Zombie stalks again with a new statement of his musical hurricane philosophy, The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy.

Rob Zombie first entered my sensory orbit the way he did for most people, with the formidable band White Zombie. Those last two albums, La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One (1992) and Astro-Creep: 2000 (1995), are platinum monsters. The combination of horror movie themes and dialogue clips from films was a pretty new thing at the time, and White Zombie brought them into the mainstream with a sledge hammer.

Zombie went solo after the titanic success of White Zombie, releasing the beefy album Hellbilly Deluxe in 1998, and the big follow-up, The Sinister Urge, three years later. After that, he became more and more interested in making films, and his music shifted a little. He kept releasing albums every few years, and he remained extremely popular for his live performances, I last saw him at Aftershock in 2019 and it was a riot – and incredible show of loud music, flashes and bangs.

The new album has seventeen tracks with six transition segments. The opening insinuation is uncustomarily gentle. Oh, it picks right up, never fear. The music is not far off of what you probably expect: big guitar riffs, sound effects, dialogue captures, and Rob Zombie’s commanding voice.

The themes are from horror movies and situations, along with a number of completely off the wall crossovers, like the delightfully unexpected country-western-metal fusion of “The 18^th Century Cannibals, Excitable Morlocks and a One-Way Ticket to the Ghost Train.” There are bangers in there too, as in the single, “The Eternal Struggles of the Howling Man,” a super-creepy whisperer “Boom-Boom-Boom,” and even an instrumental ballad, “The Much Talked of Metamorphosis.” The closer is the longest song, “Crow Killer Blues,” and it is a little horror musical all its own. It has the most serious tone to my ears, and it is the most compositionally fulfilling. There is something in here for everyone.

One thing you know for sure about a Rob Zombie album is that it’s going to be entertaining. Box checked. Recommended.

Get it absolutely everywhere now. Links below.

Live photo by Wayne Edwards, Aftershock 2019.

Links.

Website, https://robzombie.com/

Nuclear Blast, https://shop.nuclearblast.com/en/products/sound/cd/cd/rob-zombie-the-lunar-injection-kool-aid-eclipse-conspiracy.html