MOG

It was one of those songs that didn’t hit me right off the bat, I had to hear it a couple of times before it penetrated, before it sunk in and started it’s journey to the center of my cerebral cortex. It was trashy, thrashy, and fuzzy…. And it was before I had embraced made my peace with that world. White Zombie, noisy pop alt metal, what ever that means hit the national stage in the mid-90’s after years as an underground act. Their early noise core days behind them, the pop refinement of the first wave of grunge upon them, they hit it big. A couple of hit albums, the tune Thunderkiss ’65 kicking it all off. Is it heresy to say that they are/ were The Cramps of their era? It’s true. So what was it that they were doing that hit the right cords in the hearts of metal heads and horror lovers everywhere? It was the embrace of the trash, drive in, low culture vibe. The use of samples (for which they should have issued warning, sample from movies won’t make your band good) was first rate and I have yet to hear anyone use samples in the same way as effectively. The music was your basic heavy rock with weird industrial noises tossed into the mix, making a NIN-lite vibe palatable for the masses.

In the years since the bands demise main man Rob Zombie has released a couple of solid solo albums, and branched out into directing films, including last years The Devils Rejects (which I thought was a note perfect love letter to the Drive Inn flicks of the 1970’s). The albums are ok, but lack something that White Zombie was tapping into in that mid-90’s period.

Only 2 more entries to go… up next the one the only Misfits!