White Zombie
Astro Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head
Geffen Records (1995)
In the artist biography of White Zombie, released by MCA Records Canada, they are described as a “psycho-death, creeping flesh, post apocalyptic cyberpunk horror vision of Hell” and “one demented mind fuck”. Personally while attempting to explain the undeniable allure of the last release, La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. 1, the only thing I could come up with was “Drive fast for Satan”.
Several months ago, headbangers, metalheads, skaters, and other soon to be committed psychoholics raced to their local record stores. Why? To pick up the latest White Zombie release, of course. This offering is entitled Astro Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head. All I can say about this one is “Drive your spaceship fast for Satan”.
On La Sexorcisto, the combination of Rob Zombie’s downright screwed up lyrics (i.e. “Vampire sharpshooter ‘O’ / I said, ‘A messenger for the Damned.’ / I got a holy gun / come a loaded to kill everything that I am.”) and the rest of the band’s pounding rhythms (that’s J. on guitar, Sean Yseult on bass, and Ivan DePrume, who’s since be replaced by John Tempesta on drums) gave the effect of a post-apocalyptic Mad Max movie directed in the 1930s. Astro Creep: 2000 however, tells the tales of galactic witch hunts, Charles Manson-styled space cults, and space station peep shows. Rob’s lyrics, at first listen, are a little easier to hear, but I dare you to figure out what they mean.
For example, from “Super Charger Heaven”:
- They see no evil and feel no pain
Sucking juice from a fallen Angel
I dreamed I was a supernova fucker.
or from “Electric Head Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy)”:
- Breakneck speed get a violent spinal crack’n
Back pain to the chrome and feel the death wish attack’n
Hubcaps on your eyes, yeah!
Cannot sympathize, yeah!
A fist-full of hair and splinter in the mind.
Kids, don’t let your Mom or Dad know anything about White Zombie, unless you have hippy parents who keep a couple of ounces in the back of the freezer, in which case, wait until the right moment, (I think you’ll be able to recognize it) and let ‘er rip.
The first time through this album was a bit of a disappointment. Not heavy enough, not enough samples, I can make out some of the lyrics, and the Trent Reznor-like keyboards in the beginning of “I Zombie” were some of my major complaints. I must have been in the wrong frame of mind at the time, because now I love it. Even the keyboards make sense when attributed to my half-baked (or as Dustin Hoffman said, “No, Dad. It’s completely baked”) theory of the Astro Creep: 2000 being a spaceship with its crew of swashbuckling, mind blasting psychoholics flying around the galaxy raising hell, literally.
Seriously, this album is fantastic. The best straight ahead metal tracks are the first five: “Electric Head Pt.1 (The Agony)”, “Super Charger Heaven”, “Real Solution # 9”, “Creature of the Wheel”, and “Electric Head Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy)”. The rest of the album is a crash-course in jury-rigged space survival that turns out to be a devil of a good time. Or Machiavellian-metal to prepare us for the next millennium. Either way, it’s good. In fact, it’s damn good.
Some final questions. Anyone seen the movie Airheads? Well, neither did I, but I heard the song “Feed The Gods” from its soundtrack. How come this song was not included on Astro Creep: 2000? Or how about “I Am Hell” from the Beavis and Butthead Experience? And I’m still wondering about the suspiciously quiet samples and Rob Zombie’s artwork inside the booklet. Oh well, buy the record, prepare your state of mind, and check it out. If you don’t like it, I just said, “Up yours, Baby!” – P. Dog
