So why is Danzig on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Let’s kick off the heralding of Danzig the album and Danzig the band by talking about… Motörhead.
Motörhead continues to have a cult following to this day, and in fact their 1980 album, Ace of Spades, made Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums, coming in at #408. The title track, “Ace of Spades,” is arguably Motörhead’s most famous and enduring song.
I like “Ace of Spades” well enough, though I can live without much of Motörhead’s output, to be honest. I mention all of this though in comparison to the feeling I get when I listen to “Am I Demon,” off of Danzig.
The metal riff on “Am I Demon” is clean and powerful and primal. And then we get lead singer Glenn Danzig’s singular voice (I dig that Steve Huey at All Music describes Danzig’s voice as “trademark Elvis-meets-Jim Morrison bellow”) and… well, for me it’s no contest.
“Mother” was the first Danzig song that I ever heard – and I was also not familiar with the Misfits at the time (Glenn Danzig’s other band). I didn’t really know what to make of it at first, but I’ve come to really like it: there’s a slow-ish, dark buildup to a big bellowing chorus, with Danzig’s vocals showing off their considerable powers. “Mother” also reminds me that Danzig the band is an unusual hybrid of metal and goth sounds.
“Not of This World” reminds me a little bit of The Cult’s best stuff, though it’s a little less mainstream and leans more into the metal. Check its riff, it’s mighty tasty, as Tenacious D might opine.
Personal stuff that has something to do with Danzig
Because I’ve always been fascinated with history (I actually earned an undergraduate degree in the subject, once upon a time) and particularly modern European history, I tend to think about the location and history of Danzig when the band name pops up in my mind.
When Germany was defeated in World War I, the European map was redrawn significantly as part of the Treaty of Versailles. Poland was granted access to the Baltic Sea through what was called the Polish Corridor, which includes the city that the Germans call Danzig and the Polish call Gdansk. This corridor essentially cut “through” German territory, leaving an area of East Prussia divided from the rest of Germany.
This always struck me as quite odd, but in any event after Germany was defeated again in World War II, the Polish Corridor went away. Poland now has ample access to the Baltic Sea (including Gdansk), and the much smaller Germany, in comparison to the pre-WW II days, is territorially whole.
Some stats & info about Danzig
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Metal, Heavy Metal
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 3.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Danzig released? 1988
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #622 out of 1,000
Danzig on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Danzig that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Warning is come upon your heels – feel your dreams slip away.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.