- Home
- Welcome
- Community Blog
- JJ's Bizarre Blog #40 - Call of the Zombie
Help Wizard
Step 1
Type in your question below and we'll check to see what answers we can find...
Loading article...
Submitting...
If you couldn't find any answers in the previous step then we need to post your question in the community and wait for someone to respond. You'll be notified when that happens.
Simply add some detail to your question and refine the title if needed, choose the relevant category, then post.
Just quickly...
Before we can post your question we need you to quickly make an account (or sign in if you already have one).
Don't worry - it's quick and painless! Just click below, and once you're logged in we'll bring you right back here and post your question. We'll remember what you've already typed in so you won't have to do it again.
FAQs
Please see below the most popular frequently asked questions.
Loading article...
Loading faqs...
Ongoing Issues
Please see below the current ongoing issues which are under investigation.
Loading issue...
Loading ongoing issues...
Help categories
Account & Payment
Using Spotify
Listen Everywhere
JJ's Bizarre Blog #40 - Call of the Zombie
- Mark as New
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Mute
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Permalink
- Report Inappropriate Content
Boo! Spooky Season’s greetings and happy Halloween to you all, my beloved creepy crawlies and children of the night! It’s the most wonderful night of the year when all of us freakshows and monstrosities can all walk the streets, feel pretty and party under the moonlight! You know, it’s good to show some understanding for the misunderstood from time to time. I hope you get lots of candies and the only tricks are the ones done on skateboards or pulled from black tophats. To celebrate our most monstrously momentous of occasions, it seems fate has preordained it all! Last year’s October, I was able to bless you with a blog all about Halloween right on Friday the 13th. Well, now we go back to that to talk in depth about one of the men in that blog, dropping it smack dab on Halloween, following nicely up on our industrial adventures from last time and even keeping up the tradition of every 10th blog being band focused. Isn’t it wonderful? Keep your pants on and hop aboard the Dragula, it’s time to get spooky and dance with the dead, cuz here comes the King of Horror, the Rock God himself, Rob Zombie!
There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to this enigmatic entity, but all you need to know to get off the ground is this - Robert Bartleh Cummings was born on January 12th 1965 in Massachusetts, USA and from an early age showed two key interests – a love for music and deep fascination with horror movies and comic books. This would influence him to adopt the stage name and persona of Rob Zombie and fuse both of these into his unique presentation. Taking inspiration from iconic shock rock artists like Alice Cooper, as well as the elaborate costumes and stage theatrics of Kiss, Rob wrote songs heavily inspired by horror tropes and various levels of sci-fi wackiness. While his style has varied, constant features include really catchy guitar riffs, heavy industrial elements, bountiful keyboards, ubiquitous samples (particularly from horror movies) and weird, off-colour lyrics that nonetheless remain absurdly catchy and memorable. The most iconic aspect of his music are his live shows, featuring lots of theatrics, plenty of costumes, gratuitous pyrotechnics and over-the-top showmanship, like a traveling circus of horrors! Besides that, he is also a part of the film industry and has produced many horror films of his own, such as The Devil's Rejects, the 2007 remake of Halloween, The Lords of Salem, 31, The Munsters from 2022 and many more, scoring and starring in many of them himself too. Through his infectious personality and undying passion, he has left permanent scars on both the worlds of music and movies!
Zombie first rose from the ground and into prominence during the mid-to-late 80s with his band White Zombie, named after a 1932 horror film of course. Founded alongside his then-girlfriend Sean Yseult who became the band’s bassist and a revolving door of other musicians, White Zombie stood out all throughout their career with their unique presentation, wacky lyricism and free-spirited experimentation within their music. Their 1987 debut Soul-Crusher showcased a noise rock sound and became a cult classic of that genre, while their sophomore Make Them Die Slowly in 1987 moved into a heavier thrash oriented direction that would be the first showcase of the riff driven style Zombie would employ for his future endeavors. Something big had arrived and everyone knew it!
White Zombie would board their rocketship and go into the stratosphere of success with their next two records. Devil Music Volume One in 1992 was an even groovier record with tons of catchy bangers that tons of people immediately gravitated towards. Meanwhile, their 1995 album Astro-Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head (yes, that is the full name, get used to these) was Rob and Co.’s first foray into industrial rock, a style he would become synonymous with as time went on. With it’s electronic elements, catchy riffage and bizarre horror-influenced lyrics, it was clear the Zombie found his groove. Sadly, after this Rob and Sean would break up and creative differences lead to many other members leaving as well. This all culminated in 1998 when the White Zombie was returned to its tomb for good. While the body was dead, the legacy and memories live on to this day.
But, you just can’t keep any zombie worth its salt down for long, now can you? This would be true here and within the same year as White Zombie’s breakup, the man of the hour would kick the coffin lid open with a bang and rise up once again, delivering his monumental debut solo album - Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside the Spookshow International (told you to get used to it, Rob really does have a particular way of naming things)! Usually, after an artist finds success in a band, it’s very risky to try and go for a solo career, however Rob Zombie would exceed all expectations. Hellbilly Deluxe easily surpassed all White Zombie releases and became an instant classic. And how could it not? An insanely well made industrial metal slaughterfest, full to the brim with glorious horror themes and cheesy movie samples, insanely catchy, superbly produced and oozing a kind of macabre charisma that nobody had ever seen before. This album was a statement maker and that statement was “horror has a new King, nay, a new God and all of you will bow down!” The Zombie calls, we must answer!
Bouncing off of such a massive success, Rob got hard to work touring and cooking up his next noisome concoction in his evil lair. The result would be The Sinister Urge (no long name this time) released in 2001. Somewhat more industrial, but just as groovy and catchy, this album is just an absolute blast and is more of what people have come to expect from the Rock God. I mean, when you’re at such an awesome level, “more of the same” is a godsend, not a cop out. I mean, even the Godfather of Metal Ozzy Osbourne stopped by to join this party! Noteworthy is also the inclusion of the track “House of 1000 Corpses”, a slow and macabre electro-tinged rock song taken from the soundtrack of the film of the same name produced by Zombie himself!
To embrace all of his devilish babies up till the point, Rob released the compilation Past, Present & Future in 2003. It’s an absolute blast, containing both iconic singles and rare tracks from his time in White Zombie, as well as several more obscure tunes from his solo forays. With a wide variety of styles from rock ‘n’ roll, to thrash metal, to electro-industrial and everything in between, this may not be an album, but it’s a gold mine of absolute bangers.
Rob Zombie’s next true album would arrive in 2006 under the title of Educated Horses. This one is more sonically diverse, ranging from hard rock dance anthems to evil sounding country rock to drilling industrial metal. An overarching theme is that, with a few exceptions, this record is somewhat darker and less light hearted than its predecessors. Nonetheless, the fun factor is top notch as always and the feeling of being in a horror movie as the world is collapsing is never lost. Speaking of which, here we have the eerie track “The Devil’s Rejects” which, you guessed it, was also in a Zombie film of the same name and is actually a sequel to 1000 Corpses. The song “The Lords of Salem” would also nominated for a Grammy and would have a movie named after it later, directed by the man himself of course.
By this point, the man had truly earned his moniker of Rock God and cemented himself as one of the most influential figures in all of metal during the 2000s. While not a nu metal guy per se, his industrial laden style and eye-catching stage antics also made him a favourite of many nu metal fans (including yours truly). He would go on to kick off the new decade with a new monumental record - Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool (oh yeah, we’re back at it again). It’s quite bold to name a record as a sequel to your best received one, but the risk sure paid off because this record firmly carried the spirit that made the first album so great and seemed like a true worthy successor, showing that the Undead One himself had plenty of gas in the tank left. Catchy, outlandish, enveloping and undeniably fun, these horrific hymns guaranteed that this party won’t be calling it close anytime soon and kickstarted a whole new era of zombified action!
The next cadaver on the chopping block would come in 2013 and would be called Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor. A more groovy and rock oriented approach while still remaining heavily industrial, this record cranked up the outlandishness to 11 and fully embraced the silly fun of horror movie cheese. A natural evilution of the direction started on Hellbilly Deluxe 2, this would cement the direction this gravy train would be taking moving forward. Rob Zombie firmly knows who he is, knows what fans expect and is more than happy to bring joy to all in the form of his creepy catchy tunes. There really isn’t too much that needs to be said as the music speaks for itself. When we dance with the undead, we feel the most alive, baby!
This gruesome goofiness would continue with full force on 2016’s follow up record with another colossal title. With tunes about vampires, witches, rising dead and very fun times aboard alien spacecraft, this album is the personification of the true fun side of horror and how if you get to know the dark and weird aspects of life, they aren’t so bad. In fact, they’re pretty fun actually. Rob Zombie had planted the crown of Rock God firmly upon his shaggy haired head, he’s running this non-stop Halloween party around the entire world and everybody is invited!
We definitely had some time to dwell on that one as Zombie took some more time after this album to focus on touring, as well as other side projects. However, our calls were answered and in 2021, among some very unfun times worldwide, he returned and blessed us again with his new opus The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy. Showcasing fresh new ideas and pulling heavy influences from all phases of his career, this record not only shows that the man still has it to deliver on what we know and love him for, but is far from running out of new approaches to take to keep his army of sickos well fed. And boy, we were eatin’ good! The Undead Rock God was here to stay and wasn’t going anywhere soon. We only eagerly await the next horror show he blesses us with!
We have already established Rob Zombie’s impressive imprint on the world of cinema, but it’s not just within his own films that his music and contributions can be heard. His creations have been featured in many iconic films such as The Matrix, The Punisher and Scorpion King, just to name a few. Mr. Zombie has graced the soundtracks of countless video games as well, which is how I discovered him actually. In particular, it appears that there was some huge fan of his working at EA Games in the early 2000s, because seemingly every jukebox-soundtracked game released during that time had at least one of his iconic tracks on it. This not only quintupled the cool factor of these games, but also contributed even further to the Rock God’s meteoric rise.
spotify:track:2Ntobm6ecJ9wm3kcNql3qa:small
In these band focused blogs, I love to talk about side projects too and while the man of the hour is squarely focused on his own band, his associates have spread the twisted message around. The band Scum of the Earth in 2003 by current and former members of the Rob Zombie band and was named after one of his iconic tracks from the second album. They play a very similar pounding industrial metal style and are just as infatuated with cheesy horror movies as he is. So this band can more or less be considered bonus material for any Zombie fan and shows the strong influence working with him can have on you and your psyche!
If you, like me, were really into nu metal and industrial metal in the early 2000s, then one band you’ve surely heard are Powerman 5000. Their music is hard hitting and punchy, but relentlessly catchy and infectious at the same time. They are also known for their bombastic live shows and recognizable stage costumes. Like Rob Zombie, they too boosted their popularity immensely by having their tunes featured on the soundtracks of many popular movies and video games during that period. Well, the sonic similarities and shared paths aren’t so much of a coincidence, because Michael David Cummings aka Spider One, vocalist of PM5K, is actually Rob Zombie’s younger brother! While both bands are quite different, there are many similarities and you can definitely tell that the masterminds behind both think alike in many ways. Spider One has even dipped his own toes into film making too! Both apples didn’t fall far from the tree I guess. I can just imagine the two whippersnappers watching horror movies together way too late and getting that instant rush of inspiration to dedicate their lives to creating something like this and leaving their own mark on this dark realm. Well, they both succeeded for sure!
Thus, we reach the end of the road for our exploration of this spooky spookshow. The night of Halloween is long and dark but in another few hours the sun will rise and the creepy crawlies will have to return to their lairs to hunt another eve. I hope you enjoyed this journey aboard the Dragula and that now, you’re as fascinated with the unique and infectious artistry of Rob Zombie as I am! I also hope that all this horror imagery wasn’t off-putting in some way. Remember, while these can seem scary and spooky, Rob isn’t the kind of guy to delve too deep into the dark recesses of humanity. He just thinks all these monsters and creatures are cool and fun, so he shows them around. His work is a non-stop party and the fun is always guaranteed. So stay spooky, stay wacky, dance all throughout the night and become your best selves. Halloween is the night when even the freaks can feel pretty. Enjoy the show, don’t forget to check under your bed and I will see you again soon!
- Subscribe to RSS Feed
- Mark as New
- Mark as Read
- Bookmark
- Subscribe
- Printer Friendly Page
- Report Inappropriate Content