King Freak. The Great Satan. The Electric Warlock. The Hellbilly of all Hellbillies. We’ve referred to Rob Zombie by countless supernatural pseudonyms over the years, but no matter the moniker, there’s an underlying truth to the singer-cum-filmmaker: He’s been a goddamn metal icon for decades.
While the singer and the rest of White Zombie led an incredible career that transformed them from creep-moded garage punks into motor-psycho MTV dominators, Zombie himself has spent the past quarter century-plus fine-tuning a hard-grooving solo career.
Havving revved up this second successful phase in the late Nineties, there’s naturally a lot under the hood of the Zombie’s solo discography.
So, we asked our Revolver readers which songs of his they’re most prone to crank from the back of their Dragulas — these are their picks, ranked accordingly.
“Living Dead Girl”
Rob Zombie has made a living making scary sounds, and one early solo song that still gives fans the right kind of chills is Hellbilly Deluxe’s second grave-robbing single, “Living Dead Girl.”
Cemetery crawler Zombie puts a cool yet croaking performance onto this sleek, slinking perv-dustrial tribute to an undead stunner absolutely dripping in blood and sin. The hypnotic, hip-swaying beat breaks out big-Rigged guitar chords, but memorably also integrates snake-charming shehnai melodies.
More than a quarter century after its initial release, “Living Dead Girl” remains an irresistible creature within the Zombie-fied catalog.
“Return of the Phantom Stranger”
Turns out you all love Rob’s “Phantom Stranger”
Hellbilly’s penultimate creep-out begins with uncomfortably oozing pipe-organ anti-melodies you’d expect to hear upon entering Disney’s famed Haunted Mansion, yet the real grim, grinning thrill ride begins with a cavernous industrial-metal beat.
Sinister sounds sweep the grounds of the dread-inducing arrangement, while the phantasmagorically hard-howling “Ghostmaster” lays out a wretched, heart-wrenching tale of dark decay.
“Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)”
Revolver readers certainly screamed that they wanted this Sinister Urge favorite to make the top 5. And who could blame ‘em?
The A Clockwork Orange-inspired single is a bewitchingly psychedelic rave-up — a go-go groovy horror show upon which Zombie and his band both play it loud, but also nice and smooth like the creamiest drink from their nearest Moloko Milkbar.
“Superbeast”
Zombie lets his ragged tongue run wild whilst violently singing Hellbilly standout “Superbeast.” And time and time again, this brings us to our bloody knees.
The record’s third single is a triumphant, high-BPM convulsion of four-on-the-floor drum heaviness and dome-cleaving metal riffs. Above all that, you’ve got Zombie dropping into a bestial roar.
While it’s yet another one you wanted, there’s at least one Rob Zombie song his fans think can slay the “Superbeast.”
“Demonoid Phenomenon”
To understate the obvious — and to paraphrase the great Melle Mel — Rob Zombie is something like a phenomenon.
Zombie was already a metal mainstay by the time he delivered Hellbilly Deluxe in 1998, and the record certainly builds off the industrialized, horror-sampling vibe of White Zombie’s final era. But the infectiously ghoulish solo debut likewise sold more copies than anything by his old band, crossing the three-million mark in the U.S. alone. To put it another way: It conquered the worm like no other Zombie project before it.
While perhaps a deeper cut, “Demonoid Phenomenon” distills the Zombie sound to its essence: bone-crushing yet danceable beats, mean-chugged guitar hooks and the signature magnetic yowl of the master desecrator himself.