White Zombie - Super Charger Heaven

In the year 1994, White Zombie would release their final studio album, “Astro-Creep: 2000.” This would prove to be by far White Zombie’s most successful album, releasing their biggest hit song, “More Human Than Human.” This album made White Zombie the success they were in the nineties. This is the music that made Rob Zombie a household name and helped launch his solo career.

I have always assumed the album “Astro-Creep: 2000” was named after the Misfits song “Astro Zombies.” I have always put these two things together anyway.

White Zombie is presumably named after 1932 horror film of the same name. This old film stared Bela Lugosi, and I know I have seen it, but my memory is a bit foggy, but it predates the iconic “Night of the Living Dead” by many years and has the more folklore like interpretation of voodoo zombies.

“More Human Than Human,” is a reference to “Blade Runner” the excellent 1982 science fiction film staring Harrison Ford where he is hired to track down and eliminate rouge androids who, are arguably, more human than humans.

Rob Zombie, if that is his real name, it is not, his real name is Rob Cummings, is clearly a fan of cinema, and likes to take inspiration from many sources for his music.

It was the year 2001, and I found myself in the passenger seat of my friend’s Lincoln as he drove us around town. One of the few cassette tapes he had on hand that we listened to until we wore it out, was White Zombie’s “Astro-Creep: 2000.” To this day it is the only album of White Zombie’s that I have any meaningful knowledge of. Although I did listen to Rob Zombie’s solo album “Hellbilly Deluxe” countless times, whilst stoned in another friend’s basement right around the same time, but that is another story altogether.

I distinctly remember the huge popularity of “More Human Than Human,” upon the release of “Astro-Creep: 2000,” and how people in my generation were still listening to that song frequently by 2001. It is a half way coincide that my friend and I happen to be listening to that album at that time in that Lincoln, but it was clear that “More Human Than Human” has staying power. However, as much I as I enjoyed “More Human Than Human,” and I still do, the song I hold uppermost for White Zombie is their third single from that same album, “Super Charger Heaven.”

“Super Charger Heaven,” had much less presence on any king of top list, but it was popular and very well liked for a time. As I remember it, it was the clear second-best song on “Astro-Creep: 2000,” well according to everybody else it was the second-best song, I actually liked it more than “More Human Than Human.”

As determined earlier, Rob Zombie is a big fan of cinema, especially horror, so much so, he now spends more time making horror films then music. The point is, something Zombie does, that I appreciate, is throwing in film clips into his songs and he does this in “Super Charger Heaven.”

“Look, I know the supernatural is something that isn’t supposed to happen, but it does happen.”

This comes from “The Haunting” 1963. I have not seen it.

“Insipientia corde suo, non es deus. Non est vita qui adorem, non es usque ad unum. Es excommunicatus, ex unione fidelium.”

This Latin translates to:

“Foolish of heart, thou art not a god. There is no life for those who do not adore, and to a man thou hast not. Thou art excommunicated from the union of the faithful.”

And comes from “To the Devil a Daughter” a 1976 Hammer film. Unfortunately, I have not seen this one either.

Then we get the best part:

“It is not heresy, and I will not recant!”

While this is a line from the same Hammer film, “To the Devil a Daughter,” what we hear in “Super Charger Heaven” it is famous actor Christopher Lee speaking. Christopher Lee was such an amazing man, and this would be one of the earlier examples of him lending his voice to a hard rock and metal music. More on that eventually.

As a fan of horror films and metal music, these sound clips do add an extra bit of charm to the song “Super Charger Heaven.” However, this alone is not what endears me so to “Super Charger Heaven,” we also got that killer opening.

We start with the ominous sounds and that first movie quote speaks, and then guitar. Electric guitar striking out in rapid slashes. The drums blast away at the same time rampaging through an intro like a thunder storm. That beat carries through the whole song, and at every bridge that rushing lead guitar leaps out and rocks out. At no point is there a guitar solo per say, which is uncharacteristic of most of the music I listen to, but instead there are many small moments when that great lead guitar pops in and wails. This is a good example of a heavy metal song that is balanced. Everything works together nicely, no one in the band it trying to outshine anyone else, they all play their parts perfectly and the result has a great flow to it. A runaway song of heavy sounds.

I have never completely understood the lyrics. I have tried to conjure together a coherent narrative or message, but I have been unable to so with “Super Charger Heaven.” Everything Rob Zombie says in “Super Charger Heaven” is cool. Every line sounds clever, but I cannot pin down what point, if any, is actually being communicated. Unlike other confusing lyrical tales, I am not convinced Rob Zombie is just sprouting gibberish, there is almost a demonic story being told, I just do not get the reference and/or am struggling to find the continuity of his original tale. None of that mattered to me when I was a young man though, because I always liked the chorus enough to not overthink the rest of it:

“Yeah Devil man Devil man calling,
Devil man running in my head Yeah.
Yeah Devil man Devil man calling,
Devil man running in my head Yeah.”

Now remember, this song came out in 1994 and I was listening to it between the years of 1995 through 2002. This is mostly pre-internet. I only had the knowledge of my own person to fall back on when it came to conjecture. “Devil Man” I knew what that was, but at the time, I had no way of knowing if Rob Zombie knew, and even less way of knowing if he was referring to it in his song.

In grade school, I was the guy in my group of friends who discovered anime. As a young man I really enjoyed the excitement of cartoon violence, and nothing delivered on that better than the “Devil Man” OVAs. So, I always suspected, but never knew for certain if Rob Zombie was intentionally referencing that anime.

Well, now that internet is at full power, we can confirm in the affirmative that Rob Zombie was referencing the ultra violent anime “Devil Man” when he wrote “Super Charger Heaven.”

If grainy videos from fans cell phones of Rob Zombie’s live performances where he plays the origin scene of Devil Man OVA is not evidence enough, how about the LP cover art:

You know, I had never seen that LP art before until very recently. That is Devil Man, right there in the cover art. No one is getting sued. Everyone is having a good time.

It feels nice knowing that Mr. Zombie and I have some things in common, and that belief as a young man proved true about Devil Man. For years it felt like Zombie and I were in rare company, not a lot of people knew about Devil Man, at least not the complete story.

Something magical happened this year. In January Netflix sponsored, or produced, I forget which, “Devil Man Cry Baby.” This new telling of the old manga was so popular, that it was being declared the anime of the year, even though it was January when it came out. To the best of my knowledge this bold claim is still holding true. Everyone uses Netflix, so Devil Man had had a rebirth in popularity and the character and the story are now more popular than ever.

Devil Man Crybaby,
The first animated version
to tell the whole story.

One of the disappointing things about the original OVA of “Devil Man” is that is only has two parts, and after that they ran out of money and were unable to finish the story. There was a stand-alone movie called “Devil Man - Amon Apocalypse” which more or less serves as the third volume, but most people never saw it, and it did not complete the saga. Sixteen years ago, I read the manga, I found a fan English translation online and I read it with the upmost interest, and it floored me. I could not believe how it ended.

The ending is bleak.

It would be poor form to explain the whole story and ruining the twists for those who have not watched “Devil Man Crybaby” yet, so I will be vague. It is a very sad ending, terrible things happen, things that will make you cry. “Devil Man Crybaby” adapts the content to the current day perfectly and tells the story in full. For sixteens years I have been walking around with all this pain in my heart knowing how “Devil Man” ends, and reading and watching everyone’s reactions online now, was a very good time for me. It was amusing watching everyone else go through the motions, and it felt like I was making a connection with people. Sixteen years is a long time to keep spoilers to yourself, and an even longer time waiting for someone to experience it in a similar way.

Rob Zombie knew who Devil Man was way back in 1994, presumably earlier than that. I felt a connection to a fellow fan and it made me enjoy his music just a little bit more. But after the release of “Devil Man Crybaby” I look at Rob Zombie and the song “Super Charger Heaven” and I feel like, he knew. Zombie probably read the manga too, and I bet he knew the nihilistic ending as well. I wonder how many years he was walking around hurting before more the general public learned about it. And I wonder how much he is enjoying seeing everyone go through the motions after seeing “Devil Man Crybaby.”

It seems to me that life has been kind to Rob Zombie. His music remains popular and relevant, and I wonder if there will be a new wave of interest in White Zombie and “Super Charger Heaven” now that the Devil Man is more popular then every. I hope so. I have also really liked the Devil Man reference in “Super Charger Heaven.” I liked it before it was cool.

- King of Braves

Van Halen - Runnin' With The Devil

One goal I had this year was to only write about bands I have never about written before. Which made me think about all the rocks bands who are really important that I have never gotten around to rambling about. Among them is Van Halen.

I have an elaborate interest with Van Halen, or at least, an interest I am going to elaborate on.

When I was young and depended on the radio for music, Van Halen was a constant. I listened to Van Halen all the time, almost as much as I listened to ACDC or Black Sabbath. If I was pressed to list the most important rock bands of all time I would have included Van Halen in the top ten and would have negotiated with myself whether Van Halen or Guns N Roses were the greatest rock band to come out of the eighties. It was Guns N Roses obviously, but when I was young I was not entirely sure.

So, I held Van Halen in very high esteem, and I purchased three of their studio albums and had a copy of their greatest hits and enjoyed them thoroughly. But that was it. After I graduated high school and began listening to more David Bowie and European metal, I kind of forgot about Van Halen. Kind of.

Then something fun happened. While my younger brother and I were working at the bar as line cooks we were gifted tickets to see Van Halen at the Saddledome. Some secret Santa gift lottery amongst the bar management had the unforeseen consequence of the head of marketing and the head manager winning their own gift, so they decided they would give them to someone would appreciate it, and those Kelly brothers in the kitchen were rock and roll rebels, so they gave them to us. It was a great concert, this was the tour where David Lee Roth rejoined the group, so it was the perfect time for someone our ages to see them. Because I had been listening to Van Halen less and less at that point in my life, I got a wonderful reminder of how many great songs Van Halen have. It was really good time, it reinforced my love of Van Halen. But after a few years I kind of forgot about them again.

Van Halen is one of the most influential and best rock bands to come out of the eighties, so they deserve respect and to be mentioned, and since this year is bands I have never talked about before they are top of the list and I better think of something insightful to say; and hopefully I can.

The chronology of Van Halen screams the eighties, because they were such a fundamental contributor to the sound of that era, but technically their beginnings start in the late seventies with their first two albums, the self titled “Van Halen,” and the follow up “Van Halen II” being release in 1978 and 1979 respectably.

A strong start is a fair way to describe Van Halen’s entrance into the music scene. Their first album was a big hit and several of their best songs are on it. Furthermore, the first half of their first album is probably their best set of songs:

- “Runnin’ with the Devil”
- “Eruption”
- “You Really Got Me”
- “Ain’t Talking about Love”
- “I’m the One.”

That’s the first side of their debut album. I believe their best song is “Runnin’ with the Devil” and it is the first song on their first album. It is followed by their most famous, and I believe to be their best instrumental/guitar song “Eruption,” which is some of Eddie Van Halen’s best work. After that we get two more of their biggest hits, of which I strongly prefer “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love,” the Kinks cover of “You Really Got Me” while very fun, is not my favorite. Rounding off this first section is “I’m the One,” easily the least famous of this record side, but a very good rock song with a great guitar intro.

What a start.

“You Really Got Me” was Van Halen’s first single, but it was a cover song, so really, Van Halen’s first true single was “Runnin’ with the Devil,” their second official single. “Runnin’ with the Devil” has always been my favorite Van Halen track. I think a lot of people’s favorite Van Halen song is “Runnin’ with the Devil.” It is one of the most natural songs to love.

After what I believe to be a car horn echoes past, we open with a great bass intro, one of the most memorable opening bass lines in all or rock and roll. The chorus is sung by both David Lee Roth and bass player Michael Anthony and they are both awesome. Michael Anthony is kind of an under rated musician. Sure, the bass line in “Runnin’ with the Devil” is simple but the consistent timing to the rhythm is very impressive.

There is a lot of belief that Van Halen were early day rock and roll Satanist, and the popularity of a song called “Runnin’ with the Devil” contributed to this belief. I suspect, like most “Satanist” rock stars it is all tongue and cheek. Nonetheless announcing your outlaw life as parallel to the devil’s ways is fun and more importantly very rebellious. The spirit of rock and roll, rebellion. David Lee Roth sings about being an outlaw and how, once on that road, there was no going back. Freedom is a glorious but potentially dark thing, as there is nobody out there worry about the rebel now. I know some people like to hate on Roth because he has performed poorly during some live songs, but this is the early days of Van Halen and Lee Roth’s voice is powerful in “Runnin’ with the Devil.”

Lastly, we have to take a moment to acknowledge the greatness that is Eddie Van Halen. No one in the world was playing guitar like Eddie when he hit the scene. I am incapable to giving proper due to Eddie’s guitar tricks, because unfortunately, I do not fully understand them. I just really enjoy listening to his work and the combination of “Runnin’ with the Devil” followed by the instrumental “Eruption” is a perfect display of what Van Halen truly special. It has everything to do with Eddie’s guitar.

I never needed to write this out, everyone who knows anything about rock and roll already knows all about Van Halen and “Runnin’ with the Devil,” but looking at my song list in these reviews, I felt obligated to say something about this amazing track, even if all I did was gush over how great it is.

- King of Braves