Disc Deconstruction: Holy City Zoo – Nobody Sells For Less

Holy guitar rock, Batman!  The Zoo (Holy City Zoo, that is) is back and bringing it full frontal with their new EP Nobody Sells for Less.  The only Crazy Eddie these cats evoke is Iron Maiden’s mascot, though.  What I mean is that this album is not a Ponzi scheme or some kind of tax fraud to off shore accounts, this is red blooded american hardcore.  Finally something I can clench my fist, bare my teeth and keep my chin upto.  Lets dissect this bugger.

WW5

War World 5?  Not sure, but I’ll say this: The build into the song is great!  A little guitar then forceful drums coinciding vocals, then like a stealth bomber she takes off!  The chorus rockets off with lead guitar that sounds like its out of an Ikari Warriors reboot for a game system that’s not out yet.  The bridge is a battlefield of guitar.  A lil calm vocal action then climax and it dies out…

Afterburner

… ONLY To blast back off with Afterburner’s hot riff!  She flows into the chorus with dueling vocals… or are they Mexican stand-off vocals? (If this album was made in Mexico they’d just be stand-off vocals).  Back to the riff, then we calm down for a build.  And lead guitar sounds like a dive-bomb at the peak!  Whoa!  Ending with a top off.  I imagine some kind of Blue Angels figure four deal fading into the sunset, Top Gun Style.

Paper Beats Rock

Spillpeak Media’s Al Vasquez put together a sick video of this song.   More reminiscent of HCZ’s previous EP.  Pay attention to the the flourishes between vocals on drum and guitar right before the breakdown.  That’s one thing about the Zoo, they give you a respite before utterly destroying your face with temperatures approaching absolute infinity.  They end it with a little piece of universal truth which is also the song title. And a hard stop.

Medolarke

This could be a b-side from Foo-Fighter’s first Album.  The lead-in is followed by a wheeling guitar part and a call/respond vocal part.  This is the album’s anthem for sure!  Theres a violent trade off on guitar and bass… a small break and a solid piece of drumwork then the fade out.  Nobody Sells For Less leaves you as classically as it entered.

So there you are kids.  One for the record books!  You can find this wonderful EP over at HCZ’s Bandcamp.