During the pandemic lockdown of 2020, Powerman 5000 released their tenth studio album, ‘The Noble Rot’. Beyond the band’s hardcore fans, the album went largely unnoticed, but it actually contained some great material. It was actually a contender for being the best Powerman album since the shelved ‘Anyone For Doomsday’ – excepting 2011’s brilliant covers collection ‘Copies, Clones & Replicants’ – and proved that Spider One was still capable of sharing some great riffs. Much like the rest of the PM5K catalogue, it showed his willingness to follow a musical muse, whatever the style, and it’s succinct and vinyl friendly half hour playing time ensured there was no obvious filler.
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POWERMAN 5000 – The Noble Rot
It must be hard having an older brother who is more famous than you. For Powerman 5000’s Spider One – younger brother of the legendary musician and film-maker Rob Zombie – it has meant constantly playing second fiddle in the rock press. Powerman have received some absolutely scathing reviews over the years – and most of them unfair. They’ve recorded some great work. Their ‘Blood-Splat Rating System’ full length (reissued as ‘Mega! Kung Fu Radio’ with the addition of a couple of earlier EP tracks) featured some cracking songs, even if it showed signs of a band still in need of some refinement. 1999’s mega-selling ‘Tonight The Stars Revolt’ remains an alternative metal classic; its riff heavy and hook heavy style could easily go head to head against Rob’s best work, and its sci-fi obsessed lyrics really helped to give PM5K a strong identity. Had the follow up ‘Anyone For Doomsday?’ not been pulled from release at the eleventh hour, the band’s quest for world domination would have been assured, but with shifting line-ups and varying musical styles dominating the next couple of releases, Powerman became very much more of a cult band.