Zevious: Passing Through The Wall

Here's a group that started out as a no-frills jazz guitar trio. They've become louder and more aggressive, incorporating Machiavellian- like chutzpah, tinted with a punkish 'tude, spanning hardcore jazz- fusion and vintage progressive rock mechanisms. With an in-your-face modus operandi, the band intimates a high metabolism rate through a punishing impetus. The musicians' literally bust out of the seams during these blitzing compositions, where stinging ostinato grooves with a few discreet inferences to vintage King Crimson and high-volume jazz fusion stand as a few underlying factors.

On pieces such as "Crime of Separate Action," guitarist Mike Eber delivers some blazing heat via torrid crunch chords and a reenergizing mode of operations, as he methodically builds layered themes in graduating stages. Here, Johnny DeBlase's steely edged bass lines generate an ominous substructure. Essentially, the band performs with a vengeance and a take no prisoners' mindset. On a side-note, none of these works are convoluted and solely designed with a vast array of tricky or needlessly complex time signatures, but when they do execute in this manner, it is framed on climactically oriented choruses and dynamics. However, the trio does intersperse elements of shock and awe into the grand schematic.

Mike Eber incorporates a twirling twang sound with his deft picking on "Passing Though the Wall" amid a slightly hidden melody and the group's odd-metered breakout. Moreover, the final track "Plying the Cold Trade," commences with a dark, metal groove including sustained guitar feedback and drummer Jeff Eber's massive beats as they exercise a calm-before-the storm scenario. Indeed, Zevious is a first-rate troupe, possessing an authentic deportment. From a high-impact perspective, Passing Through the Wall tenders a substitute for a shot of adrenaline.