The first official vinyl repressing from American Recordings of Danzig's third album since its initial release in 1992. Tracks include “Dirty Black Summer” and “Left Hand Black.” Pressed on standard weight vinyl in gatefold jacket with printed inner sleeve.
On the third album he made with his biggest band, Glenn Danzig lived up to his larger-than-life metal-god myth in ways he’s rarely done since. Danzig’s voice has always carried a hint of tenderness, and in How the Gods Kill’s slower tracks, that quality comes to the fore. The title track poses a heavy question in a soft tone: “If you feel alive/If you’ve got no fear/Do you know the name/Of the one you seek?” The implication is clear: Are you ready for power you may not be able to comprehend? Are you ready to go to the next level? He and his bandmates surely were. Throughout the album, Danzig, guitarist John Christ, bassist Eerie Von, and drummer Chuck Biscuits achieve a bigger, denser sound than they’d previously had. Danzig’s subtle croon only intensifies the effect of the blaze—stoked by desperate longing, he sounds that much more demonic. The nickname “Evil Elvis” had been lobbed at him ever since his 1988 solo debut, largely due to the way he packaged ferocious energy in accessible charm and his deep, roaring vocal delivery. But Roy Orbison is a more important spiritual influence on Danzig’s style, at least on this album, even if “Evil Roy” doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Orbison was goth before goth, draping himself with darkness not just in his black-on-black look, but in his lovelorn voice and his tales of sorrow. You can hear his music echoed clearly in “Sistinas,” a sincerely romantic love song where vibrato guitar and delicate strings back Danzig’s somber words (“I lost my soul, deep inside/Oh, and it’s so black and cold”). Orbison’s shadow is there, too, on “Anything,” a sweet ballad that ripens into a rager. On Gods, Danzig isn’t the shape-shifting, demonic wolfman of his earlier records. He’s a devil who feels, thinking about the one that got away while he sits on a throne of skulls.
| A1 | Godless |
| A2 | Anything |
| A3 | Bodies |
| A4 | How The Gods Kill |
| A5 | Dirty Black Summer |
| B1 | Left Hand Black |
| B2 | Heart Of The Devil |
| B3 | Sistinas |
| B4 | Do You Wear The Mark |
| B5 | When The Dying Calls |
