Review : Dan Maynard
It’s been a long gruelling 5 years since our last dose of Rob Zombie and boy has a lot happened since 2016. Donald Trump has been and gone as the President of the United States, the Me too movement took the world by storm, we saw monkey riots in Thailand, Beyonce had a baby, and of course….Covid. In such a tragic world, it felt emptier and quieter without our beloved Rob belting out those oh so familiar vocals melodies. But have no fear, our horror fuelled rock n roll king has returned with a cracker of an album. I was lucky enough to have the chance to sit down and listen to it, more than once.
The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy marks the seventh instalment in Rob Zombie‘s 23-year solo career. After the spine chilling intro Expanding the Head of Zed, we’re led into the album with none other than the easily recognisable sounds of John 5, metal slide wrapped around the ring finger, caressing the fretboard and making us feel right at home. Ginger Fish comes blasting in with that huge tom sound that he’s so well known for which brings us to the big bang, the opening line to The Triumph of King Freak comes roaring down the speakers….” King Freak gathering the brains of hyenas!!”. Between the explosive noise of the band and the giant roar of Rob’s vocals, the opening track already has your face torn from your skull and plastered to the once clean walls behind you right from the get-go.
The opening track is nothing less than astonishing. It lends nostalgia to the listener, it just feels right and it’s the perfect lead in to what will be an album that is (and apologies for repeating myself) nothing less than astonishing.
The Lunar Injection is straight-up what a Rob Zombie album should be. It entails all the traits, all the sounds and all the perfect noises that make a Zombie album a “Zombie” album. Tracks like The Ballad of Sleazy Rider, Shadow of the Cemetery Man and the mind-blowing closing track Get Loose give us that heavy hard-hitting sound, 18th Century Cannibal, Excitable Morlocks and a One Way Ticket On the Ghost Train brings the delightful weirdness that he loves to throw in the mix and John 5 makes sure he ties the album together with some quirky eccentric instrumentals in between.
Rob and team Zombie haven’t lost their touch. They still sound as big as ever, they’re still releasing solid gold and they’re likely not going to stop anytime soon. Hopefully, for the love of all things evil and loud, we don’t have to wait another 5 years for the next one. Or at least not have that 5 years repeat itself.
But for now, grab yourself a goblet of blood, red wine, Coke no sugar, whatever might be your poison, probably just not literal poison and crank the absolute fuck out of this album. Listen to it from start to finish. Don’t look back. Embrace what our king has handed us and then repeat.
Pre-order The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy via iTunes HERE.
Out March 12 through Nuclear Blast Records
