Rob Zombie - Educated Horses (Geffen Records)

Wasn't expecting much from Mr Zombies latest effort, in fact I was expecting more of the same horror movie inspired rock'n'roll industrial shennanigans.

WRONG!

Just looking at the cover artwork maybe shows that we can maybe expect a different form of zombie music this time around. No death paint, blood, corpses or the like. He is Au Natural and in moody black and white photograph.

What I found upon listening is a more mature Rob, with some well written pieces of music that are haunting and beautiful, but he hasn't missed out on the jump around floor fillers either.

Force of habit tends to make me listen to songs from a DJ's perspective; what will this work with, what can I follow / preceed it with. R.Z has made this task a little easier by offering a varied range of styles on this album. Songs like 17 Year Locust and Death of it All easily able to sit alongside the slower bands like Tool and Kyuss; and songs like American Witch and Let it All Bleed Out easily slotting into the marilyn manson, rammstien dancier sets.

One stand out track is The Scorpion Sleeps. Imagine T-Rex, Slade, and Sweet doing a tribute album to White Zombie......just imagine!

All in all we a see a much more grown up effort here from him, with influences coming from a variety of sources.

If I had to mark the album out of 10, I'd give it 8. It;s not as good as his White Zombie days, but at last he is starting to produce something which is a little less copycat than his previous two efforts.

thumbs up fae me!

Col