You can rip on my credentials all you want, but Rob Zombie has been one of this reviewer’s guilty pleasures over the years. His blend of 50’s style campy horror schlock and hard rock is different, yet catchy enough to be entertaining. Yet on “Educated Horses”, Zombie strips down from his usual shtick, and gives a more honest, stripped down sound. The 11 song album is wildly erratic, but provides some shining moments, and others that make the listener cringe.

Fresh off directing two movies, the over the top “House of 1,000 Corpses”, and the shockingly well done “Devil’s Rejects”, Zombie focuses back on music, but without so much of the signature Zombie sound that has made him famous throughout the years. “Horses” starts out with a blast with “American Witch”, a dose of non-electronic sounding hard rock that is one of the closest sounding songs to his past on the record.

The album slides into a tailspin with the first single “Foxy, Foxy”, where Zombie goes into a 70’s rock groove that probably intended being a much better song, but the execution is lousy. “17 Year Locust” sounds like a retread of “Living Dead Girl”, but with the sitar interlude, it just sounds uninspired.

Where Zombie does succeed is keeping out the samples on the record, and sticking with the rock. Tracks like “Let It All Bleed Out”, and “Ride”, Zombie switches up his formula ever so slightly, but keeps the songs from unbecoming unrecognizable (or “Foxy, Foxy”).

The title track to his “Devil’s Rejects” movie is best left on the soundtrack, and not on his album fans have waited five years for. But the closing track, “Lords of Salem” is a big, loud track that will be a good one to hear live, with the wall of sound from bassist Blasko and new guitarist John 5.

Zombie has taken out the elements that gave him a creative foothold in the rock world, and created a daring record. Too bad only part of it works…

GRADE: C+