Danzig: Danzig III: How the Gods Kill [UME]

Why you'll love it

A fresh American Recordings repress in a gatefold jacket, pressed in Canada. It was Danzig's highest-charting album at the time, reaching No. 24 on the Billboard 200, and AllMusic called it "arguably the definitive Danzig album."

This edition

• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in Canada

About the album

By 1992 Glenn Danzig had two albums behind him and a band at its peak (bassist Eerie Von still calls this one their best), and they cut most of the basic tracks in a couple of takes. Co-produced by Glenn and Rick Rubin for Def American, How the Gods Kill widens the canvas, darker and more dramatic, with blues-in-a-crypt swagger and ballads stretched into something nearly operatic.

John Christ borrowed a Strat once played by Jeff Beck for the quiet passages, Chuck Biscuits drives the heavy ones, and "Dirty Black Summer," inspired by Glenn's own teenage summers, led the way as the single. "Sistinas" came together in an hour or two during a drum session, aiming for a Roy Orbison feel with timpani and keyboards, while "Godless" and "Heart of the Devil" show Glenn's croon at its most theatrical. Pitchfork heard Willie Dixon and Howlin' Wolf in the mix and later gave it an 8.7.

The cover is H.R. Giger's 1976 painting Meister und Margeritha. For metalheads, goths and anyone who likes their rock with a little candle wax on it, this is the one to own.

Also at Kops: more Danzig on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On American Recordings / UMe, a reissue of the 1992 album.