Zig Mentality - 'Best Direction'
The title says it all. Zig Mentality are back with their filthiest work to date, as they head in the best direction music has to offer — straight upwards.
Zig Mentality do exactly what their name suggests. They change, flit, adapt — and that’s exactly what had to happen after the label that they’d signed to refuse to release their LP. Using money from that record deal, they built a studio to recreate, remix and remaster their LP to their specifications — and boy does it show, with the sheer, raw fury of Best Direction left unchecked by any executive interference. The bass line alone is absurdly brutal, full of distortion that leaves your chest heaving for breath; not to mention the grit, the sheer audacity of the screamed vocals as they tear through the solid wall of sound thrown up by the three brothers. It’s the sort of music that you wish you could make, just because of how brutal, how genuinely fun it is; the sort of garage rock that would receive noise complaints from the throngs of people losing their collective minds outside. In an industry where producers and engineers sometimes take precedent over individual vision, it’s refreshing to hear a sound so pure. Though less as in a nice cool breeze, and more being shocked awake by friends pouring a bucket of ice water on your head. In a good way.
Along with Best Direction, Zig Mentality previously released the appropriately titled The Sesh, which simply screams sweaty mosh pits, spilt beer and cathartic yells. Featuring singles Pretty Girls on Bikes and Stones Love — both formerly released under the moniker dubé — it’s a monster of an EP, and one of the most unadulterated examples of loud, pure Punk Rock ever to grace the airwaves.
‘Best Direction’, Zig Mentality, and the rest of New Rock Mafia represent the new age of rock. Long may it last.
New rock mafia is a collective and an idea, founded by Canadian bands and close friends cleopatrick, Ready The Prince and ZigMentality, (formerly Dubé). The trinity are revolutionising the idea of rock music, a scene of doing shows with rock music, full of energy, and the ‘vibe of almost a Hip Hop show.’ It’s something to believe in and to strive for; something to rally behind. Something to set their music apart from any form of dilution in either their sound or their energy. And it’s brilliant.
If you like this, check out the recent releases of Regicide by Ready The Prince and GOOD GRIEF by cleopatrick for more NRM goodness!
Words by James O’Sullivan