White Zombie Bio

Founded by Rob Zombie (lyrics/ vocals/ art) after coming up with the band idea in 1985 while attending at Parsons in his Junior year. Rob's girlfriend at the time, Sean Yseult, was on bass. Eventually Rob found and hired a drummer, Peter Landau, and a guitarist, Paul Ena Kostabi. Based in New York City, White Zombie was originally a noise rock band in the vein of fellow New York band Sonic Youth; Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and fellow alternative rock icon Kurt Cobain have professed to be fans of their early work. White Zombie's first release was an EP titled Gods on Voodoo Moon and was recorded on October 18, 1985. Only 300 copies were pressed, of which only 100 were sold - the band members still retain possession of the remaining 200. Following disagreements, both Peter and Paul were fired.

In 1986, Rob hired Tim Jeffs as the second guitarist who only appeared on the first pressing of the band's second EP Pig Heaven and played during a few live shows. The guitarist was quickly replaced by Tom Guay later that year who would appear on the second pressing of Pig Heaven, play guitar on the bands third EP Psycho-Head Blowout in 1987, and their first full length 1987 album Soul-Crusher. John Ricci replaced Tom Guay shortly after the release of Soul-Crusher, only to quit in 1989 after the release of their second LP Make Them Die Slowly. Jay Yuenger or "J." then replaced Ricci for the remainder of the band's years, which saw them in a more metal-influenced direction.

After Peter Landau was fired, Ivan de Prume was hired for drums. His time in the band lasted until the ending of the La Sexorcisto tour, when he was fired and replaced by Phil Buerstatte or "Philo". Phil only appeared on various singles the band released between albums and was soon fired due to Rob's dislike for him. He was soon replaced by John Tempesta who had previously played for Exodus and Testament.

The band cut a number of semi-independent recordings in New York in the 1980s, these included the albums Soul-Crusher and Make Them Die Slowly, as well as the EPs Pig Heaven, Psycho-Head Blowout, and God of Thunder. White Zombie's first major-label album, La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1, was released in 1992, and the band's profile was raised significantly in 1993 through frequent references on Beavis and Butt-head and other MTV programming.

Their major label debut was followed in 1995 by Astro Creep: 2000. In 1996, an album of remixes was released under the title Supersexy Swingin' Sounds.

White Zombie was known for combining heavy-metal music with driving lead guitar riffs (as on "Super-Charger Heaven"), overlayed with lyrics heavily influenced by horror films, with Satanic and often nonsensical imagery. Unlike other metal bands of the 1990s, White Zombie was exclusively a "fantasy" band, one that wrote songs not about real life, but simply about surreal horror fantasies, backed by whimsical live tours.

The group officially disbanded in 1998 shortly after the release of Rob Zombie's solo album Hellbilly Deluxe.