Soul-Crusher
| Soul-Crusher | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by White Zombie | ||||
| Released | November 1987 | |||
| Recorded | August 22, 1987 | |||
| Studio | Fun City (New York City, NY) |
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| Genre | Noise rock | |||
| Length | 37:40 | |||
| Label | Silent Explosion, Caroline | |||
| Producer | Wharton Tiers, White Zombie | |||
| White Zombie chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.4/10) |
| The Village Voice | D+ |
Soul-Crusher is the debut studio album of White Zombie, released independently in November 1987 by Silent Explosion. It was the band's second and final release with Tom "Five" Guay on guitar. Building off the sound established on Psycho-Head Blowout, the band matured its sound while placing further emphasis the individual roles of its players. The album caught the attention of major labels and in 1988 was adopted and re-issued by Caroline Records.
Despite its initially limited release and the band's relatively unknown status, the album gained the admiration of musicians such as Kurt Cobain,Iggy Pop, and Thurston Moore. Professional music critics occasionally list it as being a definitive noise rock album and a highlight of the band's career.
The band entered the studio to record Soul-Crusher only three months after the release of their previous album, Psycho-Head Blowout. They decided to recruit Wharton Tiers, who had previously been associated with noise rock bands such as Pussy Galore and Sonic Youth, to produce and engineer the record. This marked the first time White Zombie had worked with a producer on any of their releases. The members of White Zombie claimed to have been more pleased with the production of Soul-Crusher than any other previous recording and praised Tiers for giving them creative freedom during the recording process. However, Sean stated that, "We really do need more direction sometimes. We know what we want, but we're pretty inexperienced in the studio." Rob also expressed his dislike for the way the band sounded, noting that the equipment used in the recording sessions was of poor quality.
Soul-Crusher continued to develop the punk-like noise rock style of its predecessor. The record's sound has been described as "Beefheart in painfully tight trousers trying to scream his way over Sonic Youth and The Birthday Party playing different songs in the same room." Sean has cited The Cramps, The Birthday Party, Flipper, Butthole Surfers, and Black Flag as primary influences to the band during this time. She said, "I would write bass riffs that were very driving and tribal with Ivan’s drums, very Birthday Party and Butthole Surfers-influenced. Then sometimes we would just tell Tom to go nuts and make some noise!". Guay also created entire tracks of guitar feedback and noise, which didn't relate to any of the songs, that the band would proceed to layer over the album. Rob would usually work out the lyrics and vocal arrangement after the music had already been written, sometimes even waiting until the band was in the studio to finish the song. He felt that the band had finally solidified into a unit and that the record perfectly showcased their sound during that era more so than anything else they had recorded before, although he was very critical of the band's music and the noise rock genre at the time, going as far as to say:
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