The big thing that gets to me is how cinematic the entire album is made out to be, from start to finish, with movie sound samples coming at you from all directions – listening to this one in headphones can be nerve-racking at times – and yet, you know it’s all done merely to get a reaction out of the listener, whether it be a scare or a laugh. La Sexorcisto, for all of its’ scares and/or fun, is cheap and disposable.

Thus begins, a more familiar version of White Zombie, even though it's only a mere taste of what was to come. Here we have the La Sexorcisto lineup in place, with guitarist Jay "J" Yuenger making his debut. And it's fun…but somehow you know the score in advance. From now, Rob's brand of calculated shock and awe is what rules the day, over and over, even on this short, three song EP, where the cover of "God of Thunder" is cartoonish shuck and jive, and the remaining two tracks are really just haunted hayride exhibitions. I give'em credit for finally finding their niche, but it's a predictable one.

Second time around, and from a technical perspective, it's an improvement…sort of. Tom Ricci replaces Tom "Five" Guay on guitar, to make possible the group's new foray into heavy metal (supposedly inspired by Rob Zombie listening to Ivan de Prume's copy of Ride the Lightning), but elsewhere, Bill Laswell's production job completely muffles Yseult's bass, and the group in general sounds as if they recorded this from the bottom of your neighbor's garbage can. Plus, the songs themselves have the grooves, but as with the previous album, the individual memorability is lacking. Which wouldn't be a big deal…except that now the reconstituted group is pretty far removed from their former noise-rock vibe, and in a realm where visceral feel of riffs and tones do count for something important, that's a strike against them. And when you take away the power of the rhythm section…? As a result, the whole affair has a weaker impact than the previous one, IMHO. Still, it's worth hearing a few times, just as a contrast between the rest of White Zombie's works.

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.

Generally, as it relates to the original glory/Hugh Cornwell years of the group, it does a good job, in that it selects all of the important singles and plops them on one disc for one’s enjoyment. You can haggle over a few tracks which should or should not be there, but overall, the job is done. Each album feels like it is represented as its’ own era with a roughly equal amount of singles. So, those of you who have this impression of the Stranglers as this gruff, misanthropic punk band, think again! A relatively fun, surface overview of one of the more intriguing groups to come out of the mid-70’s punk era.