Hellbilly Deluxe - Composition

Composition

" I still think the '70s was the last great time where films were being made for the sake of the film and not for the sake of the money."

— Zombie on 1970s horror films, which had influence over Hellbilly Deluxe.

Hellbilly Deluxe features a wide variety of musical styles, mainly heavy metal, industrial metal, and groove metal. Nearly all of the songs, including singles "Living Dead Girl" and "Superbeast" feature music styles with elements of horror film and suspense in them. Allmusic compared the album's musical themes to a White Zombie record, stating it was "complete with thunderous industrial rhythms, drilling metal guitars, and B-movie obsessions." Entertainment Weekly spoke about the album's horror film qualities, stating it had "concocted a veritable blood feast of hair-raising guitars, spine-tingling drum loops, and a cast of ghoulish characters who could be refugees from an old William Castle horror flick." LegendsMagazine stated "the songs follow the same formula of anger, sex, death, monster, demon, zombie, satanic, drug abuse kinda raw drive a tractor over your neighbor's skull kinda hate the world so I'll burn it all down music." Songs such as "Living Dead Girl" and "Meet the Creeper" have been described as highlights, while "Demenoid Phenomenon" and "Superbeast" "suggest holds a joint account somewhere with Mr. Lucifer himself." Songs "Superbeast" and "Dragula" were described as "hard metal", while songs such as "How to Make a Monster" and "What Lurks on Channel X?" have a more "aesthetic" approach to them. In their review of Hellbilly Deluxe 2, IGN stated that the original album had an "infectious, fire-and-brimstone vibe". Hellbilly Deluxe also "continue to explore Zombie's fascination with psychotic noise, pummeling grooves, campy samples, and all things horrific."

Several of the songs found on Hellbilly Deluxe feature samples and lines from classic horror films. The line "Who is this irresistible creature who has an insatiable love for the dead?", played at the beginning of "Living Dead Girl", is from the trailer for the 1971 Italian horror film Lady Frankenstein. The opening music for the same song is taken from the trailer for the Wes Craven film The Last House on the Left. The opening line of "Dragula", "superstition, fear, and jealousy", is taken from the movie The City of the Dead. The lines "don't lie to yourself, it gave you pleasure" and "enjoy the dead girl's body", found in "Demenoid Phenomenon", are both taken from the 1971 film Daughters of Darkness. In "Meet the Creeper", the line "The devil is in all of you!" is taken from the film Mark of the Devil, while the line "Are all maniacs worse than one thinks?" is taken from Daughters of Darkness. "What Lurks on Channel X?" also features samples. The line "13 acres of hell" is taken from The Last House on the Left. The lines "Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make the following statment. The young generation, that sick generation...", and "Impressionable young people, brutal honesty will be shown on this screen." are both taken from the film The Undertaker and His Pals. The line "She lays there, waiting for the sacrifice" can be found in "Return of the Phantom Stranger", and is taken from the film The Satanic Rites of Dracula.