To no one’s surprise, How the Gods Kill was no big departure for Danzig. More fun bluesy hard rock ahoy, but a huge leap forward in the quality of the songs. Although a bit less diverse than its successor, this album really had the band focusing on writing trimmed down catchy hard rock songs that really have an impact. It doesn’t hurt that Danzig’s voice is about as good as it’ll ever get at this stage and guitar player John Christ delivers some very fitting, if simple solos here and there.
Thankfully all the songs have their own identity, unlike the debut, and there are no big drops in quality, unlike Lucifuge. ’’Anything’’ and ’’Sistinas’’ are some of the best power ballads around, though I’ll admit to being biased against that type of song from the get-go.
’’Dirty Black Summer’’ and ’’Bodies’’ should fit the mood perfectly for those days when you’re really mad about your devillock not staying in place. And that’s not to mention the title track, which goes from being a really neat ballad, into super cockrock heaven! In a good way!
Admittedly some will probably find it hard to enjoy Danzig’s music, as he seems to have no ironic stance to all this dark’n’glommy’n’ever-so-evil subject matter, but rather seems to take these things seriously. ’’Tuffguy’’ till the bitter end, I suppose. But with music this good, I’ll be sure to look the other way. They really managed to tap into the right mood for this album, saving it from becoming yet another generic, if well-honed hard rock album, to being something a bit more special.
You won’t be finding any mad scales or insane polyrhythmic freakouts, but you’ll get a catchy and very well-crafted album for those nights where you’d rather sit at home in front of the fireplace rather than run around dying everyone’s cats black. Hmm, I wonder if that’s what ’’When the Dying Calls’’ is about...
Awful jokes aside, if you’re fond of melodic hard rock that doesn’t reek of happiness or annoying squeaky singers, Danzig would be well-worth checking out, and this would arguably be the perfect starting point.