DOWNLOAD Discography Vol. 1, by Song Of Zarathustra, HERE
DOWNLOAD The Birth of Tragedy, by Song Of Zarathustra, HERE
Song Of Zarathustra – “Black and Blue Award” MP3/download
I’d only previously heard Song Of Zarathustra through their split LP with Racebannon, and that was a rough spot to start from; by then, they sounded like Snapcase more than Saetia, and it wasn’t pretty.
I had a feeling there might be more to the story, and there is: Apparently, SoZ were quite the little shit-kicking screamo outfit, as heavy and math-driven as most of the Level Plane-affiliated groups of the era — sort of the post-metal measuring stick of the time — and beyond. Discography Vol. 1 is a testament to their raw, rough and rampage-ready years.
Song Of Zarathustra took a lot of routes to the brain, but the following loom particularly large (either because they influenced SoZ or, more likely, because SoZ influenced them):
- Jerome’s Dream, whose discography — along with much of the underground/power violence/grind of the era — has been anthologized wonderfully
- Don’t forget about Jenny Piccolo (or, for that matter, The Locust/Holy Molar/Swing Kids/Antioch Arrow, though there are several key differences in all of these bands)
- The Red Scare, one of my all-time favorite random life discoveries, to me fit in the mix even though they came in on the tail end of what Song were doing
- Bleeding Kansas? I’ll buy that
- Orchid? Bucket Full Of Teeth? HAHAHA, (yes)
- I never skip an opportunity to mention Usurp Synapse, so there you go
- Sinaloa are another name I tend to throw out at times like this
- I’d consider Training For Utopia to be very Song Of Zarathustra-influenced
- I’ll got one more: Ultra Dolphins (don’t laugh until you’ve heard it)
Now that we’ve cataloged what we’re hearing, let us kick back and let the cinder blocks slowly bash us in the face-brain, our blood pouring like a river of justice and splattering like a fountain of lost promise. OH LORD, JUST TAKE ME NOW!!!
‘Cept I’m not ready to go; not yet. And so the review will have to continue unabated from this point on. Got to … find a … penetration point … YEEHEOAISFIHASF.
I think I’m back in; or at least I hope so. Anyway, I was thinking about hardcore/metal/yadda-yadda bands and how fragile they are; one slight tweak and a face-splitting, genre-leading maniac can become a timid, knock-kneed Barbara Streisand. Look at all the punk bands that tried to go metal (Suicidal Tendencies and a few other excepted), or all the groups that switched members and became cold, pale shadows of their former selves. It happens all the time; all you can do is move on and hope to rebuild, lest you wind up hosting metal jerk-rag shows on VH1 Classic (though I’m available to do spots if anyone’s asking) or working for Justin Beiber’s record label.
The reason I bring this up is my point earlier about Song Of Zarathustra’s less-than-stellar material. I’m not sure what happened to the group before that Racebannon split came out, but something wasn’t right. And, by the same token, when it comes to the Discography material, something was very, VERY right. Almost too right. Music this volatile can fracture families with a single riff and kill a healthy human with one piercing mic-fuck. Don’t look the other way or you might get spleen-shanked, is what I’m saying.
SoZ are a notch in an era of great modern hardcore/metal bands that dispensed with predictable song formats altogether, embracing the unknown and rarely revisiting a riff or sequence at a predictable interval. I have zero net resistance to this artform. It’s so fluid, and it’s almost impossible to remember anything until you’ve heard it a dozen times or so, as with constant fluctuation comes a consistent scrambling of a listener’s memory (which is used to patterns, hooks and gimmicks; none here, thanks).
I’m not sure where I’m going with this. I’ve been rambling so I’ll close down shop, but remember this: We need to keep all honest forms of hardcore alive.
