Critical Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Entertainment Weekly | (C+) |
| Legends Magazine | |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Yahoo! Music | (favorable) |
The album received generally mixed reviews from critics. The album was credited by some for its horror film feel, while criticized by others. Allmusic gave the album a positive review, stating Hellbilly Deluxe "delivers the goods, arguably even better than . To outsiders, the entire schlock enterprise may seem ridiculous or sound monotonous, but even the weak cuts here hit hard and give fans exactly what they want." Rolling Stone praised the album, commenting "The music on Hellbilly, as usual with Zombie, 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." PopStops also enjoyed the album, and added "This is an album that rarely ever gets out of overdrive. Zombie growls his lyrics over a bed of car crash crunching guitars and pounding industrial rhythms. No surf music here. This is the throbbing gristle of Halloween hellion music."
Not all reviews were positive, though. Entertainment Weekly gave the album a mixed review, writing " It's all a little creepy, to be sure, but Zombie's cartoonish antics are too over-the-top to really get under your skin." Legends Magazine gave the album a generally negative review, commenting "Rob uses a lot of creepy spook-show horror moog sounds and B-movie samples to tie everything together, like a movie." They did, however, praise songs "Superbeast" and "Dragula". Sputnikmusic also had a mixed reaction to the album, stating "It’s a misnomer, however, to label this album as truly “horrific”. At some points the attempts at the horror aesthetic are a bit lame, and uninspired." They did, however, later say "Even with this said, however, these subtle distractions from the “horror” aesthetic are what conclusively give Hellbilly Deluxe its “fun” appeal. All the different aspects of this album come together well, yet sloppily, ultimately ending in a decent and dysfunctional sonic adventure." Yahoo! also criticized the album, writing "Hellbilly Deluxe is an excessively heavy (the best kind), meticulously produced piece of parodic gore-flick metal. The kind of stuff that would be proud to call itself crap with a capital C."
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