POP MUSIC REVIEWS : White Zombie Plays to B & B Generation

“You guys are a bunch of real-life Beavis and Butt-heads!” singer Rob Zombie shouted to the crowd at White Zombie’s Hollywood Palladium concert on Friday.

And he should know, because MTV’s cretinous cartoon critics helped propel White Zombie into the big-time long after “La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. 1,” its major-label debut album of often tongue-in-cheek metal, had stalled out of the gate.

The New York quartet’s appeal to the B&B; generation is obvious: dreadlocks, tattoos, and manic energy, and the lyrics’ over-the-top trash-culture homages, were enough to keep a giant mosh pit busy during White Zombie’s entire 70-minute performance. The group proved capable of out-grunging any grunge band and out-metaling even the most ridiculous metal lineup, though on a purely musical level there’s not great deal of variety in White Zombie’s heavy-grooving material.

Strong songs like “Thunder Kiss ‘65” and “Black Sunshine” were basically interchangeable with any of the other numbers in the band’s dozen-song set, proving that ultimately, whether taken at face value or appreciated for its cool underground references and schlock-rock humor, White Zombie’s end result remains the same: an entertaining if repetitive bombardment of light and sound.