REVIEW: White Zombie ,Astro-Creep: 2000; Songs of Love, Destruction, and other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head (Geffen)

- Sean Eric McGill

Legend has it that back in the fall of 1992, this, White Zombie's third album, was scheduled for release by Geffen in the spring of '93. For the goof of it, they released "Thunder Kiss '65" off the band's La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1 album, and the rest is history.

The song went to number one on AOR charts, and the album vaulted into the Billboard Top 100. To top it off, MTV began airing the video for "Welcome to Planet Motherfucker/Psychoholic Slag" on "Beavis & Butthead" on the strength of the amount of humor that could be derived from the name alone, not to mention they had a "babe" in the band. Needless to say, Geffen sent the band back out on the road and gave them more time to finish the album, and Astro-Creep: 2000's current residency in the Billboard Top 10 proves once again that it is one of the few companies willing to take a risk on bands that nobody else wanted, and have them pay off. Anyone remember Guns 'N Roses?.

But enough pondering on the state of the music business. Astro-Creep: 2000 is different from any other metal album you've heard, unless you've heard any of White Zombie's previous releases, and even then, it's very different. This album has more of an industrial feel to it in many ways, and the change in producer from Andy Wallace to Terry Date (Pantera, Soundgarden) is obvious.

Whereas La Sexorcisto was polished mayhem, Astro-Creep: 2000 differs from the previous album by making the band seem more hard-core and less cartoonish. Sure, you still get songs like "El Phantasmo and The Chicken-Run Blast-O-Rama", but what made "La Sexorcisto" seem more like a joke than anything was the band's use of samples, most of which came from George Romero's "Night Of the Living Dead". While the samples are still there on Astro-Creep: 2000, they aren't as easily recognizable, thus adding more to the music.

The music itself is some sort of wierd mix of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and Pantera. Rob Zombie's vocals are less in the forefront this time around, leaving more room for the rest of the band (J., Guitar; Sean Yseult, Bass; and John Tempesta, Drums) to perform. Songs like "Real Solution #4" and "More Human Than Human" are some of the best metal songs you'll hear all year musically, and the rest of the album is full of good lines and riffs.

Lyrically, though, Rob Zombie tends to dwell too much on his own oddities and less on coherency. In the wake of grunge and the constant rantings of angst and "I hate myself because I'm rich" songwriting, this is refreshing to a certain extent. However, this writer is reminded of the mid-eighties, when record companies were signing any band with a stack of Marshall's and it seemed most of their songwriting came from Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks (and, next time you're in Taco Bell, tell Ronnie Dio I said "Hi").

The bottom line is that Astro-Creep: 2000 is definitely different, but if you're not a fan of that type of hard rock already, this album probably won't convert you...but then again, odder things have happened.