Scum of the Earth is the modern rock super-group fronted by former longtime Rob Zombie guitarist Riggs. Along with friends John Dolmayan (System of a Down) and Mike Tempesta (Powerman 5000), Riggs’ artistry and musical vision birthed the band’s debut Blah… Blah… Blah… Love Songs for the New Millennium. It hit hard on topics of lust, carnage, and debauchery strewn across a sanguinary soundscape, with cranium-cracking power and infectious rhythms. So how deep into the fiery pit of diabolical creativity would the axe-wielding singer’s mind take him for the making of the band’s next record? Most recording artists will tell you that when it comes to working on the follow up album to their band’s breakout debut album there is usually a lot anxiety in the hope that the anticipated sophomore release will be as good as its predecessor. As for SCUM OF THE EARTH, this record will prove to be its most abrasive and defining work to date, more than living up to the album title and the band’s moniker. “I think a lot of bands wimp out on their second record” explains Riggs, “so I figured I’d do the exact opposite. Make it as fucked up and crazy as possible. So far, everyone that’s heard it, is liking it a lot better than the last one. There’s more energy throughout the whole thing.”
Riggs says that there is a red-light district vibe on much of the album, one which emanated from his personal experience in and around houses of fleshly sin and ill repute, particularly those in Hamburg, Germany. “Macabro Expectaculo” is Riggs’ stab at organized religion. In the neighborhood where he lives, the townsfolk made him a most attractive offer, one which he declined. “They were going to pay me if I agreed to be saved from the Devil,” says Riggs. “Or, if I wouldn’t agree to be saved from the Devil, they told me I’d have to leave town. It was scary, man. I thought I was going to walk up to my house and there would be somebody sitting on the roof with a rifle.”
In the horrifically thought-provoking rocker, “I Am Monster,” Riggs touches on a most disturbing and murderous subject matter. “I was watching a show on TV about serial killers. Some dude had a scale where he could rate serial killers from 1-20. And I was just thinking about what you would have to do to be the most evil of all time… the poster child for murder and evil. Ask people about it and they all would say different things like Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy or Gacy or Manson or whoever. Like man, what would it take for everybody in the whole world to agree on one person’s name? In the chorus it says ‘I am the face of murder now’ How to get to that point, that’s the tricky part.”
Riggs’ comrades in Scumdom are Skylar on guitar and background vocals, Brandon on bass, and Adrian Ost on drums. The new music, which is thirteen tracks of searing metal, capitalizes on the same formula which worked perfectly on Blah…Blah…Blah…but with more guitar solos, slick, percussive bass lines and Riggs’ trademark blood-steeped lyrics. The first single “Bombshell From Hell,” flaunts a hard-driving, instrumentally lacerating sound, which screams out to the world, letting us know that SCUM OF THE EARTH have been re-animated and are getting their dead on once again.
In 2008, the band released a highly-successful followup album ‘Sleaze Freak‘ which features Ivan De Prume on drums and Metal Sanaz on guest vocals.
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