Danzig III: How the Gods Kill | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Cover art by H. R. Giger
|
||||
Studio album by Danzig | ||||
Released | July 14, 1992 | |||
Recorded | November 1991–April 1992 | |||
Studio |
Record Plant Hollywood Sound Recorders |
|||
Genre | Heavy metal, blues rock, hard rock | |||
Length | 49:12 | |||
Label | Def American Recordings | |||
Producer | Glenn Danzig, Rick Rubin | |||
Danzig chronology | ||||
|
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | |
College Music Journal | (favorable) |
Hit Parader | (favorable) |
Request Magazine | (favorable) |
Rock Hard | |
Rolling Stone | |
Spin | (unfavorable) |
Trouser Press | (favorable) |
Danzig III: How the Gods Kill is the third album by Glenn Danzig's band Danzig, and the highest to chart at the time of its release in 1992 on Def American Recordings. It was reissued in 1998 by Def American's successor, American Recordings.
How the Gods Kill was a departure from the previous Danzig album and featured more of a doom and gothic metal sound.
Eerie Von considers the album to be Danzig's best, with the band at its peak and able to record most of the basic tracks for each song within a couple of takes.
John Christ noted how a lot of time was spent perfecting the guitar sounds for the album. For the quieter moments on the songs "Anything", "Sistinas" and "How the Gods Kill", Christ used a guitar previously played by Jeff Beck.
The title song "How the Gods Kill" concerns a search for knowledge and an understanding of oneself. According to John Christ, “That was a real tricky song to write and record. It has so many level jumps and changes in the sound of the guitar. I had to go from a very soft section to a very loud section to an in-between section. If you listen closely, you can hear a hissing noise in the vocals in the intro because we were using a real noisy vocal preamp. We tried everything to get rid of it, but Glenn's performance was so good that we decided to leave it - the mood was just right.”
The song "Sistinas" was written during a drum track recording session, as John Christ recalled: “We were in the studio recording drum tracks, and while we were on a break Glenn picked up my guitar and started getting an idea for a song. Then I came up with a little chorus part, and in about an hour or two we had the basic structure of the song. He wanted it to have a Roy Orbison type of vibe with some timpani and keyboards. We used an old Fender amp with a vibrato on it, and we cranked up the vibrato to get those really big chords - it was perfect for that song.”
Opening track "Godless" is about feelings of frustration caused by organised religion.