Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales Of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside The Spookshow International (1998)

Super Heavy Metal is undeniably not everybody’s taste. Having said that, there are some amazing musicians out there who are really interesting musicians and excellent at creating such music for the wider public to enjoy. Rob Zombie was previously from the band White Zombie and this, his solo debut album, is regarded as his best overall album. Being a talented musician already, Rob Zombie took the previous concept of the music that he created with White Zombie and took it to a higher, more electronic level. Let’s hear if this album has aged well today.

Call Of The Zombie is a 30 second intro to the album. It has a bunch of wind chimes and strange eerie sounds, with a child chanting lyrics that are quite satanic and freaky. Some banging and screaming follows. Not for those who are not prepared to be freaked out here. It segues straight into the next song.

Superbeast begins with some warped static electronic sounds, before launching straight into a doom and gloom sounding ultra Metal track. Needless to say, this sounds pretty cool and excellent in a very warped way, as a lot of heavier music does. The lyrics on this song are really disturbing and Rob Zombie sings in a deep, gravelly delivery. Needless to say, if you love Metal of any sort, this is fantastic. The melodic sensibility and production on this song alone are fantastic, and the alternation between the spoken vocals in the verses and the screaming in the chorus are superb. There are guitars galore, awesome electronic textures and punchy drums in amongst the chaos which takes one by surprise. However, it’s very, very good. Worth a listen for sure. A great mixture of chaos at hand.

Dragula is the big hit here by Rob Zombie and made it into the first film in The Matrix series in the section where the character Neo (Keanu Reeves) “follows the white rabbit”, so to speak. It begins with creepy electronic noises, pounding processed electronic beats and a great melodic Metal tune. Rob Zombie sings in a very awesome way and this really gets going in the chorus. It sounds amazing, because it is. By the way, a Dragula is a famous racecar, if you are confused about the matter when reading the intense lyrics. It’s compulsive listening that demands a repeat listen, and is interesting, punchy and fantastic to hear. The midsections are very audibly about lust, in amongst the killer guitar riffs and throaty screaming by Rob Zombie himself. A fantastic tune which deserves to be played at full volume in your neighbourhood. A really clever, heavy and brilliant track to listen to, this still sounds fantastic today. Great stuff, worth a listen. It ends with Nine Inch Nails style electronic and edited vocal lines. Brilliant.

Living Dead Girl begins with electronic beats and some sampled TV speech, before launching into a memorable and melodically catchy tune. At this point, this album is a very enjoyable listen, even if you are not a huge fan of Metal music. Rob Zombie sings with passion and is obviously a satanic person, but if you can overlook that about it, this is great music. It sounds like Metal music for horror film fans and similar things. The melody and guitar riffing throughout are nothing but interesting and amazing. There is a semi-Indian music sounding section in the second half, which is strange, before Rob Zombie returns to freak you out. Heavy music for sure, yet nothing short of brilliant. If you are Christian or are heavily religious, you should avoid this totally. Good tune as well though.

Perversion 99 is a strange instrumental, but a cool sounding one with strange and distant sounding Indian percussion, odd ambient sounds and loose guitar parts and other weird sounds. It is a good instrumental and adds to the flavour of the record overall. Less than two minutes long, this does sound decent nonetheless.

Demonoid Phenomenum begins with more ghostly noises, weird melodies and a female vocal sample, before launching straight back into super Heavy Metal droptuned territory. It is really heavy, in fact. Some electronic drum beats and processed raspy vocals from Rob Zombie follow. This sounds a little weaker as a main song, but still retains the freshness and energy of the rest of the recording. This is not to be played for children or anyone easily freaked out, for the matter. Nonetheless, it is an interesting song, even if it is not as good as earlier efforts on the album. The guitar riffs are spectacularly punchy all the same and this is definitely an interesting listen. More electronic sounds follow, and this is definitely late 1990s territory, not too far away from Nine Inch Nails’s The Fragile album. A genuinely interesting listen all the same. The riffs and shouting in the outro are quite different. It fades out with clanging bass guitar.

Spookshow Baby begins with some processed 12 string acoustic guitar, before quickly launching into chugging guitar parts and excellently edited drums. Rob Zombie begins singing with his raspy/throaty vocals and this is quite a good listen. This is a quirky and better song than the previous one, and this sounds very warped and amazing overall. It is a good representation of Heavy Metal sludginess mixed with a touch of Electronics, and puts a lot of Metal contemporaries of the time to shame. If anything, this record points to the fact that, contrary to popular opinion, Metal was still going strong in the 1990s. A cool and different tune that is somewhat Grungy in the stop/start quiet/loud dynamics. A good piece of music.

How To Make A Monster is next and it has some reversed electronic sounds before banging and distant sounding music enters. It is difficult to think exactly what this piece is for, it would have been better to use this short piece as a properly mixed tune, rather than something that sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom. Interesting anyway, but a missed opportunity here otherwise.

Meet The Creeper begins with some weird feedback based electronics, before launching into another Heavy Metal staple of this album. Rob Zombie puts in a throaty vocal and an excellent performance, as does the rest of the group. This is the sort of music that fans of shock and horror will devour musically, it is definitely not your mainstream Pop of the day (nor at this point today). It is interesting, fun listening and energetic and this song is once again, proof of the overall consistency of this album. Crunchy guitar riffs are throughout this song, and it sounds really excellent. Politically incorrect and satanic to the nth degree, this is a thoroughly good tune, and not overly long either. Nice listen.

The Ballad Of Resurrection Joe And Rosa Whore (interesting title) is next and it sounds great from the start. It is a more Electronic based piece with cut up drumbeats and Breakbeat styled sounds, but is definitely another killer Rob Zombie piece. There are drawling vocals that are nicely treated throughout, and this is definitely decent and interesting to hear. It eventually launches into a great chorus, followed by more strange Electronic music styled sounds and approach. This is genuinely addictive listening and just will rubbish your perception of any prejudice against heavier music, if you don’t like this sort of thing. In the second half, it goes back into Metal territory, before leading to and fro between EDM and Metal. Seriously good though, definitely worth listening to. Loud, punchy and interesting.

What Lurks On Channel X? comes along next, and has some more stereo panned Electronics that sound very freaky. Some TV samples of speech and screaming quickly enter, followed by Metal guitars and bashing drums. This is a weirder piece of music but still sounds genuinely good. This one is relatively short at two and a half minutes long, but does very well. It is a quirky, nicely mixed and different tune for this album. A really cool listening experience, even for a shorter piece.

Return Of The Phantom Stranger begins with some speech sampled from movies, followed by freaky bell chimes, quickly followed by dark sounding organ. More Electronic sounds enter, and we quickly get underway. Rob Zombie sounds a lot like Marilyn Manson on this song, which isn’t 100% original but is interesting nonetheless. A very surprising piece of nicely put together music, although more textural and Electronic than simply pure Metal. Freaky, yet excellent, Rob Zombie is a great force in the underworld of Metal. This album should be handed out to kids mandatorily in High School to freak out their parents by law. An interesting and evil sounding piece of music, with twisted lyrics, Rob Zombie puts in a good effort on this song. The outro has ghostly choir keyboard sounds and a freaky finish.

The Beginning Of The End is the final track on this album. It begins with some strange cut up sets of Electronic sounds of a very clever mix, which do have musical value but aren’t really a proper song in observation. Still, it sounds very good and doesn’t drag the album down whatsoever. A good outro to a fairly disturbing album. It ends with a simple keyboard melody that sounds devilish. Good listen.

This is a decent album for people who like to scare others in a musical sense. Sure, Slayer can do so but Rob Zombie here took that concept and perfected that with a forward thinking approach and decent Heavy Metal tunes. Good to see that Rob Zombie had a dark imagination at hand to deliver quite a good album. Just don’t play it to your grandparents, and you should be fine.

Freaky but cool.

8/10