The Lost Tracks of Danzig - Music and Recording

Music and Recording

Glenn Danzig has said in various interviews and in the compilation's liner notes that he does not consider these songs "throw-aways". It was often the case that these unreleased songs didn't fit the theme or concept of the album for which they were originally recorded. Danzig explained: “The songs that make it onto the final album 'fit' or 'flow' together as a whole. Consequently, some tremendous Danzig songs have never been released, not because they weren't great, but because they didn't fit the overall vibe of the particular album, or for other reasons.”

When Glenn Danzig began the 'Lost Tracks' project, the songs were in various stages of completion - some were still in demo form, some had no vocals, and some needed a different mix or new instrument tracks. After tracking down and reviewing the original tapes, over thirty of which had to be baked before undergoing digital conversion due to their age, Danzig entered the studio and completed the tracks, finishing all vocal and instrumental recording himself. The project took nine months to complete.

The songs "Pain Is Like An Animal" and "When Death Had No Name" were written toward the tail end of Glenn Danzig's tenure in Samhain. In the liner notes Glenn Danzig says "Pain Is Like An Animal" was “originally a Samhain song that became one of the first Danzig tracks.”

The album includes the controversial "White Devil Rise", recorded during the sessions for Danzig 4 in response to comments by Louis Farrakhan and his use of the term "The White Devil" to describe the white race. Danzig has explained that the song is his conjecture as to what would happen if Farrakhan incited the passive white race to rise up and start a race war: “No one wants to see a race war. It would be terrible, so the song's saying, 'Be careful what you wish for.'”

Glenn Danzig spoke fondly of the track "Satan's Crucifiction", describing it as one of his favorite songs on the set. According to Danzig, the song was written to anger American Recordings, the band's label at the time. Eerie Von explained it had also been played during rehearsals to scare off unwelcome executives from the label who might happen upon the band's recording sessions. The song title is misspelled "Crucifiction", perhaps intentionally as a pun. The song was performed live for the first time in the fall of 2007, and was a regular in the Danzig set-list during the fall 2008 'Blackest of the Black' tour.

The 1992 version of "When Death Had No Name", recorded during the How the Gods Kill sessions, is the only track on the set to have been previously released. It appeared as a B-side on the "Dirty Black Summer" single. "Unspeakable" (Shango Mix) was not officially released prior to the 'Lost Tracks', though it did appear on the 2006 Grub Girl pornographic movie. Other songs were previously released in a different form. The original version of "Come to Silver" can be found on Danzig's 1996 album Blackacidevil. An alternate version of the song "Deep" had been released on the 1996 The X-Files television soundtrack. The original versions of "Unspeakable" and "Belly of the Beast" were released on the 1999 album 6:66 Satan's Child. An alternate version of "underBelly of the Beast" itself appeared on the soundtrack to The Crow: Salvation in 2000.