Everyone's favourite horror rocker returns.. but to a banner-swinging, horn blowing crowd of hooligans? Or a generally uninterested group of fools?

Rob Zombie's first album since White Zombie, Hellbilly Deluxe, was a bonafide success. Dragula alone was good reason to pick up the collection of madness in question. That being the case, ol' Rob set pretty high standards for himself with that one.. the big question is, does Rob Zombie's second release measure up?

This one is difficult to answer. The Sinister Urge is a very unbalanced record, in that there are some truly incredible tracks on here, while the rest come off as purely average. Some examples of awesome songs would have to be the almost guaranteed single, Dead Girl Superstar, or even the laidback (by Rob Zombie standards) nature of Never Gonna Stop (the red, red kroovy). Feel So Numb, the first single, kicks ass, and another noteworthy track would definately have to be the duet of Rob and Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Head, where Ozzy's nasal voice lends itself perfectly Rob's grizzled roar.

Alright, I'll stop beating around the bush with all of this almost-praise.. what you have here is an album that is an effective, if disappointing, follow-up to Hellbilly Deluxe. Well, perhaps that was a little presumptuous - The Sinister Urge, like I said, contains some *fairly* interesting material. But it gave me the impression of not being all it possibly could have.. it's still a good album, with all the trimmings passed down from ol' Hellbilly, minus a most of the heaviness (not a good thing). ...and quite frankly, all the b-movie horror quotes are getting a little irritating.

It looks like, though, that I'm in the minority in terms of opinion for this album. So basically, you're going to have to decide this on your own whether it's worthy of purchase. Listen to the singles, download a few songs.. if you like, buy. But don't go into the deal expecting another Hellbilly. --by the way, go see Rob Zombie's movie, House of 1000 Corpses, when it comes out. It's bound to be twisted. ...but will it be good? Well, it looks like we'll never know, since Universal dropped Rob's pet project.. but that's a completely different story.

ARTIST: Rob Zombie

ALBUM TITLE: The Sinister Urge

NUMBER OF TRACKS: 11

LENGTH OF ALBUM: 39 minutes, 35 seconds

FAVOURITE TRACKS: Dead Girl Superstar, Never Gonna Stop (the red, red kroovy), Feel So Numb

QUALITY: 3/5