ZeviousZevious are a unique electric jazz band for the modern era. This instrumental power trio are equally influenced by the sound of early John McLaughlin/Tony Williams Lifetime, Meshuggah, the 'downtown punk-jazz-harmolodic' school (James Blood Ulmer/Music Revelation Ensemble, Decoding Society, Curlew), Magma, Vijay Iyer and Ben Monder among others. This is not your father's jazz band. Zevious used to be a jazz guitar trio. Their 2007 self-titled debut CD featured a set of knotty jazz compositions and technical soloing that the group performed at jazz clubs. Very quickly thereafter, by the beginning of 2008, the band had broken away from the bonds of tradition and were developing a sound that had been developing and incubating since their first album. Mike ditched the jazz guitar for a Telecaster and DeBlase replaced his upright with an electric bass and they both picked up distortion pedals and cranked them up. Zevious began combining progressive rock grooves, tech metal, structured group improvisation, and complex song forms with a conventional jazz sound, creating a unique compositional style. Their new sound points towards a focused musical ground where it is apparent that this band can shred. Their songs now wind through peaks and valleys of odd-metered and hard-hitting bass and drum grooves with contrapuntal guitar interjections that morph into unison riffing, with hard-hitting, complex drum workouts and stop-on-a-dime style guitar breaks coupled with subtle, brooding segments. Their second album After the Air Raid is the culmination of nearly two years of hard compositional and rehearsal labor and showcases a powerful, rhythmically intense and highly structured sound, making this a record with lasting depth. Beautifully and simply recorded, mixed and mastered by Colin Marston (of Behold...the Arctopus), the striking live sound of the band is masterfully presented. |