Dusting Off a Cassette Pt. 13: White Zombie: Astro-Creep: 2000

Rob Zombie is one of my favorite personalities in rock/metal. His music has been good for the most part, he is a huge horror/sci fi fan and his concerts are a sight to behold. The Rob Zombie concert still ranks as one of my all time favorites. He uses elaborate stage setup, weird costumes (including an 8 foot tall dancing robot and giant trees), and lots and lots of pyro. Good stuff. That being said, musically he was at his absolute peak with this album and La Sexorcisto while fronting White Zombie. This was one of the early albums that corrupted me. White Zombie was one of the first bands that I credit with turning me on to metal. My older brother used to listen to La Sexorcisto frequently. Then when this came out, I picked it up right away.

White Zombie was well-known for their industrial groove metal riffs, bizarre tales of monsters, and frequent samples from 1970's B-movies. Rob's trademarked growling mumble is present in full force coupled with frequent screaming. The guitars swirl around the inhumanly precise drumming of John Tempesta while the bass rumbles along for the ride. A great album that unfortunately hasn't aged very well; this album seemed cutting edge at the time but now is not really all that special. I still enjoy listening to it for old time's sake fairly frequently. It reminds me of middle school. Back then, these guys seemed really scary due to the demonic imagery, dark atmosphere, and rough vocals. Now, it is obvious it was all an act and the band was just out to have a good time.

This was the last great album Rob put out. After this came one more album with White Zombie, a techno remix album, and then Rob struck out on his own. His early solo material was decent but never had quite the same feel as his material with White Zombie and then his later material was not even close. A shame.