KEY POINTS:
Rating:
* * * *
One Day As A Lion
heralds the return of Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha. While Rage reformed last year and have been touring, this five-track EP is the first significant body of new music to be released
One Day as a Lion - One Day as a Lion
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Armed with just a warped and dirty sounding keyboard and his brazen vocals, de la Rocha teams up with former Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore to whip up a dissonant mix of politically charged scuzz rock, noisy blues, and swaggering hip-hop.
And rather than just rap, the boy shows he can sing too, coming off like a less whiney Perry Farrell on
Ocean View
and
Last Letter
, and a demented story teller on the title track and militant highlight,
If You Fear Dying
.
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Lyrically de la Rocha is more poignant than the blatant and reactionary Rage approach coming up with lines like "I'm in with the spirit of Ali Toure as I target more heads than a priest on Ash Wednesday".
Meanwhile, Theodore is a flailing animal and rides the songs to that thrilling point where they're about to fall apart, but never do. There's only two of them but they make a fearsome racket.
Scott Kara
