A
fter listening to Scum of the Earth’s third album, The Devil Made Me Do It, the overwhelming urge to call out ex-Rob Zombie guitarist Riggs for his shameless cribbing consumes
me. The familiarity of the danceable horror rock aside, the cover art – an amateurish illustration of the SotE frontman (see inset) – is cause for RM’s Dave Alexander to note that it looks like a Russian bootleg of one of Zombie’s albums. Hell, even the band name is taken from a song on the 2001 RZ disc The Sinister Urge. After ringing Riggs at his lakeside home in Branson, Missouri, he
instantly disarms me with his utter lack of pretense. He’s cool, laid back – a guy with whom you could knock back a beer or seven. Stick- ing to my plan, though, I warm him up with some questions about the tattoo shop he started up there a few years ago (Riggs’ Monster Tattoo) and the challenges of making the Devil’s music from the Bible Belt (“I think this is where they program [religious zealots] and send them out,” he says jokingly), before going in for the kill.
So, I say, I think I
liked your new album better the first time I heard it… back when it was performed by Rob Zombie. “People compare it
to Zombie but if you listen to his stuff after I left the band, it does- n’t sound like Zombie sounds anymore,” he offers. “I’ve always done this. When I got
into the band with Rob, none of it sounded like White Zombie and everybody was pissed at first. Then he got really popular, I went and did my own thing, and then it’s all, ‘Oh, you’re ripping that off.’ I mean, if I was going to rip something off, I think I’d rip off the Beatles or Michael Jackson or something I could make a lot of money off of.” Well, okay: seeing as how Riggs was Zombie’s guitarist from 1997
to 2003, I guess I could be underestimating his contribution to those early Zombie solo albums. The guitarist explains that SotE formed when, in 2004, Zombie announced that he’d turned exclusively to film- making for the foreseeable future, right before committing to a slot at 2005’s Ozzfest. “He said he didn’t want to do Ozzfest because he was working on
[The Devil’s Rejects],” recalls Riggs. “Then he ended up doing it using [ex-Marilyn Manson guitarist] John 5, and I’m like, ‘Why the hell are you using John 5?’ And he said he thought it sounded better than when I was in the band. [Laughs]” Ouch. That’s just plain cold. But what about that album art? I know
you can’t help the way you look but you can’t be serious with that Zombie sloppelgänger. “Originally, the record was called Zombie Apocalypse and the cover
had a big zombie head just screaming at you when you’re looking at it. But people didn’t like it! They thought it looked like a death metal album cover … and so it got changed at the last minute.” Sigh... will Scum of the Earth ever get out of the shadow of a gi-
gantic zombie head? Give The Devil Made Me Do It (out now from Goomba Music/eOne) a whirl and decide for yourself. So mote it be.
TREVOR TUMINSKI RM 66 A U D I O D R O M E
GRAVE Endless Procession of Souls
METAL
CENTURY MEDIA After almost 25 years, most death metal bands would’ve called it quits, or at least eased up on the brutality. The tenth
and “Bring Us Hell” show that, even though Calabrese toils with the standard tools of the horror-rock trade (mildly Danzigian singing, woah-oh backing vo- cals), they put ’em to work so much more effectively than their peers. Calling themselves “the world’s greatest horror rock band” is a bold claim, but the brothers Calabrese have clearly sweat blood crafting these thirteen coffin-tight dust-ups. RM 0000
ROB ZOMBIE Mondo Sex Head
ELECTRONICA
UNIVERSAL Rob Zombie... electronica? Yup, the original hillbilly edges onto the dance floor with this remix collection commis- sioned specifically to get rumps shakin’ in da clubs. But unlike White Zombie’s Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds (1996), this stop-gap release coinciding with this fall’s Twins of Evil tour (co-head- lined by Zombie and Marilyn Manson) isn’t a lifeless cash grab. Most of these overhauls – culled from throughout the demonoid phenomenon’s discography – hardly resemble his hard rock incan- tations. Ki:Theory revamps lesser sin- gle “Foxy Foxy” into a sexy slink that is the set’s crown jewel, the Bloody Beet- roots’ screamy throwdown on “Burn” is a new monster of their own design and ††† (a.k.a. Deftones’ Chino Moreno) retrofits “Dragula” with ’80s sci-fi atmosphere. Others, such as Photek’s pulsing reimagining of “Living Dead Girl” and Document One’s annoy- ing “Let it All Bleed Out,” don’t retain enough of the original’s essence to be relevant. But at the end of the night, Zombie fans will want these altered tracks ringing in their ears. TT 0000
studio album by Sweden’s Grave is ev- idence to the contrary, however, arriving with a crackling intensity and vibrant execution. Songs such as “Passion of the Weak” and “Perimortem” may not reinvent the wheel when it comes to one-two drumming and chainsaw gui- tars, but that’s because sole founding member Ola Lindgren (guitars, vocals) knows growling through yet another campaign of hyper-aggressive, blasting destruction is deadlier than evolution at this juncture in the band’s lengthy resi- dency. Grave has never been the fastest in its class – which includes fellow Sverige-style legends Entombed, Un- leashed and Dismember – and the band uses this churning, steamroller heavi- ness to its advantage here, balancing burly breakdowns and roiling riffs. Grave may have experimented with groovier ideas during the ’90s, but Endless Pro- cession is an intense reminder of why, when it comes to death metal, Sweden simply does it better. GP 0000
THE FORSAKEN Beyond Redemption
METAL
MASSACRE RECORDS Sweden’s The Forsaken slammed into Rue Morgue back in 2001 with its im- pressive debut Manifest of Hate (RM#20), and with two more releases immediately following, the band was well on its way to becoming one of the most prolific acts in the business. In- stead, everything went quiet until they were more or less forgotten. Ten years later, they’ve mysteriously returned from the dead, with new guitarist Calle Fäldt replacing founding member Stefan Holm. Despite the lineup change and lost years, The Forsaken doesn’t miss a blast beat on Beyond Redemption, pick- ing up right where it left off with a healthy dose of thrash-infused melodic death metal that’s steeped in technical proficiency. The band still has that same problem of never really doing anything to elevate itself beyond its influences or contemporaries, though. Sounding a lit- tle like At the Gates and a lighter version of Bloodbath, none of the songs stand out sharply enough to make this disc very memorable. But make no mistake: The Forsaken are trying to rock as hard as Satan himself – the band just hasn’t quite taken that next step into Hell. AVL 000
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