Black Aria

I hope to accomplish a flurry of posts this weekend, everything from 19th century Russian lieder to forgotten heavy metal comps. You see, my divorce has finally become a palpable reality with my signing of the 30-day Notice of Vacation of our apartment. In my effort to travel light (I hope to complete my move in no more than two carloads), I will be digitizing as much of my old cassette shit as possible. Since I will also be leaving my stereo, TV, DVD Player, and stainless steel cookware here with my wife, it seems that just about everyone will benefit from my soon-to-be minimalist lifestyle. My laptop, my guitars, and my radio will solely comprise my essentials from now on.

But, gentle reader, don't worry about me; you see, when it rains, it pours, and divorce isn't the only milestone I've reached lately. I've also just attained my Masters degree, and I am currently looking forward to fulfilling the statistical prediction that my standard of living will raise by ten percent within a year after divorce. I'll either room with someone for a while or get a shithole studio apartment, and focus my job search northward.

But anyway, enough of my sob story.

This is an odd footnote in the career of punk/metal icon Glenn Danzig. Somewhere in between the fantastic "Lucifuge" album from Danzig and the slightly-less fantastic "Danzig 3", Glenn decided to dust off his old Plan 9 label and release a classically-inspired album. While the album's artistic merits are negligible (more later), it precluded similar releases by such pop staples as Paul McCartney and Joe Jackson by several years.

I heard an interview with Glenn Danzig on a radio show right about when this was released, and he said something along the lines of "It's a nine-movement piece based on Milton's Paradise Lost". He went on to describe how this album actually topped the classical charts in 1992.

Rest assured, this is for Glenn Danzig completists only. Those of you familiar with such stripper-friendly Danzig anthems as "She Rides" or "Her Black Wings" will be sorely disappointed by this, I'm afraid. The music is undoubtedly influenced by such Romanticist staples as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner, as evidenced by its timpani-heavy bombast and overt emotional, heroic leanings. For a Baroque/Expressionist like me, all of this seems a bit over-the-top. There are some wonderful sublime moments, however, like the Purcel-inspired three note soprano riff in "Dirge of Defeat".

And my loneliness in bondage:
http://rapidshare.de/files/35101383/Glenn_Danzig-_Black_Aria.zip