On August 30, 1988, DANZIG released their self-titled debut — the first album issued on Rick Rubin's newly founded Def American label. Glenn Danzig had already changed underground music twice, first with the MISFITS and then with SAMHAIN, and here he stripped everything back to something primal: slow, bluesy, pounding metal built around his extraordinary baritone croon, a voice closer to Howlin' Wolf or Elvis Presley than to anyone in the genre. Recorded in New York between September 1987 and April 1988, the album pairs occult and biblical imagery with the simplest possible riffs, played by John Christ, Eerie Von and Chuck Biscuits. James Hetfield of METALLICA sang uncredited backing vocals on two tracks, blocked from acknowledgement by contract. "Mother" became a hit five years later. Rolling Stone ranked the album 23rd among the greatest metal albums ever made.
