White Zombie was an American heavy metal band that formed in 1985. Based in New York City, they started as a noise rock band, releasing three EPs and one studio album in that style before changing to a heavy metal-oriented sound that broke them into the mainstream. The albums La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One (1992) and Astro-Creep: 2000 (1995) established them as an influential act in groove metal and industrial metal, respectively. Their best-known songs include "Thunder Kiss '65", "Black Sunshine" and "More Human than Human". The group officially disbanded in 1998. In 2000, White Zombie was included on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, ranking at No. 56.[1] As of October 2010, the band has sold six million albums, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[2]
Early career, name, and independent releases (1985–1986)
White Zombie was co-founded by Rob Zombie, after coming up with the band idea in 1985 while attending Parsons School of Design in his junior year. Zombie named the band after a 1932 horror movie starring Bela Lugosi called White Zombie, considered the first true zombie movie (the movie title was also the source for Rob Zombie's stage name, as he was born Robert Cummings).[3][4]
Zombie's girlfriend at the time, Sean Yseult, was the other co-founder. She had been playing the Farfisa keyboard in the band Life with Ivan de Prume, but the band soon broke up. Ena Kostabi owned a recording studio, which he would rent out to different bands. When he met Yseult, she asked if he could teach her to play bass. They then recruited Peter Landau to play drums and began to write and record songs. White Zombie's first release, Gods on Voodoo Moon, was an EP and was recorded on October 18, 1985. It was released under the band's label Silent Explosion, where they would release most of their early work. Only 300 copies were pressed, of which only 100 were sold; the band members still retain possession of the remaining 200.[citation needed]
In 1986, Zombie hired Tim Jeffs, his Parsons School of Design roommate, to play guitar to replace Ena Kostabi, and Yseult brought in de Prume from their days in the band LIFE as the replacement for Landau. The band made their live performance debut at CBGB on April 28, 1986, and started touring.[5][6] White Zombie released their second EP, Pig Heaven, that year. The release contained two songs, "Pig Heaven" and "Slaughter the Grey". The EP was recorded at 6/8 Studios in NoHo in New York City. Other songs that were recorded during the session but never released were titled "Follow Wild", "Rain Insane", "Paradise Fireball", and "Red River Flow". After touring for a year in the band, Tim Jeffs left and was replaced by Tom Guay, often known as Tom Five. The band released a second pressing of Pig Heaven with different cover art, but retained the same recording with Jeffs on guitar. Only 500 copies of each pressing were released on vinyl.
First two albums (1987–1990)
In 1987, the band released their third EP, Psycho-Head Blowout.[7] Later that year, the band released their first full-length album, Soul-Crusher, which was their first release to feature sound clips from movies in the songs,[7] a signature that would continue for the remainder of the band's lifespan.[8]
In 1988, the band signed to Caroline Records, permanently discontinuing their own indie label. After completing their first U.S. tour in June 1988, Tom Guay was asked to leave the band.[7] He was replaced by John Ricci in July 1988.[9] Their second album, Make Them Die Slowly, was released in February 1989.[8] The album was a musical shift for White Zombie. While their previous releases had been strictly punk-influenced noise rock, Make Them Die Slowly has demonstrably more of a heavy metal sound.[7] This is also the first album crediting "Rob Zombie" instead of his previous stage name, "Rob 'Dirt' Straker".
Ricci's carpal tunnel syndrome severely affected his ability to play guitar, forcing him to leave the band when Make Them Die Slowly was finished.[7]Jay "J" Yuenger replaced him before the album's release, affecting their future sound.[10] One of the most obvious examples of this direction is the difference between the songs "Disaster Blaster" on Make Them Die Slowly and the re-worked version, "Disaster Blaster II", on the God of Thunder EP.[citation needed]
Major label years, mainstream success, and breakup (1991–1998)
After searching for a record label and being turned down multiple times, the band turned toward RCA Records. However, Zombie opted for a recording contract with Geffen Records. Michael Alago, a representative of Geffen, became interested after hearing God of Thunder and watched one of their shows at Pyramid Club and liked them, mostly for their song "Soul-Crusher". The band produced a demo with the help of J. G. Thirlwell of Foetus and were signed to Geffen.[11]
On March 17, 1992, White Zombie released La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One, the album which launched them into mainstream recognition.[7] The band supported La Sexorcisto with a two-and-a-half-year-long tour,[7] which saw them performing with numerous bands such as Pantera, Danzig, Kyuss, Testament, Megadeth, Sepultura, Suicidal Tendencies, Anthrax, Quicksand, Monster Magnet, Nudeswirl, Prong and The Obsessed.[12] During the tour, Ivan de Prume left the band to pursue a successful career as a producer/engineer as well as drummer/percussionist and opened his own studio, Burningsound. He was replaced by Phil Buerstatte. The music videos for the songs "Thunder Kiss '65", "Black Sunshine" and "Welcome to Planet Motherfucker/Psychoholic Slag" (censored as "Welcome to Planet M.F.") went into regular rotation on MTV's Headbangers Ball,[13] while each music video was featured on the TV show Beavis and Butt-head.[7] This boosted the band's popularity, and led to La Sexorcisto selling over two-million copies in the U.S. alone.[8][14] During this period, White Zombie had recorded several songs for movie soundtracks and various artists compilation albums, including "Feed the Gods" for the soundtrack to Airheads, "I Am Hell" for the Beavis and Butt-Head Experience compilation album and a cover version of Black Sabbath's "Children of the Grave", which appears on the tribute album Nativity in Black; each of these songs received airplay on active rock radio stations,[15] while a music video "Feed the Gods" was released.[13]
By the time White Zombie entered the studio in late 1994 to begin recording their fourth album, Zombie and Yseult had ended their relationship, and Buerstatte was dismissed from the band, due to artistic differences; he was replaced by former Exodus and Testament drummer John Tempesta.[8] In 1995, Astro-Creep: 2000 was released, which featured a more industrial sound and included the hit single "More Human than Human".[7] The album was another success for the band, debuting at number six on the Billboard 200 (White Zombie's highest-ever chart position), and within a year after its release, it was certified double platinum by the RIAA.[14] To support Astro Creep 2000, the band toured non-stop for approximately fifteen months, playing with a wide variety of acts such as Metallica, Soundgarden, the Ramones, the Melvins, The Reverend Horton Heat, Babes in Toyland, Kyuss, Filter, Everclear, the Toadies, CIV and Pennywise.[12] In the summer of 1996, White Zombie played its final dates, co-headlining a North American tour with Pantera.[12]
Also in 1996, an album of remixes was released under the title Supersexy Swingin' Sounds. After making one last song for the film Beavis and Butt-head Do America, titled "Ratfinks, Suicide Tanks and Cannibal Girls", White Zombie broke up in September 1998.[8]
After disbanding (Since 1998)
After the breakup of White Zombie, Sean Yseult released her first album with surf rock band The Famous Monsters, having started the band in between Zombie tours. She also started playing bass for horror-themed New Orleans–based band, Rock City Morgue, and briefly played bass for The Cramps.
Tempesta continued his musical relationship with Zombie, drumming for him on his first two solo albums, Hellbilly Deluxe and The Sinister Urge. After leaving the Zombie touring band, Tempesta went on to play for Scum of the Earth. Tempesta has toured with Testament (as shown on Testament's DVD, Live In London). On February 14, 2006, he was hired as the permanent drummer for The Cult, after a brief stint with Helmet.
In July 2006, original members Tom Five and de Prume reunited to perform with de Prume's band, Healer, a middle eastern infused metal band, for several concerts in Southern California for The Vans Warped Tour.[16] De Prume continues to write and record music with Healer, as well as recording, producing and engineering for special projects in his studio, Burningsound. His drums and percussion work can also be heard on Sony's "Ghost Rider" score. In 2009, de Prume began hosting the weekly radio show, "Metalopolis". His studio guests have included Rob Halford, Dave Mustaine, Max Cavalera, Vinnie Paul and Tom Araya. De Prume is also a member of the band KREEP, and has completed a West Coast tour in spring 2010, and is planning an East Coast tour in fall 2010.
In November 2008, Geffen/UME released Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, a boxed set which includes sixty four tracks featuring every White Zombie album and EP (except the remix albums), all remastered. The package also contained nine music videos (including their breakthrough Grammy-nominated hit "Thunder Kiss '65"), and ten live performances. In an interview[17] to promote the release of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, Zombie made it clear that a reunion with his White Zombie bandmates was unlikely, saying, "I don't want fans to think it's the beginning of anything."
In December 2010 Yseult released I'm in the Band, a book containing tour diaries and photos as well as detailing her eleven years spent as a member of White Zombie.[18][19]
Since the breakup of White Zombie, Rob Zombie has shown little interest in reforming the band. In June 2011, in an interview with Metal Hammer magazine, he was asked why White Zombie split up, to which he replied: "It had run its course. Success is a big thing that you can never plan for, because it affects everybody differently. I don't want to blame myself or anyone else in the band — it's just that the band didn't work anymore. Rather than continuing on and making shitty records and having it all fall apart, I thought: 'Let's just end it on a high point.'" Zombie also stated earlier in 2011 that a White Zombie reunion would never happen and he had not been in contact with any members of the band "except John Tempesta in about 15 years."[20] In 2018, Yseult mirrored his comments, saying that, in regards to the breakup, "[she] was definitely ready for [the band] to be over with", and that she stayed in touch with most other band members aside from Zombie.[21]
In May 2013, former drummer Phil Buerstatte died.[22] Shortly after his death, he was impersonated by con-artist Loren Dean Breckenridge III. Breckenridge was previously accused of defrauding rehab centers across the nation, and repeatedly impersonating character actor Loren Dean.[23]
In a November 2015 interview with Artisan News, Yseult stated that a White Zombie vinyl box set was due for release in 2016.[24] On February 16, 2016, It Came from N.Y.C. was confirmed for a June 3 release via the Numero Group. The vinyl box set contains remastered versions of all the pre-Geffen Records material (including unreleased tracks) on 5 LPs/3 CDs, a 108-page colored booklet complete with liner notes and rare photos, a discography, and a shirtography.
On May 18, 2016, Riot Fest released their lineups and it was revealed that Rob Zombie would be performing Astro-Creep: 2000 in its entirety at the Chicago weekend.[25] This sparked a swirl of speculation, coupled with the recently reunited Misfits, that a White Zombie reunion would also be occurring at the festival. When asked in September 2016 about his refusal to reform White Zombie, Rob replied, "[I am] always amazed at how people can speak with such authority on subjects they know zero about. I have many legit reasons. Just because you don't know them does not mean they don't exist. Everything is not everybody's business."[26] Guitarist J. said, however, that he and bassist Sean Yseult could do an "Astro Creep, 'more original members' tour", and added that they "joke about it sometimes".[27] On May 22, 2017, Rob posted a short snippet of audio, to his Instagram account, of a live recording of the White Zombie song "Electric Head Part 2", with a comment stating he was in the process of mixing the Astro Creep 2000 live set from the Chicago date of the 2016 Riot Fest.
Musical style
White Zombie initially emerged from New York City's noise rock scene.[28] They were considered a New York Underground band.[29] The introduction of Jay Noel Yuenger into the band, according to AllMusic's Greg Prato, "helped toughen up the band's sound even further -- inching closer to a heavy metal band more than ever before".[29] White Zombie changed their style from noise rock to a groove metal sound,[28] and would come to be associated with the alternative metal scene of the 1990s.[30][31][32] Rob Zombie was also introducing elements of industrial rock into the band's sound, making White Zombie "one of the few hard rock bands of the era that you could also dance to."[29] The LA Weekly placed White Zombie within the nu metal scene and said that the band's "whirling rhythms driving dance-rock ragers" helped the band stand out.[33]MTV described the band as "horror rock" and a "horror obsessed industrial-metal band".[34] White Zombie fused "B-horror movie visuals and subject matter with heavy music and growled vocals", according to AllMusic's Greg Prato,[29]AllMusic's Bradley Torreano, reviewing the album Soul Crusher, wrote that Rob Zombie's "wonderfully phantasmagoric lyrics blend bizarre phrases and unique rhymes".[35]
Astro-Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head, known more commonly as Astro-Creep 2000 is the fourth and final studio album by American heavy metal band White Zombie, released on April 11, 1995, by Geffen Records. The album proved to be their most commercially successful recording, peaking at number six on the Billboard 200 with the aid of the popular hit singles "More Human than Human" and "Super-Charger Heaven". It was the band's only studio album to feature John Tempesta on drums.
Rob Zombie is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and actor. His music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live shows have been praised for their elaborate shock rock theatricality. He has sold an estimated 15 million albums worldwide. He rose to fame as a founding member and the frontman of heavy metal band White Zombie, with whom he released four albums.
John Tempesta is an American drummer known for his work in hard rock and heavy metal. He has been a member of British band the Cult since 2006. He is the brother of guitarist Mike Tempesta, who also had worked together in several projects.
Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside the Spookshow International is the debut solo studio album by American musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie. The album serves as his first release outside of the band White Zombie, with whom he released two multi-platinum studio albums. Hellbilly Deluxe was released on August 25, 1998, through Geffen Records. Musically, the project portrays Zombie's love for classic horror films with heavy metal and electronic music. The album's lyrics speak of murder, chaos, and supernatural forces. The majority of Hellbilly Deluxe was recorded in California, and was produced by both Zombie and Scott Humphrey; Zombie is credited as the sole writer on all of the songs.
La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One is the third studio album by American heavy metal band White Zombie, released on March 30, 1992, through Geffen Records. The album marked a major artistic and commercial turning point for the band. After the recruitment of guitarist Jay Noel Yuenger, White Zombie was able to successfully embrace the metal sound they had pursued since Make Them Die Slowly (1989), while incorporating groove-based elements into their sound as they evolved away from their roots in punk rock and noise rock. The album was the band's last to feature drummer Ivan de Prume.
Groove metal, sometimes also called neo-thrash or post-thrash, is a subgenre of heavy metal music that began in the early 1990s. The genre is primarily derived from thrash metal, but played in slower tempos, and making use of rhythmic guitar parts. It was pioneered in the late 1980s by groups like Exhorder, Prong and the Bad Brains, and then popularized by the commercial success of Pantera, White Zombie, Machine Head and Sepultura. The genre went on to be influential in the development of the new wave of American heavy metal, nu metal and metalcore, and continued to gain traction in the 2000s with Lamb of God, DevilDriver and Five Finger Death Punch, and 2010s with Killer Be Killed and Bad Wolves.
Sean Yseult is an American rock musician who currently plays bass guitar in the band Star & Dagger. She has played various instruments with different bands since the mid-1980s, and is best known for playing bass in White Zombie.
The Sinister Urge is the second solo studio album by American musician Rob Zombie. The album is the follow-up to his highly successful debut album Hellbilly Deluxe, released in 1998. The album was released by Geffen Records on November 13, 2001, more than three years after the release of his first album. The album's title is named after the 1960 crime drama film The Sinister Urge, directed and written by Ed Wood. Much like his previous effort, The Sinister Urge features elements of horror film and suspense in both its lyrical content and its music. Zombie also features a change of sound in several songs on the album when compared to Hellbilly, with songs such as "Never Gonna Stop " featuring a more dance-influenced beat.
Supersexy Swingin' Sounds is a remix album by White Zombie. It was released through Geffen Records in 1996 and was the band's final release. The album consists of remixes of tracks from their previous release, Astro Creep 2000, except "I'm Your Boogie Man" by KC and the Sunshine Band.
Make Them Die Slowly is the second studio album by American rock band White Zombie, released on March 22, 1989, by Caroline Records. It is named after the 1981 horror film Cannibal Ferox, which was originally released in the US as Make Them Die Slowly. There is a printing error on the CD's side saying "Let Them Die Slowly" instead of the album's correct title. Produced by composer Bill Laswell and featuring John Ricci on guitar, the album represented a transition from the noise rock influenced sound of White Zombie's previous releases to heavy metal, which informed much of their later work.
Soul-Crusher is the debut studio album by American rock band White Zombie, released independently in November 1987 by Silent Explosion. It was the band's second and final release with Tom "Five" Guay on guitar. Building off the sound established on Psycho-Head Blowout, the band matured its sound while placing further emphasis on the individual roles of its players. The album caught the attention of major labels and in 1988 was adopted and re-issued by Caroline Records.
God of Thunder is an EP by White Zombie which was released in 1989 by Caroline Records. It was the band's first release with Jay Yuenger on guitar. EP contains "God of Thunder", originally a Kiss song from their 1976 album Destroyer, and "Disaster Blaster II", a reworked version of "Disaster Blaster" from their 1989 album Make Them Die Slowly.
Pig Heaven/Slaughter the Grey is the second EP by American rock band White Zombie, independently released in May 1986. Two different pressings of this album were created, both of which were limited to 500 copies each. By this time, drummer Peter Landau was replaced by Ivan de Prume, who would remain with the band until Astro-Creep: 2000, and guitarist Paul "Ena" Kostabi by Tim Jeffs.
"Thunder Kiss '65" is a song by American heavy metal band White Zombie, released in 1992 from the band's third studio album, La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One (1992). The song was released as their first official single and was later included on compilations, such as Rob Zombie's Past, Present & Future (2003) and The Best of Rob Zombie (2006).
American Made Music to Strip By is the first remix album released by American musician Rob Zombie. The album was released through Geffen Records on October 26, 1999. It is composed entirely of remixes of songs taken from Zombie's debut studio album, Hellbilly Deluxe (1998). Zombie worked with a number of musicians and producers to create updated versions of the songs, including Charlie Clouser, who had previously worked with Zombie on his debut solo effort. Ten of the original album's songs have been remixed, excluding three instrumental interludes. Two of the remixes featured on American Made Music to Strip By had previously been released on promotional discs for "Dragula" (1998) and "Living Dead Girl" (1999).
Psycho-Head Blowout is the third EP by American rock band White Zombie, released in May 1987 by Silent Explosion. The album was recorded with producer and composer Kramer and was the band's first to feature guitarist Tom Guay, who had a pivotal influence on the band's sound. It was also the debut release of the band's short-lived label Silent Explosion. The record was the band's first release to receive critical notice and garnered them notice in underground circles.
Jay Noel Yuenger also known by the stage name "J.", is an American rock guitarist best known for his work with heavy metal band White Zombie.
"Children of the Grave" is a song by English rock band Black Sabbath, from their 1971 album Master of Reality. The song lyrically continues with the same anti-war themes brought on by "War Pigs" and "Electric Funeral" from the band's previous album Paranoid.
Zombie Kiss is a live EP by the band White Zombie.
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