Here we go! The final installment! Part TEN of my Favorite Albums Series!

Thank you to everyone who has commented/DM’d/interacted about my choices. I always love chatting about music and it’s also been great even introducing some folks to albums they might not have heard otherwise. Before I dive into my final two choices, here’s the list of honorary entries. When I made my list of albums, these almost made the cut to be posted here, but for one reason or another didn’t!

So, in no particular order;

Kataklysm – In the Arms of Devastation (2006)/ Devildriver – The Last Kind Words (2007)

Moby – Play (1999)/ Arch Enemy – Wages of Sin (2002)

Type O Negative – Dead Again (2007)/ Chimaira – Chimaira (2005)

The Prodigy – The Fat of the Land (1997)/ Amon Amarth – With Oden On Our Side (2006)

Megadeth – Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? (1986)/ Judas Priest – British Steel (1980)

Coldworld – Melancholie2 (2008)/ Septicflesh – Sumerian Daemons (2003)

The Glorious Sons – Glory (2023)/ Anthrax – Volume 8: The Threat Is Real (1998)

The Haunted – rEVOLVEr (2004)/ Stone Temple Pilots – No. 4 (1999)

Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (1970)/ Dissection – Reinkaos (2006)

The Crow Soundtrack (1994)/ Cradle of Filth – Midian (2000)

The Tea Party – Transmission (1997)/ Six Feet Under – 13 (2005)

Nazareth – Greatest Hits (1975)/ Himsa – Summon in Thunder (2007)

Sepultura – Chaos A.D. (1993)/ Fear Factory – Demanufacture (1995)

Marilyn Manson – We Are Chaos (2020)/ Pantera – Official Live: 101 Proof (1997)

Mgla – Exercises in Futility (2015)/ Lifelover – Sjukdom (2011)

With that out of the way – here’s my final two choices and I don’t these come as any surprise!

White Zombie – La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One – 1992

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that these two White Zombie albums are the final two albums on my list, considering how often I rave about this band and these LP’s.

The first song from White Zombie I ever heard was ‘Thunder Kiss ‘65’ and after hearing the track and seeing the music video, my life was changed forever. Saying that, it took me a while to appreciate ‘La Sexorcisto’ as much as I do, because honestly, it doesn’t come close to the musicality and darkness of their follow-up, Astro-Creep: 2000.’ Though I know, long time fans of the band will debate that, for me at least, ‘Astro-Creep’ surpasses ‘La Sexorcisto’ for better album.

Throughout this album, we see that kind of crossover-boogie-acid-rap/poetry fusion that was birthed from the NYC underground art music scene. Rob had a straight-ahead agenda for the lyrics while J and Sean created some of the most distinctive rumbling anthems to come out in the 90’s, only upstaged by their next/last album.

When I listen to this album, I’m transported back to my backyard in Burton, Bob Moody has the tunes cranked, the BMX zipping back and forth down the street out front and I’m just twelve years old, the entirety of my life ahead of me.

Key tracks – ‘Welcome to Planet Motherfucker/Psychoholic Slag,’ ‘Thunder Kiss ’65,’ & ‘Black Sunshine.’

Live – White Zombie, sadly no. But I have seen Rob Zombie live and at the show in Vancouver I saw him play, he ripped through a ‘Thunder Kiss ‘65’ cover and then had Scott from Anthrax come out and join them for a blistering cover of ‘More Human Than Human.’ It was fantastic and made this White Zombie fan very, very happy.

White Zombie – Astro-Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head – 1995

As much as I dug ‘La Sexorcisto,’ like I said before, it just doesn’t hold a candle to what White Zombie unleashed with ‘Astro-Creep: 2000.’

Funny enough, much like ‘Thunder Kiss ‘65’ (and a lot of other radio/mainstream band hits – see ‘Walk’ from Pantera & ‘Du Hast’ from Rammstein etc. etc.) I enjoyed ‘More Human Than Human,’ though found it to be perhaps the ‘weakest’ song on the album, though I use that term loosely. No, when I first heard this album in its entirety, I was brought to my knees. Dense, layered, packed with imagery and dirtiness, ‘Astro-Creep: 2000’ is my all-time fav album and the album I’ve listened to the most in my life. Hilariously, I actually owned the remix album – ‘Super Sexy Swingin’ Sounds’ before owning this one – as my buddy Lee and I tried to track it down on a soccer trip in Cranbrook, but the music store there only had the remix album, so I bought it and listened to it non-stop until I got my grubby little paws on the real deal.

This album just might be one of the most influential things to ever enter my life. Between this and the movie ‘The Bear,’ I’d say they’re fairly equal in forming my brain and how I approach storytelling and atmosphere. Without discovering this album, I’m honestly unsure how things would’ve played out in my creative life, but I’m very, very thankful for discovering this.

Key tracks – ‘Creature of the Wheel,’ ‘Blur the Technicolor,’ & ‘Blood, Milk and Sky.’

Live – see above.