Zebrahead
MFZB
Columbia
Hmmm… Weird band name, and not at all what I had expected this to be. I figured that this would be some nu-metal goth album, but it’s actually a cross between major label punk, watered down gutter punk and rap-metal. Go figure…
What’s funny is that I actually like some of the songs on MFZB. The vocalist has a well-trained singing voice, but he’s also able to growl and get tough. The guitars remind me of early 1990s Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph bands, a la Propaghandi, Hi-Standard, etc. The drummer for Zebrahead is an absolute machine, hitting his drums both fast and extremely hard. The songs here are solid hard rock pop numbers with occasional pseudo-emo styling, but without the corny pretension. The aspects of rap-metal which float in and out of focus are what keep this album from actually being something I’d ever listen to again. The vocalist does some super-corny 311 sounding white boy rap stuff that not only sounds bad, but is also quite boring.
I’ll never listen to this one again, as the “rap” parts are unforgivable. But were I a fan of that kind of music, I would be quite delighted to hear MFZB. Seriously! I actually like these guys much more than 311, Limp Bizkit, Mest, or any of the other nu-metal rap schlock of the last few years.
Zebrahead: http://www.zebrahead.com/
