La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One
Studio album by
White Zombie
ReleasedMarch 17, 1992 (1992-03-17)
RecordedMay 1991
Studio321 Studios (New York City)
GenreGroove metal[1]
Length57:30
LabelGeffen
ProducerAndy Wallace
White Zombie chronology
God of Thunder
(1989)		 La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One
(1992)		 Astro-Creep: 2000
(1995)
Singles from La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One
  1. "Thunder Kiss '65"
    Released: 1992
  2. "Black Sunshine"
    Released: 1992
Audio
"Album" playlist on YouTube

La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One is the third studio album by American heavy metal band White Zombie, released on March 17, 1992, through Geffen Records. The album marked a major artistic and commercial turning point for the band. After the recruitment of guitarist Jay Noel Yuenger, White Zombie was able to successfully embrace the metal sound they had pursued since Make Them Die Slowly (1989), while incorporating groove-based elements into their sound as they evolved away from their roots in punk rock and noise rock. The album was the band's last to feature drummer Ivan de Prume.

The album was a critical and commercial success for White Zombie after the artistic failure of Make Them Die Slowly. La Sexorcisto became the band's first album to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 26 in 1993. The singles "Thunder Kiss '65" and "Black Sunshine" received heavy rotation on rock radio and MTV, the former earning the band their first Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. The album has been certified two times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the United States.

Album information

The album's sound is primarily groove metal with multiple B-movie samples. Rob Zombie explained he "wanted to keep a groovable dance element in the music", a trait that he found was often absent in metal music of the era. Iggy Pop provided a spoken introduction to the single "Black Sunshine".

In a 2021 interview, Sean Yseult reflected that the band were influenced by rap music during this time, including Ice-T, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, and Public Enemy: "Rob was very intent on merging some of the rhythms and beats of what we were hearing into some of our songs, and it worked well."[2]

Contrary to rumors, a "Devil Music Volume Two" was never planned for recording or release. Almost every song on the album made an appearance on the 1994 video game Way of the Warrior.

Touring and promotion

White Zombie toured for two years to promote La Sexorcisto. The tour was a critical success and some archived footage of the shows can be seen on the Let Sleeping Corpses Lie DVD. White Zombie began a five-month U.S. tour in April 1992, supporting such bands as My Sister's Machine, Paw, Testament, Pantera, Trouble and Crowbar.[3] In the fall of 1992, the band opened for Danzig on their How the Gods Kill tour in Europe and the United States, and wrapped up the year doing a brief U.S. tour, again supporting Pantera.[3] White Zombie spent most of 1993 and 1994 touring non-stop in support of La Sexorcisto. They toured with Monster Magnet in February and March 1993 and with Anthrax and Quicksand that summer.[3] White Zombie embarked on two more U.S. tours: one with Chemlab and Nudeswirl in the fall of 1993, and another with Prong and The Obsessed in early 1994.[3] The La Sexorcisto tour concluded in May 1994 with four Japanese shows, which were supported by Pantera.[3]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal7/10[5]
Rock Hard9/10[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[7]

La Sexorcisto was both a critical and commercial success for White Zombie, climbing up the charts in the US and gaining massive MTV video airplay and mainstream rock radio airplay with "Thunder Kiss '65" and "Black Sunshine". Although released in early 1992, La Sexorcisto did not enter the Billboard 200 until 1993,[8] after the success of "Thunder Kiss '65", which reached number 26 on the Mainstream Rock chart.[9] It was certified Double Platinum by the RIAA, and gold by the CRIA.

Jacob N. Lunders of AllMusic praised the album with 4.5 out of 5 stars and claimed "Perhaps co-defining the future of heavy metal, White Zombie's major-label debut nearly equals fellow classics Guns N' Roses's Appetite for Destruction, The Cult's Electric, and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger in significance".[4] In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked La Sexorcisto as 93rd on their list of 'The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time'.[10]

Adam McCann of Metal Digest praised La Sexorcisto as both a "seminal" and a "massive 90's album", and wrote, "This was the album which saw White Zombie take their sound to the next level by inserting a rocket into their rectum. Tracks such as 'Thunder Kiss '65' and 'Black Sunshine' saw the band prominently feature on MTV and before too long, White Zombie posters began to adorn thousands of teenage bedrooms."[11]

Accolades

Year Publication Country Accolade Rank
1996VisionsGermany "The Eternal Readers Charts"36[12]
2006Rock SoundUnited Kingdom "Les 150 Albums De La Génération"95[13]
2005Rock HardGermany "The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time"282[14]
2017Rolling StoneUnited States "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time"93[15]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Rob Zombie; all music is composed by White Zombie

No.TitleLength
1."Welcome to Planet Motherfucker/Psychoholic Slag"6:21
2."Knuckle Duster (Radio 1-A)"0:21
3."Thunder Kiss '65"3:54
4."Black Sunshine" (featuring Iggy Pop)4:49
5."Soul-Crusher"5:07
6."Cosmic Monsters Inc."5:13
7."Spiderbaby (Yeah-Yeah-Yeah)"5:01
8."I Am Legend"5:08
9."Knuckle Duster (Radio 2-B)"0:25
10."Thrust!"5:04
11."One Big Crunch"0:21
12."Grindhouse (A Go-Go)"4:05
13."Starface"5:02
14."Warp Asylum"6:44
Total length:57:30

Some pressings of the CD incorrectly divide tracks 12 and 13, beginning track 13 at 3:31 of "Grindhouse (A Go-Go)".

Sample overview

# Title Samples[16]
1 "Welcome to Planet Motherfucker/Psychoholic Slag"
2 "Knuckle Duster (Radio 1-A)"
  • 0:02 – "Ahorre, no compre sin visitar Empori..." is taken from a radio ad in Spanish. Translates to "Save, don't buy without visiting Empori..."
  • 0:07 – "We know how fast we can go" is taken from the 1965 cult film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
  • 0:17 – "These are the facts as we know them. There is an epidemic of mass murders being committed by a virtual army of unidentified assassins" is taken from the 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead during a radio broadcast.
  • 0:17 – The screaming in the background (sans falling lumber) is from the first scene of "True Confessions of Tori Welles" (with Tori Welles and Jerry Butler), approximately 10 minutes in.
3 "Thunder Kiss '65"
4 "Black Sunshine"
5 "Soul-Crusher"
6 "Cosmic Monsters Inc."
7 "Spiderbaby (Yeah-Yeah-Yeah)"
8 "I Am Legend" --
9 "Knuckle Duster (Radio 2-B)"
  • 0:00 – "Now, what we have to ask is why is it that God has admonished us to hate evil? Well, first of all, God loves ..." from a sermon by Atlanta pastor, Dr. Charles Stanley.
  • 0:09 – "Y cuando tu vuelvas.." Daniel Santos – "Como se van las noches"
  • 0:14 – "... And strangled them and finally dismembered their bodies"
  • 0:20 – "homelessness and all that ..." sample are the words of the American radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
  • 0:21 – "And now, the voice you've been waiting for ..."
10 "Thrust!"
11 "One Big Crunch"
12 "Grindhouse (A Go-Go)" --
13 "Starface"
  • 0:00 – "One. One is the beginning..." and "Oh Herbert, you are stiff!" samples from the beginning and end of the song are taken from the 1969 episode of Star Trek: The Original Series entitled "The Way to Eden"
  • 0:18 – "X minus 5 seconds..." sample is taken from the 1950 science fiction film Rocketship X-M
  • 2:27 – In the background there is an eerie jingle playing; this is from 1979's Phantasm. This sound effect was used earlier as the shuttlecraft interior sound effects throughout the run of the aforementioned Star Trek: The Original Series. (On the album Star Trek: Sound Effects from the Original TV Soundtrack, it is Track 69—do a search for "shuttlecraft interior" on YouTube for confirmation.)
14 "Warp Asylum"
  • 6:13 – ""Thank you so very much! God bless you all. Have a ball, and goodnight." Near the end part of "Let's Do It," a track on "Jayne Mansfield Busts Up Las Vegas"
  • 6:23 – "A few of these sentences have already begun to take root in your subconscious mind, haven't they? If you play the record a few more times, you'll be amazed at how easily you have begun to understand." (source unknown)

Personnel

Adapted from the La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One liner notes.[17]

Chart positions

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[21] 2× Platinum 2,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Region Date Label Format Catalog
United States 1992 Geffen CD, CS, LP GEF 24460
Europe 2012 Music on Vinyl LP MOVLP534

References

  1. ↑ Enis, Eli (March 21, 2022). "15 Great Bands That Sound Totally Different From Their Debut Albums". Revolver. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Motor-Psycho Nightmares: White Zombie's Sean Yseult on 29 years of La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. 1". gutfeeling.substack.com. 26 March 2021. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "White Zombie Tour Dates". metallipromo.com. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  4. 1 2 Lunders, Jacob N. "White Zombie: La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1 Review". AllMusic. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  5. ↑ Popoff, Martin (2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 499. ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9.
  6. ↑ Deese, Uwe. "Rock Hard review". Rock Hard. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  7. ↑ Brackett, Nathan. "White Zombie". November 2004. pg. 870, cited March 17, 2010.
  8. ↑ "La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1 - White Zombie : Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  9. ↑ "White Zombie - Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  10. ↑ "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. June 21, 2017. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  11. ↑ "White Zombie – 'La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One' – Metal Digest – The Normless Magazine". metal-digest.com. Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Visions - The Eternal Readers Charts". Visions. Archived from the original on December 27, 2008. Retrieved January 18, 2010.
  13. ↑ "Rock Sound - Les 150 Albums De La Génération". Rock Sound. Retrieved January 18, 2010.
  14. ↑ Best of Rock & Metal - Die 500 stärksten Scheiben aller Zeiten (in German). Rock Hard. 2005. p. 99. ISBN 3-89880-517-4.
  15. ↑ "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 21 June 2017.
  16. ↑ "White Zombie's Sample-Based Music". WhoSampled. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
  17. ↑ La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One (booklet). White Zombie. Los Angeles, California: Geffen Records. 1992.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  18. 1 2 "White Zombie – Billboard Albums". AllMusic. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
  19. 1 2 "White Zombie – Billboard Singles". AllMusic. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
  20. ↑ White Zombie in New Zealand Charts. Charts.Org.NZ. Retrieved on June 3, 2009.
  21. ↑ "American album certifications – White Zombie – La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. I". Recording Industry Association of America.
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