Educated Horses sees Mr Zombie implementing a more musical sound. Previous albums had the feel that they were produced in order to be remixed (particularly the incredibly popular Hellbilly Deluxe which was a little dull on its own).Now, the music is more conventional, with a great amount of groove, some added bluesy elements and great guitar crunch.
Zombie’s vocals are still his “spooky” rasp, but again more conventional and actually melodic. He sounds more like a less-angry Edsel Dope (Dope) than he did before. There’s more of a Rock ‘N’ Roll sneer to it all, now – like Guns ‘N’ Roses or Beautiful Creatures, while still instantly recognisable as Rob Zombie.
Still eclectic and mixed – take the eastern influences in “17 Year Locust”, Educated Horses builds on the sounds created by Alice Cooper and also Rob Zombie’s previous works (including those with White Zombie), creating a very cool, groovy album.
“The Scorpion Sleeps” is perhaps the best song on the album, with a very Marilyn Manson-esque, huge and bouncing riff underpinning a great party song (think "mOBSCENE" from The Golden Age Of Grotesque, but with a distinct Zombie flair).
Overall, this is a major improvement on what came before. Yes, certain remixes will forever be immortal, but Educated Horses is a more conventional rock music album, and for this reason Rob Zombie’s music career should continue to grow, despite his predilection for directing movies now.
It won’t set the world alight, and doesn’t re-invent the wheel, but pleasantly much better than expected.
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