If you took the vibe of Hellbilly Deluxe (And most of its’ personnel), the aesthetic of Educated Horses, mixed it together then injected the short attention span blasts of sound found on Rob Zombie’s original work throughout the House Of 1000 Corpses soundtrack then you’d have a little of what Zombie’s latest, The Great Satan, has in store for you.
“F.T.W. 84” is how you open an album! Vicious yet anthemic and a great re-introduction to RZ OG’s Blasko and Riggs on Bass and Guitar respectively who make their recorded return after some time away. “Tarantula” is exactly the kind of song you want following such a strong opener as this one gets going amidst samples and sinister synth lines which give way to pummeling beats from Ginger Fish and heavy riffage while “(I’m A) Rock ‘N’ Roller” is pure radio ready Zombie with a sing-a-long chorus catered to the live masses.
“Heathen Days” is another shredfest (Have we mentioned that Riggs is back???) with Zombie sounding particularly pissed off, “Black Rat Coffin” is a mid-tempo stomper that’d also fit in perfectly on The Sinister Urge and “Sir Lord Acid Wolfman” is a Groove-laden new modern monstrous gem from the master of Macabre Metal. “Punks And Demons” hearkens back to the early Rob Zombie days somewhere between the end of White Zombie and the beginnings of HD with Zombie’s flirtation with Industrial (Think “The One” or “Superbeast”) out in full force across a track that’d be as snug in between “N.W.O.” and “Just One Fix” off Ministry’s legendary Psalm 69 as it would on any number of Zombie releases.
“The Devilman” slows it down considerably but doesn’t let up on the fierceness with Zombie’s howl and Riggs’ riffage meshing nicely with the robust rhythmic onslaught wrought by the Fish/Blasko pairing as “Out Of Sight” brings out a Spooky Hard Rawk JAM next. Deeper in, “The Black Scorpion” is just a viciously nasty, gnarly Punk Zombie ditty that’s easily one of the most fun tracks the band has recorded in a spell before “Unclean Animals” brings RZ’s eighth LP mostly to a close (Instrumental “Grave Discontent” is the actual comedown) in the epic vein of some of the old White Zombie closers (“Blood, Milk And Sky” and “Warp Asylum” definitely come to mind).
The Great Satan arrives through Nuclear Blast Records on February 27th and you can pre-order/pre-save yours now in a variety of ways when you head here. For more from Rob Zombie, including where to catch him live this Summer as part of the annual “Freaks On Parade” tour which hits Mansfield, MA’s Xfinity Center on August 27th (Tix and more here), hit the socials across the interwebs found by clicking here, here, here or here.