The Lost Tracks of Danzig

This double disc set must certainly have some crap on it. Any dbl disc set/comp by ANY artist must, almost by definition, have some crap on it. But my 'crap' may not be your 'crap'. If you like Danzig, you will find at least more than half of these 25/26(one is included twice) songs to be very enjoyable, many even great! And if you are not a Danzig fan, why the Hell bother reading this review or listening to this album?

No need to describe Danzig's sound or style. I suppose it will be helpful to describe the production, however. All of these songs, no matter their source, are of equal volume and presence. It is my guess that a lot of studio-tweaking had to be preformed on some of these dusty gems in order to get the whole to sound homogenous, which it thankfully does.

My take on Danzig is the typical one; loved the first 3 albums, half the 4th, DESPISED the disco album, quite liked 6:66 despite the taint of electonica, then kind've ambivalent about the last 2 (though I found them to be mostly enjoyable), so from that perspective I'll tell you that I really enjoy about 70% of this collection, find 21% of it OK, and the last 9% crummy (2 totally unnecessary disco-fied "re-mixes"). I also found the cover of "Buick McCain" to be tedious, but can see how some may enjoy it. What I was looking forward to most, the cover of David Bowie's "Cat People", was oddly disappointing. Still pretty good, but I'd envisioned a much MUCH creepier, darker version of the original.

This really does run the gamut of Danzig's material and history, also in seemingly chronological order. I, myself, may have liked the material to be mixed up more, but this is a tiny complaint. This includes what I consider wee Glenn's best ballad, "Cold, Cold Rain", as well as some very heavy songs, and everything in between, including 2 versions of his most legendary "lost" song, the often-hinted-at "When Death Had No Name". A lot of the songs have interesting history behind them, as can be read about in the liner notes for almost every song.

The package and booklet are fantastic, as you'd expect from someone with Danzig's tastes and comic book contacts. The cover of the inside booklet is super-bitchin', too! I'm sure some would find it distasteful, but they've always got 'american idol' to provide them with wholesome entertainment!

All in all, not many flaws can be found in this collection. Any real fan of Danzig will not be disappointed; can't say that it will garner any new fans, but this isn't really aimed toward that demographic anyway!

Now I really have grown to like Danzig a lot. His self-titled debut and its successor are two classic albums that I listen to a lot. I even like his industrial tinged stuff on 6:66 – Satan’s Child, which is another album I listen to quite a lot. All his stuff is sort of the same but very good musically and lyrically. All the songs on here sound like your typical Danzig tunes and it’s easy to see what albums they come from.

Now with that being said, you really do not need to buy this. If you have anything from Danzig you have either of these two discs. There are a handful of good songs on here like “Satan’s Crucifixion”, “The Mandrake’s Call”, and “Deep” (all of which are on the first disc, the second has some good stuff too but nothing worth mentioning) that all showcase the classic Danzig style of old school sounding metal and doom. Even the Samhain leftovers are pretty decent songs and are totally Danzigified (yeah that’s a word, look it up) and are good songs.

The rating may be somewhat low for a band that I think very highly of but that is because most of the songs sound like songs he’s already done, which is understandable as this is an album of rarities and “lost tracks”. But what makes this package cool is all the artwork and cool shit that comes with it.

Inside is a booklet that looks like some old Fangoria shit or something with weird headlines about Hilter, the occult, and Satanism with the picture being a bunch of topless chicks with the skull logo branded on their tits holding down another girl waiting for hers. Sweet. Inside are the names of all the tracks and written explanations of the song’s history straight for the man himself.

Now as a total package I would say this is about as cool as it gets, but the music I think needs to rated with it. There are a lot of boring songs and I can see why they were left out of albums because they really have no added benefits. But listening to the discs and looking through the booklet make it an interesting look at Danzig’s lost history and for that this package is quite good.