Summer does not officially end in this hemisphere until September 22, still a hair over a month to go. But the unofficial summer season does end in the latter part of August when kids go back to school. I don’t have any kids so school time isn’t some massive issue to me, but it is a bit depressing when “true summer” is over as I live in a city with a ton of schools in it. Summer time is fairly peaceful around here with less traffic and snarls of people, but now we’re back into massive traffic and people being idiots about where they drive, park and everything else.

But summer isn’t actually over yet, so let’s pull out this Danzig single from 1992. This was the lead single from the album III: How The Gods Kill. The album did decently well in its time, hitting 24 on the Billboard 200. While Danzig had a bit of a run with success, that actually came a year later with the re-release of Mother. This year prior was not obscure by any means, Danzig was a fixture on MTV by this point and his stuff fit right in with the alternative metal thing going on at the time. But true sales success was another year off.

The first defining feature of the song is actually near silence for 40 seconds. If this comes up on a playlist set to shuffle, you might think the playback died or something, especially if you’re only half paying attention or listening on a more lo-fi bluetooth device. There is a bit of atmospheric noise going on but it’s totally minimal and not always detectable. But then John Christ comes in with a divebomb note on the guitar and the song proper kicks off.

And it’s clear that the song lives up to the title – this is hot, dark and dirty. The song does have a slower pace to it, which is perfect to let the winding riff conjure up demons and dust devils and shit like that, and the drums and bass hit with extra results. And it’s all brought together by the familiar bellow of Glenn Danzig, the “evil Elvis” of heavy metal.

There isn’t much to dissect here lyrically, this song is all vibes. In this 2022 interview with Revolver, Danzig recounts how the song was simply about his memories of summer as a teenager – running around, getting into trouble, not having anything noteworthy to do. I love a good concept album as much as the next nerd, but sometimes keeping it simple is the more effective approach and it works splendidly here.

The song was a huge part of the soundtrack to my own dirty black summers in 1992 and beyond, I was 15 at the time and I enjoyed the same vibes through my vacations from school. And even all these years later, 32 of them in fact, I still dial this song up when I want to feel some good (evil) vibes during the small, hot and far too short quieter time of year.