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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary:
White Zombie had begun with
Soul Crusher (1987) and a proto-grunge sound that
was abominable and formidable in the tradition of MC5 and Blue Cheer,
but embraced speed-metal on the derivative Make Them Die Slowly (1989),
and then tweaked the genre to produce the
campy horror melodrama La Sexorcisto (1992).
A more serious attitude, coupled with futuristic production and nods to
the fashionable cliches of Soundgarden and Ministry, surfaced on
Astro-Creep: 2000 (1995).
Full bio:
(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Formed in 1985 by guitarist Tom Five and singer Rob "Straker" Cummings (from Massachusetts), White Zombie rose to prominence on the New York scene thanks to a violent, noisy sound inspired by MC5 and Blue Cheer. Rob "Zombie" was a caricatural figure (an unrestrained punk nihilist), but the caricature eventually became a cult object and helped transform heavy metal.
After the singles God's On Voodoo Moon and Pig Heaven and the EP Psycho-head Blowout (Caroline, 1986), still immature and oriented toward psychedelic dadaism, their first album, Soul Crusher (Silent Explosion, 1987), was released. It was characterized by a harsh, barbaric Birthday Party-like sound, with Straker in the role of the first Nick Cave, but also showing the ossianic sensibility of Black Sabbath. The brutal pandemonium of Rat Mouth, the disjointed dance of Scum-Kill, and the continuous cacophony of Shack Of Hate share a demented approach to playing and singing (not to mention Future Shock, with its nursery-like screams and hits). Despite the grandiose darkrock of Drowning The Colossus clearly reflecting their debt to that tradition, White Zombie seemed primarily disciples of New York anti-aesthetic rock, as seen in Honeymoon Killers and Pussy Galore. Some sampling hinted at non-orthodox developments.
New guitarist John Ricci delivered the decisive turn toward Slayer-style speed metal on the follow-up Make Them Die Slowly (Caroline, 1989), two years later. The annoying punks of the first album were swept away by the Deep Purple gallop of Demonspeed and the galactic pow-wow of Disaster Blaster (perhaps their masterpiece), drowning the last rebellious pulses in the steel tremors of Acid Flesh and the murderous grandeur of Godslayer.
La Sexorcisto (Geffen, 1992), written in 1990 but released only two years later, is the bands first album to be professionally produced and performed. It draws inspiration from the Seattle grunge wave, which White Zombie themselves had helped influence. Much of the credit for the shift from their slow, dark, "grinding" origins to a danceable, melodic grunge sound goes to new guitarist Jay Yuenger, while the "ossianic" qualities of Strakers lyrics remain intact (Straker being the only original songwriter alongside bassist Sean Yseult). The album also marks their maturation in the use of sampling, effectively making it the bands fifth instrument (all clips naturally drawn from horror films).
The "tracked" march of Welcome To Planet Motherfucker hides a classic rock-and-roll riff beneath a veneer of high technology and vampire-movie tricks. An even more terrifying tank-like rumble drives the unsettling ritual of Soul Crusher, while the subsonic slow-motion of Warp Asylum approaches Melvins-level intensity. The display of heavy-metal power here is almost unparalleled in the genres history. Less seismic but more driving is the relentless attack of Black Sunshine. Alongside the riffs, there are standout melodic moments, like the epic cry of I Am Legend, worthy of Pearl Jam.
Outside the super-heavy tracks, darker things occur, such as the black mass of Spiderbaby. Yuengers personal show kicks off on Thunder Kiss '65 with an impressive arsenal of demonic solos, lightning-fast stabs, and breathtaking gallops, continuing for a full hour. The other key element of the sound is the bass, a colossal amplifier of primal instincts expressed through grim, full-volume riffs.
In this zoo of "psychotics," "soul crushers," "spider babies," "cosmic monsters," and assorted aberrationsthis cauldron of voodoo, demonism, fantasy horror, and of course, sexthe album celebrates the quintessence of the dark imagination of that generation. What makes La Sexorcisto a grunge classic is, above all, the meticulous and highly structured construction of its tracks.
Meanwhile, the band had settled in Los Angeles. In 1992, new drummer Phil Buerstatte (from Last Crack) replaced Ivan de Prume, who had been with them since 1986.
Astro-Creep: 2000 (Geffen, 1995) further narrows the gap with industrial acts like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails, featuring a much denser sound, a less clownish and more hardcore attitude, more sophisticated sampling, and Johnny Tempesta (formerly of Exodus and Testament) on drums. By now, White Zombie were masters at manipulating all the genres stereotypes, making their music even more accessible by injecting metronomic rhythms into the pachydermic riffs of the two parts of Electric Head, giving Super-Charger a robotic coolness, emphasizing mechanical repetition in the maelstrom of guitar attacks and tribalism of I Zombie, and mimicking techno in the driving progressions of More Human Than Human (their biggest hit).
Theres really nothing gruesome left, and two of the best tracks barely connect to their past: a grotesque Real Solution #9, with filtered vocals almost like tap dancing, and El Phantasmo, which overindulges in loops and effects to the point of parody. With this polish, their grand guignol no longer frightens even fans of new age music.
Supersexy Swingin' Sounds (Geffen, 1996) is a remix album.
The band broke up at the end of 1998. The five-disc box set Let Sleeping Corpses Lie compiles all recordings up to 1995.
White Zombie represent a generation of kids who grew up watching horror TV series (Night Of The Living Dead, Gilligans Island), spending hours at the cinema rewatching George Romero films, and reading magazines like *Fangoria*. At the same time, they represent suburban kids raised on rap, for whom sampling is a completely natural means of expression. Finally, they represent metropolitan kids, growing up reenacting the Rocky Horror Picture Show ritual every Saturday night. The various incarnations of the band share Strakers personality, a horror fanatic, but in reality, each album is primarily the work of the guitarist of the moment, which explains the apparent stylistic metamorphoses. Straker ensured continuity through his ongoing homage to that subculture. While the Cramps use those stereotypes to revel in excess, Straker idolizes them and immerses himself in them, following a tradition that began with Blue Oyster Cult.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
The Rob Zombie Band debuted with
Hellbilly Deluxe (Interscope, 1998), subtitled
"13 tales of cadaverous cavorting inside the spookshow international",
that contains only two decent horror-metal songs,
Living Dead Girl and especially Dragula,
amid a lot of goofy self-parodies.
This update of Alice Cooper to the age of industrial dance, younger cousin of
Marilyn Manson, yielded
Feel So Numb and the symphonic Bring Her Down on Rob Zombie's second album
Sinister Urge (Interscope, 2001), but maybe the most original
song is the slow demented rockabilly House of 1000 Corpses.
American Made Music To Strip By (1999) is an album of remixes.
Rob Zombie, turning to cinema, directed two cult horror movies,
House of 1,000 Corpses (2003) and
The Devil's Rejects (2005), before finally recording another solo
album, the more varied
Educated Horses (2006), that combines the
bombastic metal of American Witch with the
danceable and catchy The Scorpion Sleeps,
the speed-metal of Let It All Bleed Out,
the bluesy 17 Year Locust and the
brooding doom-ballad The Lords of Salem.
Hellbilly Deluxe II (2010) contains the
thundering and stately Virgin Witch and especially the surf-voodoobilly
Werewolf Women of the SS (a career highlight).
Mondo Sex Head (2012) is another album of remixes.
Venomous Rat (2013), another diversified collection like Educated Horses, has the
stomping bombastic metal Teenage Nosferatu Pussy,
the swinging and catchy Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Supertown (with a Hammond organ reminiscent of soul-rock of the 1970s),
the industrial-metal dance Revelation Revolution (reminiscent of Robert Plant's solo album),
the Ministry-esque Behold The Pretty Filthy Creatures and
the Guns N' Roses-esque Lucifer Rising.
The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser (2016)
insists in his favorite industrial-metal-dance vein with
Well Everybody's Fucking in a UFO
and The Hideous Exhibitions of a Dedicated Gore Whore,
while sounding truly
visceral only in In the Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High.
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