It’s almost time for me to see Rob in concert with Alice Cooper so I thought now would be a good time to give another one of this albums a listen and share my thoughts, so why not do that with the latest one. I must say it took me a while to write this as well as some procrastination because it turns out it definitely does not exceed the success as the two previous albums I covered but here it is nonetheless.
Expanding the Head of Zed
I can imagine this being used in the trailer or intro of a psychological horror film and who knows, maybe that’s what Rob was aiming for in this track. All I can picture is someone strapped down and having some weird brain surgery against their will before diving into the core of this album.
Is that crazy or what?
The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition)
What a riff! This almost sounds like it has a touch of power metal to it, it’s like Doviculus fighting in an arena in Hell against demons who are pitted against him. You know, I was quite happy when playing that game to see that Rob is his favourite artist! He battles his enemies and lets out that deep evil laughter.
A good song, except for its outro but I suppose I’ll be forgiving since it’s brief before what follows.
The Ballad of Sleazy Rider
I wouldn’t call this a ballad but I love the guitar solos in it! I can tell Rob had fun with this one, he really pours it out to make the title misleading and then it jumps into something really heavy.
But I should have expected it. Ever noticed one thing that is inserted a lot in his music is background noise of people speaking like over the radio, to make the song cinematic in a way? It still works with the sound he’s going for. I didn’t think about it too much until now. A good song that I clearly underestimated.
Hovering Over the Dull Earth
What a very distorted interlude, it’s like a starship in interstellar travel or something. I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s so weird like it’s just there to get us pumped up or something for the next song whether we like that next song or not.
Shadow of the Cemetery Man
Very psychedelic, though I was expecting something heavier out of this one. It didn’t feel like rock or the mixture of the horror elements to me, so that’s a miss from me.
Sometimes there are those songs that make me go “Uh… what was he thinking?”
A Brief Static Hum and Then the Radio Blared
Another intermission here, it has a nice sound to it at first and then it has a bit of creepiness to it. Can’t have these without a narration either.
18th-Century Cannibals, Excitable Morlocks and a One-Way Ticket on the Ghost Train
Okay this one is very experimental and I did not like the acoustic sound to it. This is not off to the best start I tell you. But this is what I get for doing these album reviews, sometimes there will be duds, sometimes even a lot of them. But this was just like what the fuck, except for the chorus, that part was decent, but the rest was meh.
The Eternal Struggles of the Howling Man
Now that’s eerie, it reminds me of a classic song from Hellbilly Deluxe that gets overlooked. Back to the heavy stuff, now we’re talking. It’s a cool heavy track. Not perfect but it once again has that very psychedelic feel to it and actually, it’s better in this one.
The Much Talked of Metamorphosis
I didn’t think ballads could work with this, but this is actually beautiful. It’s not something I would expect from Rob but I’m still new to his discography and one thing is certain now, he’s always getting experimental. I do see why some fans say he should just stick to the sound he had with his most successful solo albums and what he did with White Zombie (also something I want to listen to more of). Anyway, lovely little instrumental ballad right here.
The Satanic Rites of Blacula
That drumroll correction made me laugh a bit, but hey, the riff is cool in this one. This is a pretty cool dark track, short but heavy so hey, I can’t complain here. This sounds very much like the classic sound Rob goes for which is what I wish he stuck to in this album.
Shower of Stones
Another rather crazy interlude, I don’t think the sound really goes with the title. Are you attempting to mislead me, Rob? I don’t what to say here but at least the best song comes afterward.
Shake Your Ass/Smoke Your Grass
I love this one, it’s so catchy and my guilty pleasure at the same time and I think it’s because I love the beat and the riffs it has. It’s like a party song with some political-themed lyrics, but I don’t give a damn. If you watch the music video, it’s got a lot of NSFW content but the art is still good nonetheless. I have no interest in shaking my ass or smoking grass (assuming that’s weed) but I still love grooving to this one my own way.
It would be great to hear this one live so my fingers are crossed when I see him live. I just love dancing to it!
Boom-Boom-Boom
Once again unexpected, I thought I was going to get something faster than this. Maybe I’m still getting used to what Rob does, or I went into listening to this album with my expectations set too high. It’s not a bad song, this one. It’s creepy sounding, to be honest in its own way.
When it gets to the chorus, that’s when it started to grow on me. Who says a song with a title like this always has to be fast and heavy? It can be something else too, so hey not bad.
What You Gonna Do with That Gun Mamma?
This could be a good title for a horror film like Goodnight Mommy I saw a few months back. It sounds like something that builds up suspicion in a weird way but that’s all I have to really say. He continues to surprise me.
Get Loose
We all need to get loose sometimes because we spend so much time under stress about things in life. This one sounds like another one with a classic sound and with a mixture of something experimental. I’m beginning to speculate that this is a core feature in industrial metal or it’s just Rob doing whatever he feels like.
Decent track, nothing special.
The Serenity of Witches
Another interlude and the last one of this album’s quite long duration. It’s creepy and typical so yeah it gives us one last thing to build up the final song. It seems kind of on the soft side so I’m not fond of it, but hey whatever, there’s other stuff to enjoy on this album.
Crow Killer Blues
Then it jumps right into our final track which has a heavy opening. Also, it’s the longest track on this album as everything else was under three minutes. This one is pretty good and it reminds me of something Lordi put out in 2013 which I liked more than I thought.
Pretty solid song to conclude this album. It’s definitely not a blues track for sure! But the last part of it kind of sucks.
So here’s my final verdict, it’s an album that’s quite long and I feel like it didn’t need to be with a lot of weird songs with long names that I don’t think a lot of people would remember. It has some good songs here and there while some of them again, had me thinking, “What the hell is that?” I’m seeing Rob live in less than two weeks and I don’t believe he’ll do a lot of songs from this album, except for my absolute favourite. It’s an okay album but I think he’s done better than this.
My favourites are:
The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition)
The Ballad of Sleazy Rider
The Eternal Struggles of the Howling Man
The Much Talked Of Metamorphosis
Shake Your Ass-Smoke Your Grass
Boom-Boom-Boom
Crow Killer Blues
👽Emily
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