ALBUM REVIEW: Rob Zombie – ‘Hellbilly Deluxe 2′

Artist: Rob Zombie
Album:Hellbilly Deluxe 2
Label: Roadrunner
Rating: 5.2/10

Rock, motherf*cker/Rock, motherf*cker/Rock, motherf*cker/Yeah (as gruffly intoned by Mr. Zombie on the single “Sick Bubblegum”), is the kind of chorus that could be somewhat subversive and at least momentarily exciting coming from Britney or Miley, but from Zombie at this juncture, it just sounds rather obligatory and tired. But we are talking about Rob Zombie, not Tortoise, and we know going in that he’s not aiming to reinvent any wheels with an album that is a de facto sequel to his biggest hit. That said, Hellbilly Deluxe 2 is not without a certain degree of dunderheaded charm, serving up the usual brew of guttural guitar stomp, grindhouse ephemera and Zombie’s limited-but-serviceable, distinctively distorted growl laid over the top.

Not surprisingly, the album is a bit of a monochromatic slog if one listens to the whole thing in one go, but a few tracks do muster the same kind of low-rent verve of his big hits. Aside from the modest, oh-so-guilty pleasures of “Sick Bubblegum”, “What?” has a kinda nifty Collective Soul-meets-Clinic hook and doesn’t overstay its welcome, “Burn” works up a decent low-key groove, and “Dream Factory” is a solid, spry rocker with a Weiland-meets-Horton Heat swing. So the uptempo stuff, derivative and silly though it is, fares well enough. Elsewhere though, Zombie stumbles out of the gate with the clunky would-be epic opener “Jesus Frankenstein”, shamelessly cribs the riff from The Sword’s “Freya” for the middling plod of “Virgin Witch”, and pads album-closer “The Man Who Laughs” with an interminable drum solo.

Ultimately it’s the sort of product one would expect from a multimedia veteran like Rob Zombie at this point; a little bit of the old mojo, some water-treading tedium and a strip-club smash or two. Enough to keep him on the outer rings of the cross-platform pop-culture circus, if not provide the soundtrack for the big party scene on next week’s episode of The Hills. Hey, that reminds me, someone yank Heidi out of tit surgery long enough to bang out a bad cover of “Sick Bubblegum”, stat! Viral sensation, comin’ right up.
___________
Review by Jeff Slater