Customer Reviews
go, rob zombie, go go yeah yeah yeah - By: ophelia jangle, 16 Jul 2007 
i was very surprised at some of the other comments about this album. i thought this was fantastic. great heavy metal stuff & typically brilliant rob zombie. i might be dreaming, but i think this is his best, like i said, it might just be me?
The Sinister Surge - By: , 01 Mar 2004 
This is un-Doubtably Sir. Rob's best album to date. (excluding the greatest hits of course) A definably amazing entourage of vocal talent this mans seems to possess this could be either act of Satan or the 'big G' above but who cares when the result is so damn good. On this album there is just a unique splendour of incredible 'Rock out' orchestration. It is certainly an album you won't be able to put down for quite some time. Soin the name of all things head banging I 'Urge' you to feast your ears on this beauty.
Get up, get out, get inside the outside - By: Daniel Jolley, 26 Feb 2003 This album doesn't seem to enjoy the popularity of Hellbilly Deluxe, Rob Zombie's first solo release, but I consider The Sinister Urge the better album of the two. The music seems to be more important this time around, as Zombie experiments with or conjures up new means by which to communicate his unique message. (go to) California, for example, seems to begin with a strange lilting sound to it, & Zombie's voice is somewhat subdued on the verses, providing a nice contrast with the more forceful chorus. Of course, there is plenty of hard rocking on this album, especially on the three most familiar tunes: Never Gonna Stop (the red, red kroovy), Feel So Numb, & Demon Speeding. Demon Speeding reminds me a lot of the Hellbilly Deluxe tracks, but the other new songs have a different sound & style than what Zombie has given us before. These songs are catchier & are more prone to hang aroundin your head reminding you of their visceral greatness; some might say Zombie got a little soft & added a touch of pop to a few tracks here, but I don't think that is the case at all. If he has added anything, it is a complexity that makes his music all the more impressive.
One song that certainly deserves special mention is Iron Head, which features none other than Ozzy Osbourne helping out on the vocals; the way he & Zombie alternate lines makes Ozzy's input especially effective. Dead Girl Superstar is a great hard-rocking track, & I also really like Bring Her Down (To Crippletown), another song which features a dramatic contrast between the verses & chorus. Scum of the Earth isn't bad, but I would consider it the only light-weight song on the album. There really isn't as much filler material on here as some might think. Sinners Inc. introduces the album with some horror movie-type dialogue, Transylvanian Transmissions Pt. 1 features a dramatic, malevolent reading of horror-laden, strangely philosophical lines, & then the singular House of 1000 Corpses closes out the album with rather a significant bit of what some would call filler material surrounding an otherwise gleefully evil song-more horror movie dialogue about murder, cannibalism, & similar dastardly deeds, voices of innocent little girls, a satisfying number of screams, and-somewhat inexplicably-a couple of minutes' worth of background noise. At almost ten minutes, House of 1000 Corpses is definitely the longest song on the album, but I for one enjoy taking my time to enjoy the pleasure offered by musical rumination upon the darker thingsin life.
I might note that this album, unlike its predecessor, provides listeners with the song lyrics; it's not always easy to understand Zombie's edgy vocals, & now, while some of the lyrics don't make a great deal of sense, I at least know what I'm hearing. Overall, I recommend this album wholeheartedly to those who like their music dark & forceful. Even though Rob Zombie brought a musical legacy with him from his White Zombie years, Hellbilly Deluxe had a bit of a gimmicky feel to it & proved a little unevenin places. The Sinister Urge, on the other hand, is consistently good from start to finish.
Energetic, but very dated.... - By: The Holy Ferret, 09 Oct 2002 
Before you I comment on this album, let's be sure on my perspective regarding Rob. I liked some of White Zombie, it was classy metal yet absolutely hilariousin a subtle twisted kind of way. However, I thought Hellbilly Deluxe & the remix album were complete works of donkey poop. Way too much pop metal/techno influences, the music was so simple a 5 year old could play it, & the humour was so basic no wonder it appealed to the MTV audience. Where's my umbrella gone?
Thank god then for The Sinister Urge. This album is different from Rob's other solo, commericially orientated, work. 'Dead Girl Superstar' features killer guitar work from Slayer's Kerry King. Whilst the record does contain a lot of silly industrial cliche's, the majority of the album is a much less 90's tone. 'Go To California' & 'House Of 1000 Corpses' have a very southern rock/blues sound to them, which suits Rob far more than that crappy techno metal sound he's been using of late. You still get the boring samples & stuff, but if you dig a holein the ground & play with the earthworms you can soon forget about it.
Of course it's hilariously funny, but the songs themselves are of a higher quality. Now instead of building up & then going all technoified with chants of 'Yeah Yeah Yeah' like something you'd expect to hearin a god damn dance club, Rob actually introduces some guitar solo's (shock horror!). Yeah sure, there's the obligatory MTV tunes like 'Scum Of The Earth', 'Feel So Numb' & 'Never Gonna Stop', these are the weekest cuts on the album, it's no wonder they're used on wrestling. Basically - don't expect Opeth or something. Given the industrial filler bits as well, it's also a very shortin terms of the number of tracks. Which would be okay if there were a few 10 minute epics on here, but it just ain't the case.
It still sounds very 'by the numbers' but at least Robs trying. It's better than his other stuff, but compared to Strapping Young Lad it's very dated, if energetic. Could be a lot better, but could be so so much worse...
Same awesome Rob style - By: Rocco V. Lotito, 12 May 2002 Does "The Sinister Urge" deliver? Yes. Is it a wild blend of rock & groovy tracks with well-placed clips from old B-list movies? Yes. Is it a great album that you should rush to get? Hell yeah! Although it doesn't peak quite like Rob's first solo album (Hellbilly Deluxe), but it is still a great follow-up album. The reason I say that it doesn't quite peak the same is because as Hellbilly seemingly exploded from one fully-loaded song to the next, this album constently changes tempo & style drastically. However, after you get used to that aspect, almost all of the songs are winners.
Excellent songs on the album: Demon Speeding, Ironhead, Bring Her Down, Scum of the Earth, House of 1000 Corpses, Feel So Numb
Not-so-good songs on the album: Dead Girl Superstar, Never Gonna Stop, Go to California
