Zozobra is basically the one-man-band side project of Cave In bassist Caleb Scofield.
Sonically there are a few similarities, most notably the expansive space rock vibe; but with Zozobra Scofield gets to indulge his metal side a bit more by pouring over a thick layer of sludge, turning the Orange amps up to 11 and smashing out some big fucking riffs.
Back before there was an internet to kill music with, we used to have to do our bit by trading cassettes; and this is how I first heard Strapping Young Lad, when a grubby TDK90 was shoved into my hand by a tall, excitable and wafro'd chum from a former life. Side A had SYL's debut Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing on it; side B was full of odd 70's psych-prog.
That tape got rewound a lot.
I'm generally quite wary of metal bands that use keyboards. SYL get away with it for a number of reasons, the main one being that they are fucking righteous.
I realise this may seem a bit bandwagon-jumpy; since the sad passing of Adam Yauch earlier this month there's been no shortage of tributes to the Beastie Boys. Which is fair enough, they were pretty great.
Here's the thing. It's probably not the most popular opinion, but I think the Beastie Boys were kind of overrated as a hip-hop act. Not bad, just not that great.
But as a hardcore, jazz and funk outfit, they were awesome.
I realise that these electro doom behemoths were the greatest band in the world less than a year ago; and whilst I don't like to repeat myself too much on this shitty blog, there is no escaping the fact that I have been listening to their new record The Colonial Script quite a lot this week.
It is bowel-shattering.
In a good way.
It was hard to imagine things getting any darker after last year's doom masterpiece Music Of Bleak Origin; but Necro Deathmort have managed it on the new record with a black mass of ambient doomscapes and the kind of apocalyptic riffing that will reduce your fucking skull to ash.
