Cd Preview: Rob Zombie HELLBILLY DELUXE 2

Rob Zombie is back! After spending much time working on horror movie projects such as HALLOWEEN 2, and wrangling around with recording contracts after spending 18 years with Geffen Records, the long delayed, HELLBILLY DELUXE 2 is finally out today on his new Roadrunner Records label. One of the most apparent themes running through the new song titles is Rob Zombie's absolute love for those bad B movie horror exploitation films.

"Werewolf Women Of The S.S." sure sounds like a recipe for one of the most outrageous exploitation films since "Werewolves On Wheels", that bad biker/horror film exploitation film mixture. And titles like "Mars Needs Women" have already made it through the B film grind.

Some music critics might say that Rob Zombie songs often fall into a certain "schlocky groove" genre. Well, yeah, often they do. But, that's alright. His outrageous songs about Frankenstein, werewolves, witches and martians are pure fun to the horror movie fan set, regardless. But the album does tread a little new ground with the heavily orchestrated, "The Man That Laughs", a 10 minute epic, or plenty of homage to those bad 1960's garage type bands, with plenty of vocal distortion, and that underlying heavy driving guitar and keyboard riffs sound.

As usual, Rob Zombie rocks real hard here, and although he claims that he was able to write this album even faster than most any album ever, still the songs seem good enough to satisfy any longtime fans. It's been a whole two year wait since his EDUCATED HORSES album, and this effort seems well worth the wait to me.

Cd Universe is offering this cool new album at just $14.54 right today, which is a whole lot better than a bite from a werewolf or vampire or a silver bullet or stake through the heart.

The bottom line: +++(Three out of four stars, good)