Educated Horses

1	Sawdust in the Blood 1:22
2	American Witch 3:47
3	Foxy Foxy 3:28
4	17 Year Locust 4:06
5	The Scorpion Sleeps 3:38
6	100 Ways 1:53
7	Let It All Bleed Out 4:09
8	Death of It All 4:22
9	Ride 3:32
10	The Devil's Rejects 3:54
11	The Lords of Salem 4:13

Barnes & Noble

While he's been known to perform his share of horror-flick party tricks, Rob Zombie doesn't need any smoke and mirrors to stagger the senses on this long-awaited return. He's still carrying the Alice Cooper torch -- holding it higher than ever, actually -- on songs like "American Witch," which moves with a theatrical guttersnipe swagger, and naturally, still stuffing every nook and cranny with obsessive horror-flick cullings (like the theme from The Devil's Rejects, which turns up here in all its glory). Even more intriguingly, Zombie shows his aptitude in playing the sex card, which he slaps down with authority on the churning, Levitra-charged "Foxy, Foxy" -- a tune that proves he knows his way around the T. Rex catalog every bit as well as the collected works of George Romero. As is his wont, Zombie doesn't skimp when it comes to loading on the layers of heaviness -- "Let It All Bleed Out" is as savage as anything he's ever done -- but he's also demonstrating more of a willingness to peel things back. That added space not only makes it easier to appreciate elements like the modal lead that snakes through "Seventeen Year Locust," it also gives listeners a welcome chance to catch a breather before the gore starts to flow again. David Sprague

All Music Guide

When he's not directing feature films like House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects, Rob Zombie likes to make music. Educated Horses, the prolific director, writer/animator/horror aficionado's return to the world of hedonistic, sexed-up monster rock doesn't stray too far from the formula that garnered him such a rabid fan base, but there's less theater and more backwoods creepiness at hand this time around. Horses crawls on all fours for the first three tracks, relying on too many tried-and-true White Zombie dance beats and turgid guitar riffs to hint at anything outside of sheer puppetry, but when the mid-tempo crunch of "17 Year Locust" begins to echo Sabotage-era Black Sabbath, it's clear that Zombie himself is having the time of his life pulling the strings. "Scorpion Sleeps," with its boot-stomping intro plays like Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll, Pt.1" blaring from angel's trumpets at the apocalypse, "Ride," with its Tubular Bells-inspired piano riff, evolves into a storm of sonic debauchery, and the purely psychedelic singalong "Death of It All" sounds like the end credits to the last film ever. Schlock it may be, but it's infinitely more listenable -- and enjoyable -- than most schlock thinks it is. Reverend Lee Power