White Zombie takes it's name from a 1932 horror movie by Bela Lugosi. Robert Cummings and Sean Yseult started White Zombie in 1985. Their initial EP's, Gods of Voodoo Moon, Pig Heaven, and Psycho-Head Blowout are rare and valuable collections of the artists' first works.
Gods of Voodoo Moon being the most sought after out of the three.
These albums showcased the bands first inkling of what was to come for the group and featured guitarists Tim Jeffs, Ena Kostabi, and Tom Guay upon them. Drumming for the band would be performed first by drummer Peter Landau and then later by drummer Ivan de Prume.
As the bands popularity grew in the flourishing underground music community around the Big Apple the band began work on pressing an album.
Their first triumph was Soul Crusher in 1987. Housed within this album are the tracks, "Scum Kill", "Drowning the Colossus", "Shack of Hate", and "Truck on Fire". It was also on this album that Robert Cummings officially changed his name to Rob Zombie instead of using his previous stage name of "Rob 'Dirt Straker".
Before being in a band, Zombie had grown up the town of Haverhill Massachusetts. He worked in the media as a illustrator and art designer for a few magazines as well as being a production assistant on Pee Wee's Playhouse during 80's.
His artwork is truly inspiring and is featured in numerous movies including Beavis and Butthead Do America. Zombie is also a huge horror affectionato and has been the director of several hit movies in addition to his musical career.
His movies include House of 1000" corpse's, The Devils Rejects, and a remake of of the horror classic Halloween. Zombie also runs his own comic book entitled Spookshow International which was inspired by this comic novel Haunted World: El Superbeasto and was the host of Fangoria Blood Drive, a horror films collection released in 2004. In 2006, Rob Zombie hosted the TCM Underground on Turner Classic Movies and in 2008 hosted Fearfest for AMC.
Make Them Die Slowly was White Zombies second album released in 1989. For this album, the band replaced Tom Guay with guitarist John Ricci. Tracks on this album include "Disaster Blaster", "Power Hungry", "Revenge", and "Demon Speed".
Shortly after the release of this album the band was forced to replace John Ricci with guitarist Jay Yuenger.
This album was also the bands last album with Caroline Records, however before departing from the label they released a two track EP entitled God of Thunder which featured the tracks "Disaster Blaster 2" and "Love Razor". This EP is also considered to be very rare.
La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One was released in 1992 under new label Geffen Records. This was the bands first grand slam album and featured the tracks "Black Sunshine", "Thunder Kiss '65", "Starface", "Welcome to the Planet M*th*rf*ck*r" and "Warp Asylum".
With J on the guitar, the band had developed into a more Metalistic sound with songs like "Thunder Kiss '65" rocking the noggin of loyal metal heads everywhere. It was during this time the band also replaced drummer Ivan de Prume with drummer Phil Buerstatte.
1995 saw the release of the bands fourth album entitled AstroCreep 2000. For this album the band replaced Buerstatte with drummer John Tempesta. Hits from this album include the tracks "Electric Head Pt.1 and 2", "Grease Paint and Monkey Brains", "Super-Charger Heaven", "El Phantasmo and the Chicken Run Blast-o-rama" and "More Human Than Human".
The band later released a re-mixed version of the album in 1996 entitled Supersexy Swingin' Sounds. This would be the bands last efforts collectively as White Zombie disbanded shortly after these albums.
The members of band each went their separate ways. J joining the band Fu Manchu and Sean teaming up with the band The Famous Monsters. Zombie and Tempesta, however, continued to work together on Rob's solo project.
The band, Rob Zombie was founded in 1998 with the release of Hellbilly Deluxe. Rob Zombie, together with drummer John Tempesta, guitarist Mike Riggs, and bassist Blasko.This album contained the tracks "Superbeast", "Dragula", "Living Dead Girl", and "How to Make a Monster". This is perhaps band's best performing album selling over 3 million copies world wide. The album would later be re-mixed in 1999 and was released under the name American Made Music to Strip By.
The Sinister Urge was released in 2001 and contains the tracks "Dead Girl Superstar", "Demon Speeding", "Iron Head", and "Scum of the Earth". Two years after the albums release members Tempesta and Riggs left the band to form band Scum of the Earth.
2003, Zombie releases his first greatest hits album entitled Past, Present & Future. This album features songs from both White Zombie and from the artists solo career as well as two previously unreleased tracks entitled "Girl on Fire" and "Two-Lane Blacktop". Also featured on this album are covers of the songs "Brick House" by the Commodores and "Blitzkrieg Bop" by the Ramones.
Three years later, Zombie releases Educated Horses. For this album Rob Zombie recruited guitarist John 5 from Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper drummer Tommy Clufetos. Tracks from this album include "American Witch", "Foxy Foxy", "Let It All Bleed Out", "Ride", "The Devil's Rejects" and "The Lords of Salem". Shortly after the Educated Horses Tour Blasko left the band and Rob Zombie picked up bassist Piggy D from Amen.
Also in 2006 Zombie releases the 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection: The Best of Rob Zombie. Which is the second collection of Zombie tracks. It includes hits like "Thunder Kiss '65", "Dragula", "Superbeast", "Living Dead Girl", "The Lords of Salem", and "Black Sunshine".
In recent years, Rob continues to write and produce music and has recorded tracks for both the upcoming Punisher: War Zone movie and the theme song for Howard Stern's radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio. In 2007, Zombie also releases a live album entitled Zombie Live. Also released in recent times is the White Zombie collection Let Sleeping Corpses Lie; a 5 CD/1 DVD boxed set that includes 10 live performances, 9 music videos, and all 64 original studio recordings of the band.
Zombie has always been a theatrical band. With hints of horror culture influence, this band has always provided a rock solid stage performance. It's psycho semantical approach to video production is among the most highly acclaimed in the field. Meaning that it is both art enriched and fantasy driven in nature, not to mention horrorifing. It's good though, in an insane sort of way, and also remenience of works by fellow artists Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson.
Rob Zombie has always been a leader in the field of Horror-Goth induced Techno-Rock and will continue to do so for years to come. His work in House of a 1000 Corpses and The Devil Rejects prove that he is truly an inspiring artist. His warped and twisted visions continue to shock and instill terror in his millions of fans across the globe.