[ALBUM REVIEW] ROB ZOMBIE – The Great Satan
Artist: Rob Zombie
Album: The Great Satan
Date Of Release: 27th February, 2026
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Track Listing:
- F.T.W. 84
- Tarantula
- (I’m A) Roll ‘n’ Roller
- Heathen Days
- Who Am I?
- Black Rat Coffin
- Sir Lord Acid Wolfman
- Punks And Demons
- The Devilman
- Out Of Sight
- Revolution Motherfuckers
- Welcome To The Electric Age
- The Black Scorpion
- Unclean Animals
- Grave Discontent
Review:
Since his decision to juggle a career of being a filmmaker alongside being a musician Rob Zombie’s albums have become few and far between. It has been five years since the release of The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy but now we finally have The Great Satan released for all to hear.
A few things have changed for Zombie as an artist during that time – he has put the old gang back together again so to speak. Yes, this is the first album Zombie has worked on with both guitarist Mike Riggs and bassist Blasko in the fold since the masterpiece that was The Sinister Urge.
Back then Zombie was changing the sound of metal – in fact he created his own genre. With traces of industrial metal with a mix of Gothic electronica and a huge reliance on horror and sci-fi while the rest of the world was listening to Nu-Metal Zombie was making waves with his first two solo albums – Hellbilly Deluxe and The Sinister Urge.
When Riggs and Blasko left Zombie’s music seemed to change as while. 2006’s Educated Horses was a great album but its shift towards a more hard rock sound couldn’t be hidden and while I love his music I would also be first to say that Zombie has never re-created the magic that those first two solo albums contained.
Now with Riggs and Blasko back in the band it is not too far of a stretch to think that perhaps there is a chance the The Great Satan might return back to that genre-defying sound that made Zombie so popular in the first place.
Certainly, the first two singles released off the album were slightly promising. Punks And Demons seemed to be a throwback to perhaps one of the greatest Zombie tracks of all time – Hands Of Death (Burn Baby Burn) which saw him team up with the legendary Alice Cooper.
Then came Heathen Days which opens with a full-on musical onslaught, which is what we all want from Zombie, but then as the track went on it felt like it went into a safe cruise control – something that no Zombie fan wants from this album.
Sadly that is the way that The Great Satan plays out as an album. For every decent track there is another that is a let down. I should point out they aren’t bad – they just aren’t the greatness we have come to expect from Zombie.
Opening track, F.T.W. 84, sees Zombie get a little political – although the questions must be asked is he referencing that life was better back in the 80s or is this more to do with George Orwell. Still the track itself holds up as the music sees a great blend of Zombie’s hard rock sound with his old school brand of metal. When he started to work on this track it felt like Zombie only had one instruction – ‘be epic.’
Tarantula continues in the same vein while (I’m A) Rock N Roller makes the listener feel like they have fallen into a Gothic rave. It is intense and in your face and then when it takes a moment to let you breath and slows down a little even then it is dominated by the jutting guitars of Mike Riggs.
From there on it feels like The Great Satan is an album where Zombie tries to tackle everything at least once.
Black Rat Coffin is poetic despite the fact it again feels like it is cruise control while Sir Lord Acid Wolfman takes on a bluesy rock vibe. The guitars have a classic blues tinge to them while Zombie himself seems to be channelling a 1940s blues singer with his vocals. It is easily one of the best tracks on the whole album.
Then there is the slowed down Goth rock of The Devilman that is lifted a little by Riggs’ wailing guitars while Out Of Sight is perhaps the album’s catchiest track – even though it sounds more like old school Alice Cooper than Rob Zombie.
That catchiness continues with Revolution Motherfuckers that is destined to become an anthem for those of us pissed off with the world right now. Then we have the dirty rock almost desert doom vibe of The Black Scorpion – another highlight of the album – while the haunting Unclean Animals is another gem.
There are enough good tracks on The Great Satan to make this an album that you will want to re-visit. While some tracks do re-create that gold of Zombie’s early albums it is tracks like The Black Scorpion and Sir Lord Acid Wolfman where Zombie goes right away from anything that he has ever done before that makes some moments of this album very, very special.
Rating (out of 5):
