Rob Zombie - The Great Satan

I don't remember exactly which album made me give up on new Rob Zombie material, but I am certain it was released well over a decade ago. I probably would have passed on this one too, but Spotify kept hounding me about it and curiosity got the better of me. (We're also very early in the year, when the release schedule is a lot lighter.)

The first track sounds like a Dope song (derogatory) with better production — which I guess is just a modern Static-X song, but I disgress... The vocal processing effects are layered on thick, which isn't new but it makes Rob's vocals sound really generic. The same goes for the guitars and production; a lot of the instrumentals could have been lifted from any number of late 90s nu metal records.

I wasn't expecting a lot of progression from a guy who established his — admittedly very compelling — formula back in the early 90s. As much as I enjoyed Hellbilly Deluxe, The Sinister Urge and even Educated Horses, these were all very similar albums. A lot of 4-on-the-floor drums with Rob belting out seemingly random words in that very particularly cadence of his, interspersed with enough "yeah"s to make James Hetfield blush.

The only real change I've noticed over the years — aside from the ever-diminishing quality of Rob's vocals — is the material had become more of a 50/50 mix of sleazy rock and B-movie horror. Because of Rob's ... distinctive lyrical style, I honestly can't tell if these lyrics to "(I'm A) Rock N Roller" are in any way serious, or just a combination of syllables to fit neatly onto the grid in Pro Tools:

Whip it on out like telegram Sam
Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them, man?
Electric warrior, electric war
Double-o seven eatin' Pussy Galore, yeah

I don't want to belabour the point, since Rob's lyrics have always been vaguely coherent, but they were also slotted into much better songs. The problem with these seemingly place-holder lyrics is that pairing them with a collection of indistinguishable instrumentals just makes the whole thing feel like a band going through the motions. These are the same kinds of songs you've heard before, but with less fire behind them. It's a little weird that the more stripped down Rob's material has become, the more it leans on studio magic.

Sorry, I know I said I was done harping on the lyrics but then I got to the part of my notes about the track "Sir Lord Acid Wolfman." This thing is an abomination; I genuinely don't know what the fuck is going on here, but it's exceptionally bad. So bad, in fact, that I wonder if Rob was channeling Corey Feldman's avant garde stylings on "We Wanted Change" and / or just exploring the lower threshold of what people will tolerate.

There are a few fun moments on this record, but none of these songs stack up to Rob's better known work. I'm not sure I can say Rob is uninspired here; he seems to have a lot of ideas, but vanishingly few good ones these days.