With a 5 year lapse between album releases, I have to say, I was completely and utterly excited when I heard that Rob Zombie was doing a follow up CD to Hellbilly Deluxe. I respect Rob Zombie for following his other interests and delving into directing, that diversion yielded one of my favorite horror/exploitation films of all time (The Devil's Rejects), but still, I was thrilled to hear he was coming back to what we all know and love him for: music.

I have to admit that I had high expectations of Zombie's musical return. Perhaps too high. It's hard, after all, to compete with such classics as Dragula and Living Dead Girl but I bought the newest album anticipating to have my socks blown off. They sadly only fluttered in the breeze at most. Now, this isn't to say that the new record is bad, it just didn't live up to the hype I had built up in my head. With a title like Hellbilly Deluxe 2 I was expecting a fluid continuation from Hellbilly Deluxe, but the style just seemed wildly different from the original.

I'm one that will in general immediately like or dislike an album on the first time listening through, and the feeling I got on the first go-round of this was luke warm at best. There were a couple of songs that I really really enjoyed, Sick Bubblegum (even though this one has a slightly mainstream feel to it it was still a good listen), and Mars Needs Women (which is a gritty battle cry of sorts that I love) among them. Mars Needs Women is perhaps the only song on the CD that I could picture on the original Hellbilly Deluxe.

My lackluster reception of the songs themselves aside, I love Rob Zombie's new lineup which includes: John 5 on guitar(ex-Marilyn Manson guitarist, he played with Zombie on Educated Horses, and is a great solo talent, pick up one of his CDs if you haven't, you're missing out), Piggy D on bass, and Tommy Clufetos on drums. They sound really solid together and I hope they stick together for a while.

All in all it was a mediocre comeback to music for Zombie, but I guess with a 5 year hiatus it's not completely unexpected. I look forward to seeing them on tour this summer on the Mayhem Festival co-headlining with Korn and Lamb of God and also to any new CDs they put out, which may be a while as Rob Zombie seems to be focusing his efforts back on directing, at least temporarily.