It’s been a long time since White Zombie graced the pages of
\n“The Daily Vault”… something that came to mind as I was going
\nthrough portions of the Pierce Archives (where even the dust knows
\nyour name) in my regular search for “random pulls”. There it was,
\nLa Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume 1<\/i>, White Zombie’s 1992
\ndebut effort.<\/p>\n
You can argue for hours about whether this is truly evil music
\nor not, but there’s no denying two things about this album: First,
\nthe enclosed lyrics are as valuable as gold. Second, this is a
\npowerful, enjoyable album.<\/p>\n
Rob Zombie knew what he was doing when he put together this
\nband. Guitarist J knows how to twist some juicy riffs out of his
\nsix-string, making him possibly one of the most underrated
\nguitarists in hard rock\/heavy metal of the ’90s. Bassist Sean
\nYseult often is hidden in the mix, but when her work is brought to
\nthe forefront, she demonstrates her technical knowledge of the
\nbass. Drummer Ivan De Prume can lay down a solid shuffle and
\nprovides a solid backbone to the album.<\/p>\n
And then, there is Zombie himself. His combination of
\nrap\/singing adds a touch of macabre power to White Zombie’s
\nmusic… but nine times out of ten I don’t have any idea what it is
\nhe’s saying. This is where the lyric sheet comes in handy,
\nproviding enough material to make Tipper Gore run for the
\nexits.<\/p>\n
But if the truth is to be told, the content of
\nLa Sexorcisto<\/i> is about as evil as an underground comic book.
\nI highly doubt that Zombie wrote these songs to be taken seriously,
\nand they should be just experienced and enjoyed. The thundering
\nriffs of the Grammy-nominated cut “Thunder Kiss ’65” (note to
\nBarbra Streisand: A wonderful piece to have selected to keep the
\nmedia at bay… though I think my invite was lost in the mail) is a
\ntribute to heavy metal in 1992. Commercially, metal was in its
\ndeath throes; “Thunder Kiss ’65” reminded people that it was still
\naround.<\/p>\n
The underdog track on
\nLa Sexorcisto<\/i> has to be “Black Sunshine,” a track which, if
\nmemory serves me right, did make it as a video on MTV. Solid,
\ncatchy riffs, well-placed samples and a powerful vocal delivery
\nmake this track the hidden treasure – and it also makes me wonder
\nwhy this song didn’t break the band into the mainstream.<\/p>\n
The second half of
\nLa Sexorcisto<\/i> is a little duller than the first, if only
\nbecause the novelty might have been wearing off a bit. Still, cuts
\nlike “I Am Legend” and “Thrust!” are more than worthy of your time
\nand eardrums.<\/p>\n
With a solo album from Zombie just on the horizon, one has to
\nwonder what the future holds for White Zombie.
\nLa Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume 1<\/i> did show a band that
\nneeded a little more work on their songwriting to keep things
\nfresh, but it also showed these musicians were apt to be quick
\nlearners. Evil? No. Heavy? As an anvil. Worth your time? Of
\ncourse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5629],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39165","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-white-zombie","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39165"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}