Following the belated surprise success of
La Sexorcisto,
Astro-Creep: 2000 carried the weight of high expectations, something that
White Zombie was never familiar with before. Unsurprisingly,
White Zombie plays it safe on
Astro-Creep, never straying from their white-trash-on-acid metal. While it's undeniably campy, the band genuinely loves the trash they sing about, so they fit right into the tradition of tongue-in-cheek heavy metal bands from
Alice Cooper to
Kiss. Where those bands relied on songcraft beneath their shtick,
White Zombie relies on a full-throttle roar. Borrowing such techniques as distorted vocals and drilling riffs from pseudo-industrial metal like
Ministry, the band beefs up their basic sound, making it powerful enough to disguise the lack of solid song structures and memorable riffs. Sonically,
Astro-Creep delivers the initial goods, yet it never develops into trash as substantial as "Thunder Kiss '65." [
Astro-Creep: 2000 was also released in a "clean" edition, containing no profanities or vulgarities.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine