Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor is the fifth solo studio album by Rob Zombie. The album was released on April 23, 2013, four days after the release of Zombie's film The Lords of Salem. The track listing was confirmed on Zombie's Facebook page on February 22. This is the first Rob Zombie album to feature drummer Ginger Fish who, like John 5, was previous a member of the bandMarilyn Manson. A music video for the album's first single "Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown" was released April 8, 2013. For Record Store Day 2013, Zombie released a promotional single for "Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown" on 10 inch colored vinyl printed on a reverse groove, with artwork by Alex Horley. This featured a slightly alternate edit of "Dead City Radio" clocking in at 3:54 instead of 3:28 which included an extended prechorus and outro not heard on the full album release. Best Buy stores offered a limited edition featuring a 3D sticker cover with a code for exclusive behind-the-scenes footage on the making of the album.
Sales and reception
The album received generally mixed reviews from critics. The album was credited by some, while criticized by others. A rather negative review came from Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine stating "there seems to be a concept album tying together but it'd require patience to piece together, patience that only fanboys could afford." He also questioned Zombie's decision to cover the Grand Funk Railroad's song We're an American Band: "Why he decided to cover Grand Funk Railroad is anybody's guess -- maybe somebody at the label thought it'd help get him on the radio, but at this point nobody should be under any illusion that Rob Zombie could expand his audience." A more positive review came from Chuck Armstrong of Loudwire who called it "Arguably his best album since his debut masterpiece.", before closing his review with it "will be an album that you listen to from beginning to end, and then you’ll want to do it all over again." Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor sold 34,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
