Danzig Album: “The Lost Tracks Of”

The definition of an album has changed, I think, due to technology. It's so easy to mix and match tracks these days, does anybody but dinosaurs like me actually ever listen to records in their original order? Aren't there a lot of "albums" these days that take the form of nothing but a computer download? If an album doesn't even really physically exist, what is an "album", anyway?

For that reason, I decided to approach this double-cd set as a double album. My rationale was this: could a reasonably consistent and coherent album be constructed simply by arranging the track selection in an order other than the chronological (as presented in the original)? If so, how good would the result be?

The answers: yes, and great. This might even be Danzig's best album, which obviously means its an instant classic by any reasonable standard. This is Danzig's White Album, his Exile on Main St., his Physical Graffiti (only far more interesting than all that old fossilized rock, of course).

First on an album, obviously, we need a killer opener. We have the best he has ever written in "White Devil Rise" (if that one doesn't get your blood pumping, you're not a real Danzig fan. It has an impressive, almost progressive structure, with a time change into a break. And what an amazing break, the best I recall on any Danzig record. Don't worry about the politically correct, conformist hacks who downgrade this album because of this song; the riff is a little recycled (from Pain in the World) but man, is it ever pure evil old-fashioned Danzig just the way we like it, and his vocals on this track are incredibly aggressive).

Power ballad? Check. Danzig's purest and best power ballad is here, "Cold, Cold Rain"; it edges "Blood and Tears" and "Sistinas" by an angel hair, but it is better. (Also a perfect album closer; it should have been on Lucifuge). And "Bound by Blood", which is on here, is also in the elite league of classic Danzig ballads. It features some of the most beautiful and intelligent lyrics he has ever written, though almost Manowar-ish in their point of view. "Dying Seraph" (a typical Danzig soft-to-loud track) isn't bad, either.

How about an acoustic changeup along the lines of "I'm the One"? We got that covered, and with a better song: the best version ever made of "Come to Silver". This one is a little superior to Johnny Cash's version of the Danzig-penned "13", which it recalls sonically, just because Danzig's voice is even better than the Man in Black's, in my view. Glenn sings every word very clearly on this one, unusual for him, but very effective. Superb.

Of course, we need some songs with monster hooks in the bulk of the album to fill the role of singles. No problem. "When Death Had No Name", which might just be the very best Danzig song, and with his doomiest-ever riff, makes its debut on an album at last (I remember being amazed that he left this off III after it appeared as the B-side of the "Dirty Black Summer" single.) "Satan's Crucifiction" is another sinister tune worthy of the Danzig name (the riff is the most evil on any song ever that is not named "Snakes of Christ"), as are the double whammy of "Malefical" and "Soul Eater". These are the ones that caught me right away, at least, but there are a number of other strong songs, enough to form a heart of the lineup the `27 Yankees would envy. (By the way, it seems like these discs have a disproportionate amount of relatively upbeat rockers, at least by Danzig standards. "Lick the Blood off My Hands", for example, lives up to the nickname "Evil Elvis", with a 50's-ish verse melody. "Pain is Like An Animal" is just awesome straight-up hard rock and should have been the opener of Danzig I. And the "Buick McKane" cover had my jaw on the floor. As much as I liked the original Danzig band, I never thought they could just go out and absolutely smoke performance-wise like this).

I was quite pleasantly surprised to hear that there's very little of the electronic goofing around that marred the second (bad) half of the Danzig run of albums, even on the tracks from that era; and that his pipes evidently were in better shape than I had thought at the time. All these songs have his voice right up front of the mix, exactly where it belongs. The vocal tracks all sound like prime Glenn Danzig, on both cds. Enough said.

Summary: Whatever sins Danzig has committed against the holy religion of heavy metal since 4p are hereby expunged. There's some filler here, but Danzig's B sides turn out to be better than just about anyone else's A sides, and the good stuff here is good enough to form an album that is worthy of standing alongside anything he has done. The rest we can account bonus material. (This record proves what I suspected all along, due to Danzig's poor choices of singles releases: his taste, like Rubin's, in his own music is mystifyingly bad).

This is simply the best pure metal album released in years. There will be naysayers with the usual biases and agendas; ignore them and treat your black soul to "Lost Tracks" as soon as possible. You have tread in the light too long, and it is time to feel once more that cold wind out of the blue hells, the one that your heart has so long ached for...thank you, Glenn, from an original "Angel of the Seventh Dawn".

Just about any Danzig fan would agree that the band's peak was either the Lucifuge or How the Gods Kill album. While 4p was an excellent album itself, the ensuing firing/quitting of the original band ended an era of greatness. After the horrendous BlackAciDevil album, Danzig has continued to put out sub-standard fare with seemingly random hired hands that haven't come close to achieving the level of greatness that the first 4 albums (+ 1 EP) did. I, as I suspect most fans do, continue to pick up these albums, despite his players' generic sounding styles and Glenn's long-faltering voice. How could this problem ever be rectified? With this album.....

The first CD of this album consists almost entirely of classic-era Danzig that has never before been released. And it can only be described as a treat to listen to. I have the Dirty Black Summer single, so Death Had No Name is familiar (though this contains an earlier version, as well), and Come To Silver was on V (although the acoustic version here is preferable to me), but everything else here is brand new to me, and probably will be to all but the most hardcore fans.

The first 10 tracks all contain the signature howling that I've come to love all these years, as well as the John Christ blues-based riffing. Any one of these could have easily gone on the respective albums that they were created for. I'm happy they didn't however, because I doubt we'll ever again be offered a collection of NEW CLASSIC Danzig.

As expected, the quality declines from there, as the songs start entering into the forgettable later era band. However, I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed many of the songs here much more than albums that they were meant to go on. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that he had to finish a bunch of these songs in order to make this album, recording drums, guitar, vocals, etc. I happen to think that BlackAciDevil is a complete piece of garbage, yet I found myself liking the songs here recorded for it. The collection is rounded out by a couple of remixes, which, although nothing too exciting, are still a good listen.

Bottom line: If you love Danzig, then this album is ESSENTIAL. 4.5 stars.

I have been a rabid Glenn Danzig fan since the days of the Misfits and love all of his material up to Danzig 4P. I felt after that album his music was largely hit or miss but now we have the long anticipated lost tracks of Danzig. I feel confident in saying that this is the strongest release by Danzig since Danzig 4P. I was personally blown away by the songs on this collection! What really surprised me was the quality of songs after the original Danzig line-up. Most of the songs that are on here that where scrapped from Danzig 5, 6, 7 and circle of snakes are better than the tracks on those albums. I would say stand out tracks would include "Pain is Like an Animal", "When Death Had No Name", "You Should Be Dying", Warlock", "Crawl Across Your Killing Floor", and "Bound By Blood". There isn't much here that dissapoints, probably the weakest material would be "White Devil Rise" and the "Unspeakable Shango Mix". This is without a doubt the strongest Danzig release in over a decade! If you are a fan of any of Danzig's music you owe it to yourself to pick this up, it's well worth the price!

"The Lost Tracks of Danzig" are exactly what the title implies: B-sides, rarities, and removed tracks from Danzig albums of the past. Unlike many other "lost" track collections, "The Lost Tracks of Danzig" feature a great collection of songs that are fine in their own right and would have been more than welcome on any of Glenn's previous albums, and also feature some songs that are right to have been kept in the dark up until now. "Pain is Like an Animal", "Cold, Cold Rain", "Satan's Crucifiction", an acoustic version of "Come to Silver", "Warlock", "Crawl Across Your Killing Floor", and "Bound by Blood" are wonderful, while there are a few previously available songs ("Deep" from the X-Files TV soundtrack, a cruddy remix of "Unspeakable", and "Underbelly of the Beast" from The Crow: Salvation), along with some covers (David Bowie's "Cat People", T-Rex's "Buick McKane") to boot. Yes, there is a lot of good here to be found for Danzig fans, but "Lost Tracks" isn't without it's flaws. "Mandrake's Cry", "White Devil Rise", "Who Claims the Soulless?", and "Malefical" aren't anything at all to write home about, and can be easily seen as to why they've been unreleased up until now. Despite that though, the good definitely outweighs the bad with "The Lost Tracks of Danzig", and remains an essential purchase for die hard Danzig fans the world over.

This is a 2 disc set. I found the first disc to be the real prize, being made up of b side tracks from Danzig's first 3 albums, Christ on guitars, Chuck Biscuits on drums. The second disc is a little more modern era, so isn't worth to much to me, but still this set is worth having if you are a fan of early Danzig.