White Zombie - Blood, Milk and Sky

Every now and then we hit a point here at RSOTW where life gets in the way, and we have to forgo our usual painstakingly careful process of picking and thoroughly researching songs. Instead, we just throw a dart at a board and write something off the cuff. That’s what’s happened today. I’m on the road, and this week’s scheduled pick didn’t make it onto the site due to a technical issue. So I’ve gone old school: lined up the CDs from my car (yes, CDs) and thrown a dart ... well, actually a straw ... at them.

And the straw has landed on… White Zombie. I thought we’d already featured a track from this band, but apparently not. Turns out it was just a heated debate about why we won’t pick a Rob Zombie song that resulted in a bit of broken furniture and a slightly more than normal level of drinking.

You’ve probably heard of Rob Zombie - or at least his mega-hit Dragula, which has been a staple of every rock and metal club playlist since the late ’90s. But if you, like me, have enough miles on the clock to remember damaging your eardrums earlier in that decade, you might know the band he used to front, and if you didn't, well, you're in for a treat. They were kind of a big deal for the “Beavis & Butthead” generation.

White Zombie kicked off their career in New York in the ’80s, initially dabbling in noise and experimental rock before settling into the horror-tinged groove metal that brought them worldwide recognition. They released four albums in total, but it’s the last two - La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One and Astro-Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head (because who needs short album titles, right?) that really made their mark. Tracks like More Human Than Human and Thunder Kiss ’65 caught MTV’s attention and went into heavy rotation.

Surprisingly, the band called it quits after those albums, right at the height of their fame. By sheer co-incidence, Rob Zombie launched his solo career soon after and has been pretty vocal about never, ever wanting to reunite. Personally, I’m still a little disappointed about that. White Zombie felt like a band really hitting their stride, while Rob’s solo stuff just doesn’t ring the same bell for me. He's clearly a talented guy and was clearly one of the main driving forces in the band, but without the rest of the band to bounce off creatively it just feels like one small slice of an awesome pie.  I know there's a lot of people who disagree with that statement, hence the broken office furniture, but it's a hill I'm at least willing to curl up and go to sleep on.

Still, I suppose it’s best to go out on a high note.

Anyway, back to the pick. The straw of destiny landed on a copy of Astro-Creep 2000 (and we’re just going to call it that from now on), so it seems fitting to choose a track from there. The album is stacked with hits - and your homework this week is to go listen to the whole thing - but instead of a single, I’m going with the final track: Blood, Milk and Sky. It’s a trippy, slow, sleazy bit of metal and, if you ignore the hidden bonus track, a perfect closer to both the album and a short but fantastic career.

Enjoy!