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Review: Zeke “‘Til the Livin’ End” CD

I've never heard much from Zeke before, but here you'll get 15 rapid fire tracks of total rock fury in about a half-hour, reminiscent of Mot?rhead but with raspier and more aggressive vocals. Expect tons of in your face rock, a good mix of moderate tempos, some raging blues based solos and a few less stripped down lead runs, the works. Musically they're not rewriting the book on the genre, but they do write fucking amazing rock 'n' roll songs... I mean, this shit is all fuckin' go, baby. No bullshit. I love the vocals too, they definitely give the band a unique edge that, when combined with the energy of the writing, makes for a winning combination. "Dragonfly" is a bit slower and more plodding in rhythm, but it falls right into place amongst the other tracks, as does the fast and furious gallop of "Never Goin' Home". "D?lphenw?lf" and "Ever Onward" are also noticeably slower, with each getting slightly darker, and the latter even bringing in some hints at singing, which is a nice change of pace. The recording is phenomenal for this style. It's thick and heavy with tons of detail and character to each individual instrument. The mix is dead on with no separation, etc. I wouldn't change a damn thing. The layout is pretty minimal, using fairly bold illustrations over black backgrounds, one live photo, one posed photo, clean text, and nice colors. That's about it. No lyrics, just the two photos, a tracklist, and recording information and such. That pretty much covers it. This is a great record. I had no real expectations about it, I just knew it was going to be a rock based set of songs. But damn, I'm into this. Big time. This is way better than most bands of this nature. They're more forceful, tighter, and write superior songs. Stop fucking around and check this out.

[Relapse]
Running time - 30:49, Tracks: 15
[Notable tracks: Long Train Runnin', Hold Tight, Never Goin' Home, Ever Onward]
Relapse Records - http://www.relapse.com