ZapTown

White Zombie
La Sexorcisto, Devil Music Volume 1
1992 – Geffen

Origin: New York City
Style: Metal

To me, it’s still baffling that this band ever made anything of themselves. Could Rob Zombie have been such a visionary that he foresaw the future’s need to cherish the Drive-In and Grindhouse culture? Did he see the sights of many who would eventually grow up and want to pay homage to the childhood pop culture the ‘60s and ‘70s? It’s why they are bringing back things like The Banana Splits and The Electric Company. Unlike others who bask in the era, Zombie must have just listened to plain old cultural common sense because we all want to hang on to things of the past that are dear to us, even if that something is The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies.

During the transformation into the 1990s, a friend popped a crusty cassette into my car stereo with the words Make Them Die Slowly becoming a blur as it disappeared into the deck. Driving around the city on a hot, summer day, the sludge sound of White Zombie spewed out of my speakers. The recording was poor and the production was absolute crap. The drums sounded like cardboard boxes and the bass couldn’t have been muddier. You know, something Killdozer might have done, but actually bad. It could have been the cassette, but hell Sonic Youth’s Confusion Is Sex sounded better in my car. (For an example, here is “Acid Flesh” off of the Make Them Die Slowly album – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUsYkESA_yo)

Then came La Sexorcisto. The same friend, a huge White Zombie fan for 1992 standards being that no one still really heard of them — he even had the at-the-time rare “God Of Thunder” Kiss cover on vinyl (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY52HHXPrxU) — tried once again to convert me. I wasn’t going to have it, citing my reasons which were immediately diffused by a his disclaimer that this was indeed a defining album, which is true. It did become a defining album not just for the band, but for the genre. The album reached double platinum status and also reached number 36 on the Billboard 200 for 1993.

The band moved from Caroline to Geffen who must have gave them a more-than-modest budget to create what is now considered their masterpiece, or what my nephew likes to call it the “Yeah!” album because of Rob Zombie’s excessive use of the word “yeah.” The production quality improved leaps and bounds, the mixing was a lot better, and peppered in the release was sample upon sample of B-movies, exploitation film dialogue, and an orgy of schlocky sound effects. It was a “Where’s Waldo” of the Something Weird archive. Now, you can easily get a menu of sample references from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Sexorcisto:_Devil_Music,_Vol._1).

I think half of the fun was sitting around, listening to the album, drinking beer, and trying to decipher what sample went to what movie. “That radio broadcast was from Night of the Living Dead.” “Did I hear a line from Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!?” The timing could not have been better, too. Before Tarantino gave us a re-envisioned view of the Grindhouse and exploitation genre, Something Weird was a cult phenomena, making available a plethora of grindhouse, sexploitation, horror, and other types of exploitation films on VHS. It was a charm to be able to watch Herschell Gordon Lewis films, Russ Meyer, Ray Dennis Steckler, Spiderbaby, and other films that influenced Rob Zombie which amplified the prominence of this album.

Sidetrack our way across 1992, and another musician was doing something similar in a much different way. Henry Rollins released The End of Silence as the Rollins Band. A significant and extremely heavy album of his career. What does he have to do with La Sexorcisto? Roughly the same time of both albums, the concept of the consecutive sludge chords guiding a groove rhythm became significant on both albums. You can hear it at the end of “Low Self Opinion” and you can hear it at the end of “Psychoholic Slag.” This sound became a trademark of early ‘90s grunge metal. Think the bane of existence for Helmet’s In The Meantime.

At a time when hardcore punk and metal crossed over, it was not surprising to hear someone like Iggy Pop voice the intro of the hit song “Black Sunshine” or the goth kids, pretending to be Peter Steele, eat up “I Am Legend.” La Sexorcisto was truly an universal album at the time.

And while many people consider the last half of the album less significant than the first half (http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=4973), I say listen again because the true jamming begins with “Thrust!” And the song just feels like it stretches on and on. “Starface” ups the ante like a reprisal to the album. But what I think is completely misunderstood is the finale “Warp Asylum” and the slowed down, chunky hip grinder. But then it transforms into this rolling jam, while transforming one more time into an out of control spiral of guitar solos and smoked-out rhythms.

It showed what guts the band had to be able to wiggle their way on to a major label while still being able to do things their own way and succeed in that gamble. And now look at Zombie and how he saw his vision through for better and for worse.

Cross-Reference: Helmet, Rollins Band, Powerman 5000