No, just unflavored.
2 Out of 5 Stars
The new Rob Zombie
album is a sequel that follows the path of most
sequels. The original was the inspired masterwork, the sequel makes you
wonder why he bothered. Take off the Hellbilly Deluxe
title, and you have a run of the mill metal album. Like Marilyn Manson
and later day Alice Cooper
,
Zombie is falling into a pattern that is easily predictable. "Hellbilly
Deluxe 2" is catchy and rocks hard, but lacks inspiration and
enthusiasm. You have eaten this dinner before, but you know it tasted
better last time.
Like his fascination with tacky horror movies and grand guignol, HD2 seems crammed with winks and smirks aimed at fans of the genre, minus the expanse Zombie's best albums. The songs march along without the punching energy that fueled songs like "Dragula" or "More Human Than Human." The distilling of the influences is little more than copies of his better work. Guitarist John 5 is back to wailing industrial leads and powerful chording, but little propulsion. "Werewolf Baby" has the closest thing to Zombie's old drive, but the lyrics are poor. There's way too many lyrics that now come off as cartoonish (again, shades of latter day Cooper) like "Werewolf Women of The SS" or "Jesus Frankenstein."
There are two moments that show Rob Zombie may yet crack the mold he made for himself; "Jesus Frankenstein" has an interesting opening before it turns into a generic rock plodder, and "The Man Who Laughs" has a solid, epic feel to it as the album's closing number. For the most part, however, "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" pales in comparison to even his experimental Educated Horses
. This is metal painted by numbers; Zombie has recently said it will be his last album. Perhaps he sees the writing on the wall.
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