Album Review

Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration VendorRob Zombie – Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor

Over the past couple of years Rob Zombie has been more active in the music world that he has been in a long time as back in 2011 he embarked on his first UK tour in 12 years and since then he has returned to the UK twice, once for an appearance at the legendary Download festival and the other for his co-headline tour with Marilyn Manson called the Twins Of Evil tour and now he is ready to release his fifth album ‘Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor’ which happens to be his first album in over 3 years.

‘Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor’ is a massive tub thumper of an album it features 12 solid tracks and runs for just under 40minutes, now I thought ‘Hellbilly Deluxe 2’ was a solid album but this just pisses all over it and I put that down to the fact that this is the first Rob Zombie album to feature Ginger Fish and John 5 who have been rocking it out on the live circuit with Rob Zombie for the past couple of years.

The album opens with ‘TeenageNosferatu Pussy’ and straight away you can imagine this being the opening track for future Rob Zombie shows as it has that slow pace feel running through with big chunky riffs and gothic sounds to average things out.

‘Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Supertown’ is the lead single from the album and it opens with a bit of spoken word about how radio has changed people’s lives and quite possible saved their lives, after about 18 seconds of spoken word Rob Zombie comes in with his strong sounding vocals, the song sounds like classic Rob Zombie material and it is clear to see why it was picked as the lead single as you only need to listen to the song once before it becomes stuck in your head.

‘Revelation Revolution’ has the potential to be a future single the song is extremely catchy and has the sound and style which is going to have you busting your groove on the live circuit when Rob Zombie plays it.

‘Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga’ and ‘Rock And Roll (In A Black Hole)’ are easily the strongest sounding tracks on the album, the earlier of the two is a monster of a track which is bound to make for a messy mosh pit when played live as it is such a huge sounding industrial song which an immense chorus that you can’t help but bounce around like a mental case to. The later of the two tracks reminds me very much of everyone’s favourite German industrial metal band Rammstien and the more I hear the song the more I imagine Rammstein rocking out with Christian Flake” Lorenz on his treadmill laying down some killer electronic sounds but as soon as the chorus comes in im brought back to reality as Rob Zombie forcefully shouts his way through the song in a fun energetic way.

Instrumentally one of the best tracks on the album is ‘White Trash Freaks’ where John 5 is let loose to lay down some solid guitar work including some breath taking solo’s which people are going to be talking about for years to come, Ginger Fish also deserves some praise here as he lays down one of the best drum grooves the album has to offer here, vocally the song is strong as Rob Zombies vocals change throughout sounding clean in places and distorted in others as he shouts out about white trash freaks and broken bones. The album closes with the fast paced rocking ‘Trade In Your Guns For A Coffin’ the song is an absolute blast yet it leaves you wanting more as it is so big and fun sounding for a closing track.

These days Rob Zombie is like the master of arts as he always seems to have a couple of projects on the go at once as ‘Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor’ and his latest film ‘Lords Of The Salem’ have a release date that are only weeks apart and I just hope that ‘Lords Of Salem’ is as solid as this album as this is easily one of the best solo albums that Rob Zombie has released so far.

4.5/5

Review by Trigger

 Band Members

Rob Zombie
John 5
Piggy D
Ginger Fish
 Track Listing
1. Teenage Nosferatu Pussy
2. Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Supertown
3. Revelation Revolution
4. Theme For The Rat Vendor
5. Gong Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga
6. Rock And Roll (In A Black Hole)
7. Behold! The Pretty Filthy Creatures
8. White Trash Freaks
9. We're An American Band (GRAND FUNK RAILROAD cover)
10. Lucifer Rising
11. The Girl Who Loved The Monsters
12. Trade In Your Guns For A Coffin
 Band Related Links
Rob Zombie Facebook
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?