Saturday, April 5, 2008

ROB ZOMBIE: Hellbilly Deluxe


Produced by Scott Humphey & Rob Zombie
Released: 1998


Recorded and released almost immediately White Zombie's fate was sealed, Rob Zombie's first solo album was panned and pilloried in almost every review I saw of it, so I knew it just had to be well worth a listen. And I was right.

Departing not a jot from the musical direction and style of White Zombie, Rob and his buddies Riggs, Blasko and Tempesta plunged the listener into a world of complete Z-grade horror schlock, infested with vampires, ghouls, walking dead and assorted shambling creepy things and it was all done with an infernal sense of impish fun that the likes of Marilyn Manson seemed to have completely forgotten. Starting with a couple of tunes laden with samples and heavy syncopation, Hellbilly Deluxe quickly moves up a into overdrive when "Demonoid Phenomonon" surges forth with some cool and heavey second-hand Ministry riffs and the tone is set for some typically Rob Zombie party music. And the artwork within is pure genius.

Sure, he plunders the industrial scene mercilessly, shamelessly ripping off everyone from Ministry to Manson to Reznor to his own previous band, but unlike the others Zombie seems to be having a truly riotous time. It's shallow and tacky schlock horror-rock, but that's all it was meant to be: Hellbilly Deluxe is just 13 tracks of pure party music, something like cock rock for the 90s to be cranked and enjoyed without any need to put the brain into gear.



  1. Call of the Zombie
  2. Superbeast
  3. Dragula
  4. Living Dead Girl
  5. Perversion 99
  6. Demonoid Phenomonon
  7. Spookshow Baby
  8. H0w to Make a Monster
  9. Meet the Creeper
  10. The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa the Whore
  11. What Lurks on Channel X?
  12. Return of the Phantom Stranger
  13. The Beginning of the End

Rating: 78%


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