Stoakes’ Song of the Week
Continuing our horror theme throughout October, today I am in the mood for some Alt Metal. A Halloween party isn’t complete without at least one of this guys songs and the song I’ve got for you today, I think, is his best!
Our offering today is a song written by a multi talented individual, not only is he a singer he has also achieved cult status as a horror film director. I am talking about the shock rocker himself, Rob Zombie and this, his song Dragula!
Dragula has become one of Rob Zombie’s most iconic songs. It was released in August 1998 as the lead single from his solo debut Hellbilly Deluxe. Having sold over 717,000 copies in the U.S it is also Rob Zombie’s highest selling song. According to Zombie, it was written about the drag racer “DRAG-U-LA” from the American sitcom The Munsters.
He goes on to say that it “was a classic show with great comic characters. Strangely enough, ‘Dragula’ was one of the last songs finished for the record. It fell together really fast and worked, but it could just as easily not [have] been on the record” – imagine a world without this iconic song!
The song lyrically speaks of “a Sunday drive with the Devil”, according to US gamer. The song’s opening line, “superstition, fear, and jealousy”, is taken from the British horror film The City of the Dead (1960). It is mostly a mid-tempo song that features elements of industrial metal and alternative metal music.
The album was received rather well with critics generally praising the effort, Rolling Stone said the album “is a force to be reckoned with – pulverizing hard-rock riffs propelled by drums and electronic percussion, a sonic assault that, under all the bombast, is as meticulously arranged as any Whitney Houston track”!
Rob Zombie has to date directed ten films, released six studio albums and acted in countless TV shows and films. Of all this material, Dragula in my opinion is by far his best work! What a track, what an album! Enjoy!
