A Comparison of the Metal Bands Rob Zombie and White Zombie

[themetalhead]

DISCLAIMER: For those who are reading this and have never heard of White Zombie, don't think the name is a racial thing. The name originated from a very old horror movie.

Soooo... Rob Zombie and White Zombie. Are they the same thing? Not exactly. First off, White Zombie was the first one out of the two. The band was created by Rob Zombie and Sean Yseult (the female bassist pictured in first photo above). They became known as more of an underground band at first, their music was infused with punk and noise rock style. Their earliest indie release was "Gods on Voodoo Moon" (1985), followed by 1986's "Pig Heaven" and "Psycho-Head Blowout". These are some of the albums that had more of that underground style.

Their sound (and band lineup) changed some by the time the albums "La Sexorcisto: Devil music Vol. 1" (and vol.2), was released, along with the album that later was released, "Astro Creep 2000: songs of love, destruction, and other synthetic delusions of the Electric Head" (boy what a mouthful to say!). The later albums like these included more of a groove metal sound along with psychedelic rock influence a bit, but they never truly got rid of their punk influences. Their songs were all about utter weirdness. In pretty much all songs, except covers, the lyrics didn't make much sense, but it could easily go randomly from something about everyday life to (barely a second later) sinful, sinister things. Their video for "Thunder Kiss 65" was included in an episode of MTV's "Beavis & Butthead", and the song "I Am Hell" was included in the album based on that show. The album was called.....

The appearance of White Zombie was a tad "brighter" than in Rob Zombie's solo band. They wore brighter clothing, yet still kept their odd, yet cool thing. This look especially went on during their later years. Sean Yseult also had a tendency to dye her hair a lot, whether it would be the usual blonde she's always been known to have, to natural red, to wild green, etc. Her hair was even black in the early years, as shown on the album art for "God of Thunder" (their cover of the KISS song)

She was originally Rob's girlfriend, and at one point they were engaged, but let's just say that things went downhill from there.

After the split up of White Zombie in the 90s, Rob created his solo band. His first album was "Hellbilly Deluxe"

He made some changes to his look some, and his sound, yet the Astro - Creepiness of White Zombie still lived on. Rob was seen mainly wearing darker colors, dyed hair, and a lot of times had facepaint that made him look like something from a horrid nightmare. His sound was heavy, but he began using more techno style stuff mixed in, though I will mention that that was done in White zombie in the song "the one" and both bands use audio clips from movies. Rob also eventually married Sheri Moon Zombie and she was included in some of the music videos that were created. His videos include the weird and absurd, the creepy, and sometimes style of the 1960s, like how some of the women are dressed. Though there weren't many White Zombie videos made, they included most of those factors as well, somewhat equally, but in his solo band it seemed like he included it even more, especially creep and weird factors. I am not sure if any Rob Zombie video has been in an episode of "Beavis & Butthead", but I wouldn't be surprised if it has happened. White Zombie and Rob Zombie also include strange art for their albums, as you may have already noticed by the art for "pig heaven" and "hellbilly deluxe"

The 2 videos below are from both bands, that include what I am talking about. Both are my favorite videos XD.

In both videos you can tell the similarities and differences in bands pretty easily. some people love one band more than the other, but for me personally, I love both pretty equally. They are some of the many metal and rock bands I grew up with that my parents listened to. I am someone who loves odd and weird, and of course horror stuff, so that's some of the many things that I love about both bands. Both bands have similar styles and stuff, but they also have some of their differences. I noticed the most how in Rob Zombie's solo band its like things got a little darker somehow. White Zombie took on more of a punk look somewhat, and mixed it with metal. However both bands surely kept the strange ways of songwriting. Sean Yseult is one of my big influences when it comes to being a musician. Its hard for me to find female metalheads that are as badass as her. I mentioned in another metal myTake how I was born with hair is long and curly. I've actually had people tell me that I have same hair as Yseult (just dark!). And I've always loved Rob's interest in horror. He is a very talented guy, from creating his insane art...

to directing amazing movies.

And of course, the music.

It actually kinda saddens me that White Zombie doesn't exist anymore, but it seems like the spirit of that band lives on in Rob's solo band. Does anyone else have similarities or differences they wanna mention? Go right on ahead if you do! And thanks for reading, there will be more coming, so keep an eye out. Stay Metal!\m/

[Nice222]

I love both bands, for me they are very similar it just seems like Rob Zombie had more popularity and therefore more money to spend on videos special effects and make up. I love his concerts.

[themetalhead]

awesome, I've never actually attended his concerts but I really want to do it eventually

[Nice222]

I saw White Zombie in Rhode Island when I was in college and have seen Rob Zombie About 6 times over the years. Some of the best stage shows with lights, dancers and pyrotechnics I have ever seen and of course the music is great.

[LegateLanius]

Thanks for this. I always forgot to look White Zombie up and my father thought for whatever reason that White Zombie was headed by Rob Zombie's brother. Rob Zombie's brother goes by the name Spider One and has his own band called Powerman 5000.
s2.quickmeme.com/.../...7a41d134a4998f6b22db7e.jpg

[themetalhead]

no problem! and yeah I know about Powerman 5000, my fav song of theirs is "when worlds collide" XD

[zagor]

Why would White Zombie be racist any more than Black Sabbath?

[themetalhead]

tbh I've heard more of people getting pissed over the White Zombie name more than Black Sabbath somehow

[Brewmaster531]

He's a racial moment in Black Sabbath history: Black Sabbath scheduled to do a show in Philadelphia back in the 70's. Fans packed the venue. When 4 white guys came out, the crowd was disappointed. They thought for some reason Black Sabbath was a black rap group, not a heavy metal band.

[themetalhead]

@Brewmaster531 damn I never knew that!

[Brewmaster531]

Read Tony Iommi's book "Iron Man" and/or Ozzy Osbourne's book "I Am Ozzy". I have both of them and they both recount stories of their respective childhoods, starting a band, breaking off with Sabbath, starting other bands, addictions, marriages, you get the picture. I'm not much of a reader, but autobiographies like those two can suck me in big time

[themetalhead]

@Brewmaster531 I will man XD

[zagor]

@Brewmaster531 But... rap wasn't around then.

[Brewmaster531]

The mid to late 70's had rap and hip hop music. But, I'll be honest, it's been years since I read the books and didn't bother to open either up and find the exact situation. I do remember it was in Ozzy's book and it was in Philadelphia and the crowd was annoyed when 4 white guys went on stage, and someone said something along the lines of "you aren't black".

[zagor]

@Brewmaster531 I remember seeing something about Buddy Holly and the Crickets, in the 50's, and how when they played in Harlem the crowd was all black, and had been expecting a black group. At first it was kind of tense, but once they started playing the crowd got into it.