Review Summary: More Zombie Than Zombie: Part 2 (The Ecstasy)
If you put your tinfoil hat on just tight enough, there’s a certain insidiousness in how Rob Zombie launched his solo career. 1998’s Hellbilly Deluxe feels like the singer doubling down on his persona in a move somewhere Alice Cooper circa Welcome To My Nightmare or Blizzard-era Ozzy, often overshadowing his collaborators in the process. The heightened visual spectacle makes it even easier to dismiss the music as sounding like dumbed down White Zombie, especially when it’s seemingly so by design.
However, even a surface level facade can still pull from a variety of influences. Shedding those lingering underground roots allows Rob to go full rock star with his bark lending itself more readily to burly sing-alongs and seductive sneers. He’s like a less problematic meeting point between Marilyn Manson and Peter Steele, echoing the former’s nihilism and the latter’s deadpan while still allowing for a sense of goofiness that neither could fully embrace.
It also helps that producer Scott Humphrey keeps a careful ear for sound design throughout, even if movie soundscapes end up arguably being as integral as the metal instrumentation. Keeping drummer John Tempesta was a smart move, setting the standard for tight beats that cooperate with the industrial splashes. The guitars and bass also come together with crunchy tones that shed any sign of psych fuzz, dispensing simple but brutal patterns that underscore the heightened synths and other stadium sensibilities. Fortunately, their lack of aggro tendencies help the music avoid too many nu metal comparisons…
That Keep It Simple Stupid philosophy is most concentrated in the songwriting, which seemingly goes out of its way to be as lean and straightforward as possible without going full horror punk. The structures don’t offer anything too off-the-wall that often as tempos remain static and no individual section goes on for later than it takes to get a point across. While this can make the proceedings come off shallow, it’s hard to complain when the results are so damn catchy. High speed bashers like the gritty “Superbeast” and “Demonoid Phenomenon” play out like the adrenalized middlemen between Prong and Static-X while the ever-iconic “Living Dead Girl” and “Spookshow Baby” follow the “More Human Than Human” template with extra exotic eroticism.
But if “More Human Than Human” was Astro Creep’s commercial mission statement, then “Dragula” is Hellbilly’s most blatant equivalent. Everything about this song is bubblegum metal perfection with a driving beat that’s a step away from a 2 Unlimited dance mix, spoopy synths working in conjunction with muddy riffs, and defiant call-and-response chants during the verses that lead to infectious thrilling choruses. As much as the song has been overplayed and memed to death, I can’t help but love how it basically became the “Pour Some Sugar On Me” for spooky season.
However, the schtick does risk wearing thin as the album’s back half loses a bit of momentum. There’s quite a bit of bloat for a release that’s less than thirty-nine minutes; the interludes can get superfluous after a while as “How To Make A Monster” disrupts the flow altogether for what sounds like a lofi rock song played through a crappy answering machine while “What Lurks on Channel X?” is a directionless sound collage. “Meet The Creeper” and “The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore” fare better though their hooks aren’t quite as potent as those on the first half. Fortunately, “Return Of The Phantom Stranger” turns things around in time for the end with dark subdued textures and ominously low vocals.
Reviewing Hellbilly Deluxe is an exercise of wondering why you’re listening to it on headphones or in your bedroom when it’s clearly meant to be blared in the sleaziest Halloween-themed strip club you can find. You aren’t supposed to think too much about it, if at all, and a combination of high energy playing and infectious singalongs invite you to turn your brain off. A couple hiccups can hamper the experience a bit, but the sensations can be downright euphoric in the right headspace. It isn’t on the same level as White Zombie’s best and there are even a couple of Rob’s solo albums that I think are better, but you can’t say that his first impression wasn’t incredibly memorable.
