Ten years and six albums since Zebrahead’s first studio album and the boys are back with their latest release Phoenix.
With each album spaning so many genres and different sounds & considering that their last release (Broadcast to the World) was over two years ago, I was jumping with anticipation to see what would come out of Phoenix.
Opening with the line “Ladies and gentleman welcome to the show” track one HMP kicks you in the nuts with what can only be described as a frantic, fast paced, disco, hardcore sound. This track encompasses what Zebrahead is all about and even though I’m still trying to decide what exactly this is after 10 years, I do know that I love it. This is a perfect start track with a great energy that really helps set up a good time for the rest of the album.
With the first single, Mental Health consisting of clapping, “Hey,Heys!”, “1 2 3 4s”, catchy guitar riffs and sweet breakdowns I’m starting to get the impression that this album is all about the ever popular punk pop sound. Fortunately there’s that extra twist of Zebrahead which helps Phoenix avoid being dumped with other lame bands that continue to push their own generic version of the pop punk formula.
Some of the songs that fall heavily into the pop punk hotpot are The Juggernauts with its chanting chorus, Be Careful What You Wish For and Brixton, to name a few.
The signature combination of rap and melodic vocals are platinum Zebrahead and are present on most songs in Phoenix. Even if Hell Yeah does somehow remind me of The Offspring, it’s hard to hold it against them as this is a band that has done their time and delivered the goods on each and every album.
Another familiar characteristic of Zebrahead is that they don’t fit into any particular genre and have covered everything from funk metal, pop punk, alternative rock and rapcore. For the second half of the album the band tends to veer away from their pop punk sound and stretch their boundaries. This keeps things interesting by providing you with a couple of tracks that compliment and break up this festival of pop punk.
Ignite is a more funk/punk driven track with some great use of guitar and bass to really make it stand out and provide a rather upbeat sound which is easy to get your jig/skank on.
Mike Dexter Is A God, Mike Dexter Is A Role Model, Mike Dexter Is An Asshole is all ska baby with great guitar work and if you listen closly you can even hear an organ thrown in for good measure. As with any Ska song this ones great to listen too while drinking beer in the sun. I’m assuming that the title of this song is a throw back to 1998 film Can’t Hardly Wait.
The Junkie and the Halo has a distinctive surf/spy rock feel to it which allows for some great 5-0 guitar moments, more organ and great driving rhythms.
Other stand out tracks that round out the album include, Morse Code For Suckers and more rapcore with Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three rights make a left.
Final Verdict: If you’re a fan you’ll love this album as it delivers exactly what you would expect and want from Zebrahead.
90 / 100 pennies
Highlight Tracks: All of them but in particular, HMP, Mental Health, Ignite, Brixton and Hit the Ground
Nice to see you didn’t stretch yourself on the final verdict and after a bit of editing, the reviews turned out pretty good.
I’m still not quite sure if this will beat their last record Broadcast to the world, as this heavy sounding album was my favorite release of theirs.
Phoenix has so many catchy pop punk songs it reminds me a lot of Playmate of the year. I think the only bad side to this album is that some of the tracks do stray dangerously close to sounding like Linkin Park. Just listen to The Juggernaughts or All for none & none for all and tell me the vocals don’t sound like the Chester’s.
Zebrahead have also recently announced an American tour, so hopefully they’ll finally get their lazy arses out to Australia. A new CD / DVD has also been announced featuring Broadcast to the world with artwork from Shaun Harris (the matches) & some live footage & music videos. Keep a look out for this one on August 5th.
Wooo!