Customer Reviews

The Sinister Urge [Vinyl]

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

This album doesn't seem to enjoy the popularity of Hellbilly Deluxe, Rob Zombie's first solo release, but I consider The Sinister Urge the better album of the two. The music seems to be more important this time around, as Zombie experiments with or conjures up new means by which to communicate his unique message. (go to) California, for example, seems to begin with a strange lilting sound to it, and Zombie's voice is somewhat subdued on the verses, providing a nice contrast with the more forceful chorus. Of course, there is plenty of hard rocking on this album, especially on the three most familiar tunes: Never Gonna Stop (the red, red kroovy), Feel So Numb, and Demon Speeding. Demon Speeding reminds me a lot of the Hellbilly Deluxe tracks, but the other new songs have a different sound and style than what Zombie has given us before. These songs are catchier and are more prone to hang around in your head reminding you of their visceral greatness; some might say Zombie got a little soft and added a touch of pop to a few tracks here, but I don't think that is the case at all. If he has added anything, it is a complexity that makes his music all the more impressive.

One song that certainly deserves special mention is Iron Head, which features none other than Ozzy Osbourne helping out on the vocals; the way he and Zombie alternate lines makes Ozzy's input especially effective. Dead Girl Superstar is a great hard-rocking track, and I also really like Bring Her Down (To Crippletown), another song which features a dramatic contrast between the verses and chorus. Scum of the Earth isn't bad, but I would consider it the only light-weight song on the album. There really isn't as much filler material on here as some might think. Sinners Inc. introduces the album with some horror movie-type dialogue, Transylvanian Transmissions Pt. 1 features a dramatic, malevolent reading of horror-laden, strangely philosophical lines, and then the singular House of 1000 Corpses closes out the album with rather a significant bit of what some would call filler material surrounding an otherwise gleefully evil song-more horror movie dialogue about murder, cannibalism, and similar dastardly deeds, voices of innocent little girls, a satisfying number of screams, and-somewhat inexplicably-a couple of minutes' worth of background noise. At almost ten minutes, House of 1000 Corpses is definitely the longest song on the album, but I for one enjoy taking my time to enjoy the pleasure offered by musical rumination upon the darker things in life.

I might note that this album, unlike its predecessor, provides listeners with the song lyrics; it's not always easy to understand Zombie's edgy vocals, and now, while some of the lyrics don't make a great deal of sense, I at least know what I'm hearing. Overall, I recommend this album wholeheartedly to those who like their music dark and forceful. Even though Rob Zombie brought a musical legacy with him from his White Zombie years, Hellbilly Deluxe had a bit of a gimmicky feel to it and proved a little uneven in places. The Sinister Urge, on the other hand, is consistently good from start to finish.

After 3 long years of Rob Zombie's absence (Aside from a zillion remixes and soundtracks) my anticipation was very high for this CD. After listening to it, I realized that this is even better than I expected it to be. "Sinister Urge" is an album that combines old with new. It will please die-hards of White Zombie, and people who enjoy Rob's more catchy solo stuff. Just like the old b-horror movies Rob emulates, his music is pure entertainment, an adrenaline rush. You won't find lyrics that have social or political impact. No, just pure entertainment. The music on here is very catchy and at the same time, very heavy. It's definetly an improvement over "Hellbilly Deluxe." The guitar work on here is definetly better than before. It drives home the horror movie sound that Rob's lyrics are trying to convey (especially on Demon Speeding). Overall, you can't go wrong with Sinister Urge. It has less filler than Hellbilly Deluxe and it really is a landmark album for Rob. Let's see what he can do with his movie debut next.

This is an interesting Edited CD, mainly because none of the actual lyrics have been edited. There wasn't originally any cursing on this CD to begin with (except for a brief sample that says "shake your...proper," which has been left in). There WAS originally some nudity in the packaging, which has been blurred out in this version.

So the only actual editing in this CD takes place in the packaging. This seems really odd... but remember, the Parental Advisory labels read "Explicit CONTENT," not "Explicit Lyrics" - so it kind of makes sense.

When you think back to Zombie's last cd, Hellbilly Deluxe, you may be surprised by the lack of catchy songs on The Sinister Urge. Hellbilly's singles like Dragula and Living Dead Girl must have made Rob about a zillion dollars from giving them to every single movie soundtrack produced last year. But that's not to say that The Sinister Urge is a bad record. Here's a brief rundown of the songs.
1) Sinners Inc. - You should be familiar with this sound from Hellbilly. The old horror movie samples.

2)Demon Speeding - For some reason this doesn't sound much like Zombie's sound to me. It sounds more like an 80's metal band.
3)Dead Girl Superstar - Take what I just said about Demon Speeding, and multiply it by 10. This song could have been sung by Ratt 15 years ago.
4)Never Gonna Stop (the red, red kroovy) - I can really get into this song. It's classic Zombie, and it's pretty catchy.
5)Iron Head - Immediatly when I saw the title of this one, I thought of Iron Man by Black Sabbath. And that's no coincedence, Ozzy actually guest vocals on this one.
6)(go to) California - Rob Zombie and brass horns? Whatever...
7)Feel So Numb - This, in my opinion, is the only song that is on par with the catchiness of the Hellbilly singles.
8)Transylvanian Transmissions Pt. 1 - More samples and general creepiness.
9)Bring Her Down (To Crippletown) - This one definatley is a new sound for Zombie, but it's still good.
10)Scum of the Earth - This one sounds really familiar. Like I've heard it before somewhere.
11)House of 1000 Corpses - This just makes me want to see the movie more and more. Really really good song.

As the title of this review might hint at, there wasn't a whole lot of music on this album. I mean what there was kicked, but it seems they just threw together a few songs, had some wierd tracks and filler, and put it on selves. Maybe Geffin figured people would be angry so they added a nice extra CD with it that has a whole bunch of metal bands and their good songs (some famous some not so famous). They also put on the album Scum of the Earth which I think was pretty cheap because it was realeased on a soundtrack a whole while ago and I have heard it a bunch. Rob seems to be getting lazy in the whole music department and is focusing on his movies and whatever the hell else he does. Anyway this is pure Rob Zombie, good as the last one but not as much. It actually contains 39 minutes of stuff which even counting all of it is nothing compared to La Sexorcisto and its 70 some minutes of pretty much pure metal. I say if you are a huge Zombie fan get it, like the songs there are, and hope on the next he puts more.

Putting on a Rob Zombie cd after listening to something like Slipknot is like following up a viewing of Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer with Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!...both may sound sinister, but where Slipknot's music is a relentless (albeit listenable) assault on the senses, Rob Zombie has more fun with the heavy genre, a cool, dopey blast.

The songs on Sinister Urge are basically the same as those on Hellbilly Deluxe, or even White Zombie's output several years ago. Zombie's vocals are alternately snarled, grunted, or hollered, there are the same slick, but simple guitar riffs, the heavily overdubbed millenial disco percussion that has become Zombie's trademark, the odd "Hey, yeeeaaahh!", guest spots by venerable metal gods (Ozzy this time) and the requisite samples lifted from old B movies. Comparing the two albums, I can't really recommend one over the other. They're just too similar.

But there's plenty of fun to be had. Zombie's duet with Ozzy on 'Iron Head' is classic Eighties headbanger fare with his own trademark twists (see above), 'Go To California' puts a menacing twist on the road song (complete with sultry female backup vocals), 'Feel So Numb' is an irresistable metal rave-up in the style of 'Dragula', and 'House Of 1000 Corpses' (which contains samples from Zombie's slasher flick of the same name) has a bit of a goofy Nick Cave feel to it.

In a time where most metal music focuses so much on the negative, any release by Rob Zombie is a welcome breath of smelly, skanky air. If you love old-school metal, slasher flicks, and the films of the great Russ Meyer (like yours truly), you'll get a real kick out of this fun album.

This sounds like a decent 3rd album, I heard it over a friend's place, and I would have bought it, but I'm boycotting labels that are cooperating with the RIAA because of their revenue grab on webcasters -- forcing myself and a lot of my friends out of business.

Also, this CD has copy protection built in that will mess up your computer if you try to rip the tracks so you can listen to them on your MP3 player -- rather than lug around hundreds of CDs. That's right it will actually damage your computer!

If you could get it from another source -- like directly from the artist -- I'd say get it. But since you can't, any money spent on this CD is feeding the RIAA and others who want to make a profit first and don't care if it's killing music.

Thanks,

M

UPDATE: Later pressings of this album do not have copy protection. So, 8 years later I'm pretty sure you'll be able to get a clean copy.

Another good but different cd from Rob Zombie. This album includes great guitar riffage, an orcastra and some poppy elements that some older fans might not enjoy. The album is pretty short though with a filler track that's just a bunch of nonsense that I always skip. I guess it'd better to have a short cd with a lot of good songs than a cd with some good songs and a lot of bad songs. I really enjoyed all of the songs and most of them stand out except "bring her down" and "scum of the earth." So go do yourself a favor and buy this disk.

Sinners Inc (1:17) 2/5
Demon Speeding (3:44) 5/5
Dead Girl Superstar (2:28) 4/5
Never Gonna Stop (3:09) 4/5
Iron Head (4:11) 4.5/5
Go To California (3:24) 4/5
Feel So Dumb (3:53) 5/5
Transylvanian Transmissions Pt. 1 (1:09) 2.5/5
Bring Her Down To Crippletown (3:59) 5/5
Scum Of The Earth (2:55) 5/5
House of 1000 Corpses (9:26) 4/5
Total CD Run Time: 39:40
CD Rating: 45/55

P.S. THIS CD HAS A HIDDEN TRACK! JUST WAIT AWHILE AFTER HO1KC ENDS AND THE SONG "UNHOLY" WILL PLAY!

Unholy (2:00?) 4/5

I've been a White Zombie for years, and just a Rob Zombie fan in general. When I'd heard he was releasing a solo album (Hellbilly Deluxe) I was very excited. I'd heard and loved his song The Great American Nightmare (Private Parts Sdtk) and was very optimistic about his solo debut. In short, I wasn't disappointed in the least.

With The Sinister Urge however, I was a little let down. It just didn't have the same energy Hellbilly had. Dead Girl Superstar and Scum of the Earth (also on the MI:2 sdtk.) are, in my opinion, the best songs on the album. The rest... the rest of the songs just didn't bore into my brain like Superbeast, Dragula, Living Dead Girl, et all from Hellbilly.

To me, it seemed like Rob wanted to bang something out in order to keep with his tradition of releasing an album every three years. (La Sexorcisto 1992, Astro-Creep 1995, Hellbilly Deluxe 1998, Sinister Urge 2001)

But despite the lack of chutzpah Sinister Urge seems to have, it's still Rob Zombie, and it's still better than any of the other crap you'll hear on the radio.