[PREORDER] Danzig - III: How The Gods Kill

The album that turned Danzig from an underground cult act into a genuine rock star, and widely regarded as the creative peak of Glenn Danzig's entire career. Released on July 14, 1992 on Def American Recordings and recorded at Hollywood Sound Recorders with Glenn Danzig producing, How The Gods Kill reached number 24 on the Billboard 200 and sold out a 16,000-capacity amphitheatre in Southern California, an achievement that had been virtually unheard of for a band of Danzig's underground origins.

The album finds Glenn Danzig, guitarist John Christ, bassist Eerie Von, and drummer Chuck Biscuits operating at the precise meeting point of heavy metal, classic hard rock, Delta blues, and something that defied all three categories entirely. Danzig himself insisted at the time that the band existed outside the boundaries of rock altogether, and listening to How The Gods Kill it is hard to argue. The guitars are heavy and distorted, but the blues runs deep. The vocals owe as much to Jim Morrison and Elvis Presley as they do to any metal singer. The mood is dark and cinematic throughout, lurching between brooding menace and genuine grandeur with total confidence.

"Dirty Black Summer," inspired by Glenn's own adolescent memories, remains one of the most instantly recognizable songs in the catalog, while the epic title track and "Left Hand Black" have been permanent fixtures in the band's live set ever since. This is the first official vinyl repressing from American Recordings since the album's original 1992 release, presented on coke bottle clear vinyl and long overdue.