Soul-Crusher 1987 Album

White Zombie

This particular album was the culmination of a bunch of scattered EP's Zombie (calling himself Rob "Dirt" Straker at the time) and bassist Sean Yseult had recorded with a variety of guitarists and drummers, who never seemed to really fit the project. Then a guitarist named Tom Guay (a.k.a. Tom "Five") and drummer Ivan de Prume came on board, suddenly things started to gel for the trashy, horror-film inspired, noise-rock sound they were trying to get at. Soul-Crusher's 10 tracks can be hard to latch onto for a lot of listeners. They lurch around uncontrollably without warning, the guitar lines often make no sense, Rob's vocals squelch out of your speakers and are hard to interpret, and the rhythm section acts like a continuous, furious undertow against your brain. No individual track stands out, or even wants to stand out. Instead, it functions exactly like a crazed zombie on a mission for live flesh, cognizant of nothing but its' next victim. In a sense, I feel like this is the band's best ever work, because they spontaneously create something that is actually spooky without all of the other corporate garbage which surrounded the later works, even though it's hard to say there is an all-time track to pick out of the bunch. Zombie/Straker and Yseult would ditch this approach quite soon - as soon as the next record - and go down the metal road, finding another guitarist to better fit the new direction.