Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Intensely Eerie Italians...

Zippo - Maktub (2012)


I love a good 'guest appearance' on an album. Beastie Boys and Kerry King, The Prodigy and Tom Morello, hell even Ray Davis with Metallica. When it works its great, when it doesn't... Well then you just have a kinda of Soulfly and Fred Durst scenario on your hands and no one wants that. Again.
Fortunately for Italian 5 piece stoner doom outfit Zippo, they landed quite a power house of a name, within the stoner rock community at least - one Mr Ben Ward. Maybe not a house hold name but for all of you who are currently squinting at this with a quizzical look on your face he's the hairy tattooed chap who fronts the might Orange Goblin.
So they must have a fair bit of talent, or at least some good contacts to land a guest like that you'd think right? Well, yeah you'd be pretty accurate to be fair. Like bit of a mix of A Perfect Circle meets Machine Head, they admittedly wouldn't really be to my taste usually, but Zippo have kind of put a bit of a different spin on things. Like a reinvented industrial kind of sound with more melancholia and a distinct classic desert rock sort of mysticism intertwined within the riffs. Really sort of strange and eerie at times it doesn't quite slip into the label of 'prog' but it is none the less entirely unique. Or at least unique to me, being as I've on the whole never really ventured too deeply into the realms of the industrial scene. There are elements there that do ring clear of a touch of Maynard James Keenan, which does pain me to say as I personally can't stand the man, but alas I can somewhat recognise his talent within the aforementioned genre. Extremely well produced and polished the album is a blindingly good effort regardless of what style you want to label it. Definitely worth checking out even if on the face of things it may not sound like your cup of tea. But for anyone who even in the slightest bit a Tool or A Perfect Circle fan... Well I'd put money on it being a sure fire hit.

~Jay
   
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