Soul Crusher

by Bradley TorreanoRabid horror flick fan Rob Zombie was still calling himself Rob Straker when he made this chunk of New York City noise. Taking what was a rather typical obsession with old horror films at this place and time (there was a whole bunch of bands with the same gimmick, but none of them survived to become the kings of the genre), Zombie was making noise along the lines of Pussy Galore or Scratch Acid at the time. His wonderfully phantasmagoric lyrics blend bizarre phrases and unique rhymes to deliver what might be their most interesting album in terms of subject matter. The music is not quite there yet, but the elements that would make them so successful in the '90s are apparent here. Most importantly, the chugging guitars and Night of the Living Dead quotes of "Ratmouth" point directly to La Sexorcisto. Sure, it would take them almost five years to figure out that this is what they did best, but the rest of the sludge here is at least acidic enough to compare favorably to the rest of the New York noise scene at the time. The funniest part is listening to little Rob Zombie trying to ape Henry Rollins and Steve Albini, but instead sounding like an angry art-college student. Which was essentially what he was, as his endearingly campy artwork on the inside cover attests to. Although the album is next to impossible to find, it is a prime slab of noise rock that has aged shockingly well. Zombie fans might not even like this that much, but no less of an authority than Kurt Cobain himself pointed to this period in their career as one of his biggest influences.