Why would I do that?
Because, like you, like you school teacher, like the milkman or Edouard Stern, I want to feel pleasure as much as I feel pain, I want to feel pain as if it was a leisure. Basically.
I didn’t know it when I first got their “For the kids by the kids” discography.
The band was defined as chaotic, german, screamo, and from the 90’s, which didn’t give me a clue about how it could sound, and, above all, didn’t prepare me to the shock.
Let’s start, from the least adequate to the most relevant:
- from the 90’s: I listened, and listened, and listened, and I can swear I did not catch a single glimpse of any lousy synth, or bad rapping, or piss-washed gothic moan, or anything I used to associate the 90’s with (I won’t mention failed rap-metal crossover).
- screamo: it screams quite a lot indeed. You got the dissonance, you got the abrupt changes in pace. So I won’t deny it.
- German: most of their song titles are in german, and some of the samples too. But for the rest, it could have been finnish or bulgarian, I wouldn’t have noticed.
- Chaotic: could be the best way to describe it, at the end. It is clearly far away from classical song structure, from any melody, and much closer to experimental gutter and unexpected blasts of violence.
To give a pretty simplistic but clear idea of it, I would say that “For the kids by the kids” sounds like a badly-recorded Converge emulation.
Because, like you, like you school teacher, like the milkman or Edouard Stern, I want to feel pleasure as much as I feel pain, I want to feel pain as if it was a leisure. Basically.
I didn’t know it when I first got their “For the kids by the kids” discography.
The band was defined as chaotic, german, screamo, and from the 90’s, which didn’t give me a clue about how it could sound, and, above all, didn’t prepare me to the shock.
Let’s start, from the least adequate to the most relevant:
- from the 90’s: I listened, and listened, and listened, and I can swear I did not catch a single glimpse of any lousy synth, or bad rapping, or piss-washed gothic moan, or anything I used to associate the 90’s with (I won’t mention failed rap-metal crossover).
- screamo: it screams quite a lot indeed. You got the dissonance, you got the abrupt changes in pace. So I won’t deny it.
- German: most of their song titles are in german, and some of the samples too. But for the rest, it could have been finnish or bulgarian, I wouldn’t have noticed.
- Chaotic: could be the best way to describe it, at the end. It is clearly far away from classical song structure, from any melody, and much closer to experimental gutter and unexpected blasts of violence.
To give a pretty simplistic but clear idea of it, I would say that “For the kids by the kids” sounds like a badly-recorded Converge emulation.
No offense, it is not really badly recorded. But it is neither the carefully well-built wall of sonic energy of the last Converge albums. Which is nice, as far as I am concerned. This way, the Zann music seems closer, more sincere, and completely metal-free.
The singing is also quite different from Jacob Bannon, more high-pitched (or less throaty).
But the overall impression is the same: darkness, violence, chaos. Like Converge, you have to listen actively to the music (loud, if possible). If you don’t, you just get a continuous flow of swamping aggression that may end up with an acute bad mood and headaches.
The singing is also quite different from Jacob Bannon, more high-pitched (or less throaty).
But the overall impression is the same: darkness, violence, chaos. Like Converge, you have to listen actively to the music (loud, if possible). If you don’t, you just get a continuous flow of swamping aggression that may end up with an acute bad mood and headaches.
The album is a kind of best of, as it is supposed to compile all their stuff (12, 7, 666, cassettes, beewax, metal rolls), but I am not sure it is really the case.
Sonically obnoxious, the exact opposite of a kiss in the neck, "For the kids by the kids" is the perfect album to start a shiny happy summer by telling it to fuck off.
ADAGIO830 is their label, but everything seems to be sold out.
Anyway you can buy it here (I suppose).
Objectivity is not a crime:
Updating is not a crime:
Zann also comitted a 7" called "X" that sounds (a bit) cleaner, even less german as the title are in english, but still chaotic.
The review is from the nice nice Nature with No plague blog.
They also released a a real full length called "3 years in desert", better produced than the "4 da kids by da kids" compilation.
I found it louder, more powerful, not as obnoxious as the compilation, but maybe the better way to get introduced to the band. And this time, you get real bits of german, which, by the way, sounds really cool with this sonic background.
