Rob Zombie
Hellbilly Deluxe 2

Four years after the release of "Educated Horses," the multifaceted Robert Cummings, also known as Rob Zombie, makes a forceful return to the American rock scene with an ambitious goal: to replicate the success and freshness of the first chapter of his solo adventure after the split with White Zombie, the beautiful "Hellbilly Deluxe."

Before discussing the album itself, I must first admit to being a bit taken aback. I didn't expect a new album from good old Rob, who seemed increasingly engrossed in his (excellent) film career. Some clues suggested my suspicions might not be unfounded, as following the last full-length album, "The Best of Rob Zombie" and "Zombie Live" (a great live album, by the way) came out within two years. When such products come out, it's usually the sign of a career winding down. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Zombie is still motivated and genuinely happy to have a foot in both camps, cinema and music, and to alternate between them.

Making this positive premise, we then talk about the music, and there it's a bit less joyful. Not that the album is bad or boring, it simply showed from my first listen to be below expectations which, due to the long pause and the chosen name, were very high. However, ultimately "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" is the furthest Rob has ever gone from "Hellbilly Deluxe" part one. The latter was a brilliant, crazed resurgence of the sound of the last White Zombie (also released at the right time with the craze of crossover and nu metal, which had no small amount in common with White Zombie's sound), in "Hellbilly Deluxe 2," the Industrial, electronic beats, samplers, and all that "Rob Zombie-style" digital parade is no longer there, it's practically disappeared.

And the great songs? The hits? They are still there, but in significantly reduced quantities compared to the first two spectacular solo albums (the already mentioned "Hellbilly Deluxe" and its frenzied follow-up "The Sinister Urge"). There's that fun, danceable almost punk rock tune of "What", the groovy stride of "Sick BubbleGum" and the slithering "Burn", the carefree and simplistic rock and roll of "Dream Factory".

Except perhaps for the final heavy piece of "The Man Who Laughs" or "Werewolf, Baby", there aren't fundamentally terrible or unlistenable songs, it's just that there's too much of a sense of adequacy that pervades the various "Werewolf Woman of the SS", "Virgin Witch" or "Mars Needs Women". However, particularly interesting are the Black Sabbath influences (never so highlighted in a Rob album as in this one) like the opener "Jesus Frankenstein" (the leaden intro is certainly, it must be, a tribute to the eponymous track of the Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi group) or the acidic "Cease To Exist" (many will find resemblances in the main piano theme with the theme-symbol of the Saw horror saga).

In conclusion, the new Rob Zombie album is not a "Rob Zombie-style" album. Forget the "Feel so Numb", the "Dragula", or the "Living Dead Girl". Zombie decided to set aside all the industrial psycho-metal equipment and return to the more raw and gritty street rock of White Zombie's early days (or maybe he was in a hurry to go on tour and surely making an album like this takes much less time than all the attention and detail of a more industrial album like his debut). I don't know to what extent the operation succeeded. The album is positive, but, no offense to the director of "House of 1000 Corpses," I preferred him in the old formula.