Rob Zombie: Hellbilly Deluxe 2 (2010) Review

Rob Zombie's newest album, Hellbilly Deluxe 2, came out today, and I'll be one of the first to get my thoughts out there (instead of waiting a year as it seems I usually do).

On the whole, it is a pretty standard Zombie album, which I think is what we really want from him. It's not really a musical continuation of 1998's Hellbilly Deluxe as it's billed, but instead is more in the vein of 2006's Educated Horses. It starts out with "Jesus Frankenstein," certainly one of his better tracks, and one which perfectly illustrates Mr. Zombie's clever sense of humor and knack for riding the edge of self-parody. "Sick Bubblegum" is both catchy and needlessly profane, so some will like it while some won't. It seems it's the only one with a lot of profanity, and was likely written that way to earn the "explicit" label. "What?" combines the circus obsession of early Zombie efforts like "Grease Paint and Monkey Brains" with the style he first explored on "The Scorpion Sleeps," and also adds an element of Ministry's "Jesus Built My Hotrod."

The first weak spot on the album is "Mars Needs Women," a thoroughly boring track, repetitive and unimaginative musically as well as lyrically. But things quickly pick up again with "Werewolf, Baby," a song which reminds me of "(Go To) California" and "Never Gonna Stop" from 2001's The Sinsiter Urge (my favorite post-White Zombie album in his catalog).

"Virgin Witch" and "Death and Destiny Inside the Dream Factory" come next, tracks I could do with or without.

"Burn" follows, a solid rock 'n roll style song with vocal embellishments not unlike scatting. It is a thoroughly enjoyable listen, and will likely please anyone who's a fan of "Foxy, Foxy." Next is "Cease To Exist," a more slow-rolling song and one without any parallel in Zombie's catalog.

My favorite of all, in terms of the humorous images conjured, is "Werewolf Women of the SS," built on the premise the Nazis engineered, well, werewolf women. It's also musically satisfying. Finally is "The Man Who Laughs," a song that it seems Zombie has done several times before--but there's no reason to change it up too much.

As I said, it follows in the vein of Horses rather than one of Zombie's better albums. It definitely has its high points, but it has enough low points in it to hurt the final result as an album. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

No. 2203

Raider Sketch

By now, I have presented the original of this sketch to my dad for his birthday, which was a couple weeks ago. It's based on this picture taken in 2007, one of my favorites. Making it was extremely therapeutic for me. I still miss you, Raider. I know by now you've caught a few rabbits up in heaven.

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2004

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

And on to the list for 2004.

The Haunted: rEVOLVEr

Not since the 1980's has thrash metal been this good, and it's rarely been in such capable hands. Brutal all the way through, but with maturity and innovative songwriting, great guitars, and harsh metalcore-esque vocals, the record is a violent treat from start to finish. "Fire Alive" is perhaps the highlight of the album, but other tracks such as "99" and "Burnt to a Shell" (along with all the rest) are also excellent.

Necrophagist: Epitaph

Ah, the single most definitive statement of technical death metal. "Technical" is the order of the day: the band play with such precision on this track it's hard to believe it wasn't played by a computer, except for the fact they also play with a conviction a computer could never reproduce. While Turkish-German vocalist/guitarist Muhammed Suiçmez gets most of the attention for his shredding (and he deserves every ounce of attention he gets), bassist Stephan Fimmers deserves as much attention. This album not only crushes with its surgical assault, it is also a thinking-man's album, with pieces derived by composers Sergei Prokofiev and good old Ludwig van. The only problem with this one is it's over far too soon, at only about 33 minutes.

Suffocation: Souls To Deny

Yes, more death metal, but it was a great year for the genre. This is another album which introduced me to the splendors of the same, along with the works of Meshuggah. The album comes after a long hiatus by the band, time which was well spent, because they come back refreshed and ready to split eardrums. William York of Allmusic says it better than I can:

There seems to be a sort of hidden logic at work in it, since it's hard for even an astute listener to figure out what's going on in terms of the song structure, yet it obviously all makes perfect sense to the band, who deliver this perplexing material with a natural, freely flowing sense of brutality. Many bands have attempted to copy Suffocation's sound, and most of them are extremely boring because they either don't grasp the subtleties or don't have the intuition that these guys obviously possess as songwriters and musicians. "Souls to Deny" is a reminder of what makes good death metal good, and a refreshing break from the uninspired landfill fodder that constitutes so much of the genre's output circa the early- to mid-'00s.

Remember to comment and add your picks for the other two albums to round out the list for 2004, and then come back next Friday for the 2005 list. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

No. 2178

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J.R.R. Tolkien (2009)

The other day I finished reading The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, by an author who truly needs no introduction, and of course edited by his son.

The idea which spurred Tolkien to write these poems was that he wanted to write poems in the traditional Norse eddic style in the English language, so he picked the most well-known Norse legend in which to write the poems. He is believed to have written it during the 1930s.

I'm not normally one for poetry. However, this particular style of poetry is very immediate, and focuses on alliteration rather than rhyme, something which makes it actually quite readable. (In other words, rhyme should be left to music or children's books. The story is also quite compelling, so it is understandable it had so much meaning to the Norse and other Germanic peoples who told the story.

The actual poems could be read in just a few hours. But Christopher Tolkien added extensive explanation and commentary to help the reader understand; the book could be read with or without the commentary.

In all, as far as the poetry goes, I'm no expert but I'll give that 5 out of 5 stars. I recommend it to anyone interested in Germanic mythology or heroic poetry, or to anyone who (like me) is a die-hard Tolkien fan.

Beaver Pirate

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2003

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

Now for the list for 2003.

Dimmu Borgir: Death Cult Armageddon

This album is easily the best symphonic black metal album of all time. The band is assisted by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, who provide a melodic counterpoint to the band's crushing assault. As often, John Serba of Allmusic explains quite well:

The orchestra lends overwhelming and full-bodied sonic bombast to "Vredsbyrd," "Eradication Instincts Defined," and "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse," the latter two so vast and epic in scope they seem to spot weld John Williams/Star Wars compositional soundtrack drama to blastbeating black metal nastiness -- and while naysayers claim strings make metal wimpy, here they're seamlessly integrated and lend power and profundity to the arrangements.

Personally, I believe "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse" to be one of the greatest metal tracks of all time, but everything on this record destroys.

Dream Theater: Train of Thought

The kings of progressive metal released their heaviest album to date with Train of Thought, a nearly-70 minute opus which puts the considerable chops of these Berklee College of Music alumni to full use. The best tracks on here are the 11-plus minute epics "This Dying Soul" and "Endless Sacrifice," and the album also includes Dream Theater's longest instrumental-only studio track, "Stream of Consciousness," which clocks in at 11:16, and while it's more difficult to manage an instrumental which goes into epic lengths, they managed it beautifully.

Swallow the Sun: The Morning Never Came

The Finnish quartet's debut album was seen by many as breathing life into the stale doom metal genre. Of course, it would take a new group to do that, and there is no better country than Finland to do so, with their wide variety of experimental and against-the-grain metal bands. Technically, it is death/doom, the best kind of doom. And it's absolutely brilliant, without any low points. High points include "Deadly Nightshade" and "Hold This Woe."

Please be sure to add your picks for the other two top metal albums for 2003 in the comments, and be sure to come back next Friday to check out the picks for 2004. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

No. 2255

Visions of the Future!!!

Happy birthday to my dad!