FREEDOM BONDAGE

By this point in their career, Zeni Geva had basically developed into the band they were destined to be, a sludgy and noisy band that was not interested in making pretty music of any sort. While I can safely say at this point that the music of Zeni Geva does not fit into my personal tastes, some of the band's later material does have some very interesting material on it, a far-reaching improvement from their earliest material, which I couldn't consider anything short of garbage. Following what I've been told is the band's 'classic' record 'Desire For Agony', Zeni Geva came out with 'Freedom Bondage', an album with significantly less memorable songwriting, but a little more experimentation and variety to it. Many of the individual experiments heard on 'Freedom Bondage' are among the most interesting stuff that the band would ever do, but at the same time, Zeni Geva's music is a little too rough to have much sense of subtlety to it.

This noisy, garage-style style of rock or metal has never been something I've often really been into, and my enjoyment of the music that Zeni Geva makes may reflect that. Often, I feel their sound a little too jarring on the ears, without necessarily having the meticulous attention to texture and sound to make me feel that the numerous slip-ups and jolts of feedback are intentional, rather than faults of production. Of course, the sum here is greater than its parts, and I have never heard Zeni Geva branch out in so many different areas before; even their 'experimental' album 'Nai-Ha' only really seemed to focus on noise when it ventured forth. 'Freedom Bondage' is true to its contradictory name; much of this music feels rough and claustrophobic, but the musicians seem to have freed themselves to do whatever they feel. All too often, it feels like the times where they throw in a weird transition into noise, or acoustic guitars, or mellow vocals are out-of-place compared to the rest of the sludgy riffs that dominate the album.

KK Null's vocals here aren't quite as engaging as they used to be, seeming to have taken a more refined approach now. Sparing the listener the sort of barks and howls that ironically got me intrigued by the band's sound in the first place, his vocals are now alot less over-the- place, and I'd be incredibly disappointed if it weren't for the fact that the instrumentation of the band has really improved by this point. 'Freedom Bondage' is a decent album for someone looking for a lo-fi, noisy and dirty-sounding sludge album with a little experimental edge, but I can't say this sound is for me.

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