Rob Zombie has had some real lows in his musical career after his solo project's main guitarist Riggs left. This again goes to show that the ones worthy of credit do not always receive it. Riggs has continued his musical path with his own band, Scum of The Earth, which sounds exactly like Rob Zombie’s solo career should’ve. Matching chunky groove metal riffs with that campy atmosphere and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, Riggs has proven he can outmatch the man he worked for six years in every aspect. Scum of The Earth’s lyrics are sillier, riffs more memorable, vocals gruffer, and the all-around package is brought to you in a much more cohesive and structured way than Rob Zombie or any similar industrial/groove metal fusion acts ever have.
What makes bad kids bad; what makes them do the things they do? Booze, babes and bad guys
And so
Blah...Blah...Blah...Love Songs for the New Millennium has kicked off. What follows is a great collection of lovable, campy, industrialized groove metal songs. Although based on blarring power chords and simple chunky riffs, Riggs has a knack for making it all work – sounds like adding a hook on the face of a gripping guitarline or a vocal exercise is in the man's blood. This excelling is only further solidified by a strong rhythm section that gives a very strong backbone to the songs, even though the bass is rather buried in the mix most of the time. The majority of the songs are very lively and usually clocking around three and a half minutes, they haven’t got the time to get boring.
A key component to Scum of The Earth’s sound is the chill factor. Most of Scum’s songs are laid-back and tongue-in-cheek; with a slight southern feel to them, they are superb for relaxing to. With John Tempesta behind the kit providing smooth and soft drum patterns, and his brother Mike belting out fun guitarlines (which are probably the best of his career, despite being simple) over which Riggs provides his balanced gruff vocals, Scum of The Earth works like a well-oiled tractor. Never too hasty, yet plowing forward in a solid uptempo mode.
Blah...Blah...Blah...Love Songs for the New Millennium is what Rob Zombie should've sounded like when he turned solo (
The Sinister Urge is a great album though, thanks for that Rob). Instead we now have Scum of The Earth – a band so slow to produce a follow up to their sophomore effort
Sleaze Freak it’s not even funny. Still, Riggs’ own band is better than Rob Zombie has ever been during the whole time he's been a solo artist, and in addition to that, Scum of The Earth is also more metal-sounding (Riggs pours bovine blood on himself from his guitar during live concerts and then spits some of it into/onto the crowd – you can’t get much cooler than that). So what is there left to say? Hail Riggs, for he is who finally brought something worthy to the barren table of post-White Zombie industrilized heavy metal.
