And burn through the witches
And slam in the back of my Dragula"
Rob Zombienote (born January 12, 1965) is a Grammy-nominated American musician and filmmaker.
He first attracted attention as the frontman of the band White Zombie, whose members included:
- Rob - guitar, vocals
- Sean Yseult - bass
- Ena Kostabi - guitar (1985-1986)
- Tim Jeffs - guitar (1986)
- Tom Guay - guitar (1986-1988)
- John Ricci - guitar (1988-1989)
- Jay Noel Yuenger - guitar (1989-1998), always credited as "J."
- Peter Landau - drums (1985-1986)
- Ivan de Prume - drums (1986-1992)
- Phil Buerstatte - drums (1992-1994)
- John Tempesta - drums (1994-1998)
White Zombie (its name taken from a 1932 Bela Lugosi zombie flick of the same name) was initially a Noise Rock band signed to an independent label. In this incarnation, they released two EPs and two albums, Soul-Crusher and Make Them Die Slowly. The latter album showed them moving away somewhat from their noise rock sound in favour of Heavy Metal.
Eventually, once The '90s rolled around, the band signed with Geffen Records, recruited a new guitarist named Jay Noel Yuenger and re-fashioned themselves as a Industrial-influenced Groove Metal band that used lots of samples from old B-movies and trashy, surreal horror-movie aesthetics. This incarnation put out two well-received albums, La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1 and Astro Creep: 2000.
White Zombie disbanded in 1998, and Rob became a borderline solo artist. He still had a full band, though. Its members are:
- John 5 - guitars (formerly of Marilyn Manson)
- Piggy D - bass
- Ginger Fish - drums (also formerly of Marilyn Manson)
- Tommy Clufetos - drums (2005-2010)
- John Tempesta - drums (1994-2003)
- Blasko - bass (1997-2006)
- Riggs - guitar (1997-2003)
He produced his most successful album, Hellbilly Deluxe, in 1998. He followed it up in 2001 with The Sinister Urge. Since then, Rob has divided his attention between his music career and writing, producing, and directing the sort of trashy, B-movie horror films that he loves so much. He attracted a lot of negative attention for his remake of Halloween and its sequel. Riggs and Tempesta, tired of waiting around while Rob worked on films, left the band and started Scum of the Earth, a band whose sound is most similar to Hellbilly Deluxe-era Rob Zombie (Tempesta later split from Scum of the Earth to play drums for The Cult).
Rob's younger brother Michael is also a musician, leading Powerman 5000 under the Stage Name Spider One.
White Zombie discography:
- Soul-Crusher (1987)
- Make Them Die Slowly (1989)
- La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1 (1992)
- Astro Creep: 2000 (1995)
Solo discography:
- Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales Of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside The Spookshow International (1998)
- The Sinister Urge (2001)
- Educated Horses (2006)
- Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool (2010)
- Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor (2013)
- The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser (2016)
- The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy (2021)
Remix compilations:
- American Made Music To Strip By (1999)
- Mondo Sex Head (2012)
Films directed:
- House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
- The Devil's Rejects (2005)
- Grindhouse — "trailer" for Werewolf Women of the SS
- Halloween (2007)
- The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009)
- Halloween II (2009)
- The Lords of Salem (2013)
- 31 (2015)
- 3 from Hell (2019)
- The Munsters (2022)
Comics written:
"Astrope Creep 2000":
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Has sampled dialogue from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Night of the Living Dead (1968) and...the 1960s Batman (1966) series.
- As Himself: Rob Zombie was a playable character in Twisted Metal 4 (a game for which he did most of the music)
- Ballad of X: "The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore". Try and guess if it's actually a ballad.
- Big "YES!": He uses "yeah" A LOT. "Spiderbaby (Yeah-Yeah-Yeah)" is only the tip of the iceberg.
- The Cameo: Ozzy Osbourne sings half of the chorus in "Iron Head." Fitting, as the song got its' name by combining the name of two of Zombie's signature songs (Electric Head) with one of Ozzy's (Iron Man).
- Iggy Pop performs spoken word monologues on "Black Sunshine" and "Soul-Crusher", both from La Sexorcisto - he also appeared in the music video for the former song.
- Continuity Nod: "My Durango 95," first mentioned in "Soul-Crusher" on La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. 1," later resurfaced in "Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)", on Rob's second solo album The Sinister Urge.
- Cool Car: "Black Sunshine", "Dragula".
- Cover Version: KC and the Sunshine Band's "I'm Your Boogieman".
- The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop," for the Tribute Album We're A Happy Family. Crossed with Rearrange the Song since, instead of trying to match the pace of the original (which the Ramones would speed up live), he slowed it down instead.
- The Commodores' "Brick House," with Lionel Richie and the female rapper Trina.
- Grand Funk Railroad "We're an American Band" from 2013's Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor.
- Black Sabbath's "Children of the Grave" for the first Nativity In Black compilation.
- Kiss' "God of Thunder" as a non-album single.
- The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" with Marilyn Manson, released as a non-album single to promote a co-headlining tour.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: White Zombie's early output was aggressive Post-Hardcore, and while Make Them Die Slowly had some burgeoning metal influence, it was still a punk release at the end of the day. It wasn't until La Sexorcisto that their blend of Thrash Metal, Industrial Metal, Hard Rock, and vintage sleaze, kitsch, and exploitation culture had solidified.
- Filk Song: "Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)" is one for A Clockwork Orange, with a few Nadsat words (including one in the title) and a video homaging the movie.
- Friend to All Living Things: He and his wife are vegans and animal rights supporters.
- Gender-Blender Name: Sean Yseult. Deliberate on her part as she wanted to be known for her bass playing rather than her (quite good) looks. Her real name is Shauna Reynolds.
- Greatest Hits Album: Past, Present and Future, combining both White Zombie and his own work.
- Guttural Growler: On most of his songs. He is actually rather soft-spoken otherwise.
- Hidden Track: Several minutes after "Blood, Milk And Sky" from Astro Creep: 2000 fades out, an instrumental officially titled "Where The Sidewalk Ends, the Bug Parade Begins" fades in - though it has its own title, the hidden track feels more like a continuation of the previous song, as though the band kept jamming on the song's riff long after the track faded out.
- I Am a Monster: Sung word for word in "Werewolf, Baby" on Hellbilly Deluxe 2.
- I, Noun: "I, Zombie"
- The Immodest Orgasm: "More Human Than Human" features about 20 seconds of moaning in the intro.
- Intercourse with You: "Pussy Liquor"
- Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanzation of Cool.
- Ominous Pipe Organ: On "Return of the Phantom Stranger" and "Electric Head Pt. 1 (The Agony)
- Premature Encapsulation: The White Zombie album Soul-Crusher came out in 1987, but the song of that name came out in 1992. There's no evidence that the song "Soul-Crusher" was written that early, so it's possible they just reused the title.
- Revenant Zombie: "I, Zombie" would seem to be this:I, zombie cancer raging; I, zombie fascinating
I, zombie crucify; I, zombie do not die
I, zombie kill machine; I, zombie never seen
I, zombie never you; I, zombie coming through
I, zombie duplicating; I, zombie eliminating
I, zombie fucking you; I, zombie never through - Shout-Out:
- His song "The Man Who Laughs" from Hellbilly Deluxe 2 is about... The Man Who Laughs. The rest of his lyrics are full of references to Science Fiction and/or Horror films, to the point that Yseult lampshaded it in an interview when "El Phantasmo and The Chicken Run Blast-O-Rama" was brought up, saying that "You kinda know what it means if you live in Zombie world."
- The music video for "Living Dead Girl" is a three-minute homage to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, with Rob taking on the role of the titular Dr. Caligari.
- Single Stanza Song: "Call of the Zombie," "I, Zombie"
- Stage Names: Rob Zombie, Sean Yseult, J., and almost everyone in the Rob Zombie solo act band.
- Word Salad Lyrics: All the time. From "Thunder Kiss '65":"Well sweet little sista's high in hell cheat'n on a halo
grind in a odyssey holocaust heart kick on tomorrow
breakdown, agony, said "ectasy" in overdrive
she come a riding on the world"- A review of "The Sinister Urge" accused him of getting his lyrics from a random word generator. Yseult, in the same interview, said that when fans asked her what songs meant, her standard reply was "Don't fuckin' ask me, I don't know."
- Word Salad Title: Basically almost all of his albums have a very convoluted title of some sort.
