Soul-Crusher - Reception

Reception

The reception of the album, at the time, was somewhat positive. A significant amount of praise was directed at Rob's creative and bizarre lyrical contributions. Sean recalls that "Critics seemed to enjoy Rob's psychotic lyrics, so much so that their entire review would try to emulate his style, which was entertaining". Professional music critics occasionally list it as being a definitive noise rock album and a highlight of the band's career. Bradley Torreano of Allmusic awarded it 4 out of 5 stars, praising the lyrics and deeming it "a prime slab of noise rock that has aged shockingly well" and that although "Zombie fans might not even like this that much, but no less of an authority than Kurt Cobain himself pointed to this period in their career as one of his biggest influences". Historian Piero Scaruffi gave it a 7 out of 10, citing it as one of the band's greatest works and later deeming it one of the best records of the '80s. Billy Lucas and David Stubbs of Melody Maker Magazine praised the artwork, lyrics, "slammer guitars", and "scrawling vocals" on the album. Sounds gave the album three out of five stars; the reviewer citing that the album contained "No melody, little arrangement, just a cacophony of unlovely, forbidding noise that bloodies the nose of rock 'n' roll." Iggy Pop, the former front-man of The Stooges, was an admirer of the album and listed it as one of his favorite records of 1988 in the "Readers and Critics Poll" for Rolling Stone.

The album, however, has not gone without criticism. Sean noted that "People either loved or hated it--or were full of self-loathing and loved to be tortured by it." Creem described Soul-Crusher as the "most obnoxious sound of the year" and that "no one in the black concert T is ever gonna like White Zombie". Fans of the band's later albums usually dismiss the album, as with most of the band's back catalogue, because of its different style.