ALIVE AND RISING

So... after a nine year break from recording, Zeni Geva are back with another album. Led by the living legend KK Null- who has built up a very dedicated fanbase in Japan and abroad- it is natural that an album by a band who has laid dormant for nine years would be met with quite a bit of anticipation. Although I was not even aware of the band at the time they came out with this comeback, I can imagine that listeners may have been a little disappointed by what they had apparently waited nearly a decade for. It is not so much that the music here is much different from what they had done back in their day; quite the opposite, actually. Although this is clearly marketed as a comeback record of sorts, this is merely a re- recording of purely old material from older albums. My heart goes out to anyone who was excited for a new Zeni Geva album to come out.

Zeni Geva decided to take songs from all over their discography, recording them again and giving it a shiny new album cover. Really, the songs here are some of the best that Zeni Geva did back in the day, so for all intents and purposes, 'Alive And Rising' can be considered a best-of album. For what its worth, the new recording of these tracks gives them a slightly new dimension, although don't expect any sort of modern production here. This is still a very lo-fi Zeni Geva, and I would even say that the vocals have an even muddier production here than they ever have. The instrumentation (being the guitars and especially the drums) have been nicely improved on here though. The music is a noisy blend of sludge, doom, and math rock. Ultimately, it ends up sounding alot like the schizophrenic ramblings of King Crimson, with some added heaviness.

KK Null's vocals were arguably the best thing about the band's earlier work, and I would say that the muddy recording of his vocals takes away from the album. If things sounded a little clearer on all fronts, than 'Alive And Rising' would be alot more valid as a comeback for these guys. Instead, the changes here aren't nearly as noticeable as they should have been, and as a result, 'Alive And Rising' is really only an album I could recommend to fans of the band, or perhaps someone who has never heard them before. A damned disappointing album, if even only for the fact that there is no original material here.

Share this ZENI GEVA review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Conor Fynes
• Report this review (#506495)
• Buy ZENI GEVA music online with PA partners
• Show all ZENI GEVA MP3/Stream
• Go to ZENI GEVA page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Alive and Rising page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for ZENI GEVA related discussions