One Day As A Lion EP

One Day As A Lion

Anti

2008-07-22

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Think you know what a duo comprised of Zack de la Rocha and Jon Theodore is going to sound like? Here’s what they say: “One Day As A Lion is both a warning delivered and a promise kept … The name taken from the infamous 1970 black and white, captured by legendary Chicano photographer George Rodriguez featuring a center framed tag on a white wall in an unspecified section of Boyle Heights. It reads: ‘It’s better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb.’ This record is a stripped down attempt to realize this sentiment in sound.” So what do we get? Well yes, it is pretty much what you thought it was going to be — engaging, punchy beats coupled with heavy, catchy riffs and tied up with some aggro topical rhymes beat and spat out over the top — but as full of feeling, energy and power as it is, this is exactly why it’s good.

Where both’s previous bandmates have left the building — Morello and co sterilising the Rage riffs via Audioslave and Omar and Cedric soaring further and further away — Theodore and de la Rocha are both very much here, and sounding stronger than ever.

“Last Letter”s funk punch shifts into further atmospherics

As suggested, the five tracks presented here on their eponymous debut EP work to a focused vision, delivering the elements that you’d expect, and to a high standard. True, the riffs aren’t always mind-bendingly inventive, but when they retreat to the simplistic forms it seems more for effect, and not due to lack of imagination. But, forgetting this, the music is often engaging with some fat crunching power synths, big bass and interesting distorted, discordant melodies.

Rap-rock can be hard to like, with those several classic moments offered by Faith No More, RHCP and Rage in the genre’s heyday sometimes bringing a cringe to ears when aired nowadays, and de la Rocha’s unmistakable vocals, here often delivered in an even more straight rap vein than normal, tap in to this style, though despite the obviousness of this association there’s more going on in this EP for the to be so reduced to ‘rap-rock’. The instrumentation partnering Theodore’s tight percussion has a dirty electro tinge, felt right from the off on “Wild International”, and the droning noises holding over on “Ocean View” show a grungy rock side — aided here by de la Rocha’s reverberating sung vocals. “Last Letter”s funk punch shifts into further atmospherics with a more menacing mood shift and clashing rising keyboard riff with a punk-edged controlled aggression in the vocals. Elsewhere (after the comparatively straightforward and therefore disappointing “If You Fear Dying”) the final track, which bears the group’s name, as well as delivering a huge repeating bass pummel to close the record, adds hip-hop keys into the mix accompanying its chorus.

Overall, by twisting up elements that you might have thought had been lost and punching them back out with renewed vigour One Day As A Lion have delivered an EP which it seems is indeed both a warning, and also full of promise.