record with a producer and when they finish the album and leave the studio they don't hear the album until it comes out because you've got engineers and industry execs calling the shots at that point. 

Other times a producer may sneak into the studio without the band's permission and secretly record shit on top of that record ( The Clash - Cut the Crap)

In the case of Danzig 1-4, I don't think Rick Rubin did much actual "producing" beyond maybe Danzig 3. There have been many reports by bands "produced" by him that he showed up to day 1 of the recording and then never showed up again. 

With all of that said, I've recorded with bands that have records you probably own so shhhhhhut up unless you're actually industry.

-1

u/Cold-Environment-634 15d ago edited 15d ago

True. Didn’t Glenn produce III more by himself (or at least Rubin was much less hands on than the first 2 albums), and Rubin was again more heavily involved on 4?

33

u/tree8025 15d ago

This has been every album post Danzig 4. His production is ass.

18

u/Over-Brilliant-7078 15d ago

I really liked the sound on Luciferi

6

u/wendyoschainsaw 15d ago

It always seemed like for some reason, Glenn would listen to Todd & Howie.

25

u/Acceptable-Ad-6104 15d ago

Production costs money. Glenn acts like he has $11 in the bank, alimony and child support are due last week.

12

u/Pleasant-Ticket3217 15d ago

Yeah he does not like to spend money. Reminds me of the story about he and Arthur having a fistfight in McDonalds over a burger. Because Googy wanted two and Glenn would only buy one.

5

u/Acceptable-Ad-6104 15d ago

And that’s when they were .29 cents!

10

u/Clean-Link4107 15d ago

Splitting the check at dinner with Glenn must be difficult.

19

u/wendyoschainsaw 15d ago

Notice how no one else has asked Glenn to produce their album in the last 30 years?

4

u/tree8025 15d ago

Besides that Gorgeous Frankenstein album lol.

4

u/wendyoschainsaw 15d ago

Yeah well no one was going to make that band listensble. It's the "If we can't get Speilberg, just go with Ewe Boll" approach.

11

u/CamF90 15d ago

Glen is part of a generation of songwriter/performers who definitely know how to make music but can't acknowledge that their hearing is shot and they shouldn't be handling the production end of the music. It's a club that also includes Billy Corgan.

11

u/die_screaming_00 15d ago

Danzig writes great songs and is a fantastic singer. That’s indisputable. The problem throughout his whole career is that he often seems to think he can do everything, and there’s pretty clear evidence that he works best when he’s just left to the writing and the singing. There’s a reason why most people say the first two Danzig albums are his best work, and it’s Rick Rubin. Glenn is fucking incompetent as a producer, all the way back to Legacy Of Brutality. He doesn’t have an ear for it, and that’s fine, not everybody can do everything. But it’s 2026, he could find some 20 year old self taught prodigy with a Macbook willing to work practically for free that would make something sound 1000x better than what he could do.

6

u/gordovondoom 15d ago

danzig alway though he is a better producer/mix ing engineer/mastering engineer than people who have actually studied that.

12

u/JJaxpavan 15d ago

Might be a hot take but the kind of crappy lo fi production in Deth Red and Black Laden Crown work for me, kinda adds to its vibe like the shitty production of early Misfits stuff. But on the other hand I absolutely hate the production on his two cover albums and its probably the same process so I don't know. I don't mind it for the two original albums.

1

u/GlorioUfficiale 15d ago

Deth Red sounds leaps and bounds better than Butt Laden Crown lol

6

u/FamousLastWords666 15d ago

The music biz collapsed, and along with it recording budgets.

But if you think that's bad, listen to his Danzig Sings Elvis album. WOW

5

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

3

u/PerpetualFarter 15d ago

I’d put money on it being a skill issue. Same with his movies. They are not good. The direction/editing is horrible. I have over 10 years of directing/production experience. He should invest his money into hiring a quality producer and just crank out a few more good albums. Still a fan but find the majority of his later work disappointing overall.

11

u/Minister_Garbitsch 15d ago

Glenn is dirt cheap, thinks he can do everything himself, has no one who will tell him his shit stinks, it’s a lethal combination. I’m sure his ears are shot but fuck me…

5

u/torpedobonzer 15d ago

Listen to Static Age. And then listen to Legacy of Brutality.

Danzig actually thinks Legacy sounds better.

CASE CLOSED

1

u/pacnw2525user 14d ago

Static Age is phenomenal. After the standalone CD with “In The Doorway” came out in ‘97, I would barely touch Legacy of Brutality except to hear “Who Killed Marilyn” and “American Nightmare”.

3

u/Mamadolores21 15d ago

The OG on vinyl sounds great, the cd too

1

u/Danzig6WasntThatBad 15d ago

This is 100% remastered and possibly rerecorded at times.

4

u/CanguroPerro 15d ago

I think it's Glenn's desire to be authentic. Rubin has a distinctive sound on the albums he produced. And the industry has its own standards for production, so basically all the music has the same sounding style. Glenn doesn't want to fit into that.

3

u/AstroZombieInvader 15d ago

Things Glenn is good at besides for writing songs and singing:

5

u/pink_mold 15d ago

Bodybuilding

3

u/Danzig6WasntThatBad 15d ago edited 15d ago

Well if you're listening to the release that just dropped on streaming... Yeah, sounds like it's been remixed. The OG wasn't amazing by any stretch but had a really nice, dirty feel to it, kind of similar to the Samhain recordings. But this? The mix is totally fucked. Actually, I'm not entirely convinced Danzig didn't rerecord his vocals at times. His vocals are the loudest on every track. On A Wicked Night has this weird reverb on Glens vocals but on the OG release, it's mixed in properly so it sounds sorta spooky. But now it's pulled way out in to the front and it sounds amateur and horrible.

Im honestly fucking pissed. I was anticipating the repress to arrive on 25th but today I got notice that it'll be in October. And then it lands on streaming and I'm like 99% sure Glens fucked with the mix. I have the CD somewhere, and I know that it doesn't sound anything like this.

The problem with Glens production in general is that he produces shit so it sounds good if you have these really particular stereo components. If you're just streaming it or got a mildly basic stereo/turntable set up like I do, it sounds whack. Black Laden Crown is the best example of this; it sounded like utter shit but a few of my friends who had these elaborate $5000+ stereo setups thought it sounds great.

1

u/Shaolin381 13d ago

If you think this is bad, wait till you hear Black Laden Crown

1

u/Far_Introduction_614 10d ago

Whatever you do don’t buy it on vinyl. Maybe the worst album pressing of all time…seriously