Zebrahead - I (MFZB Records)

Ahh, Zebrahead, there’s a band that hasn’t crossed my path in a long time. Although I reside in a small, sleepy railway town in the southwest of England, I used to look forward to the mighty Zebrahead coming to town, which seemed to do much more regularly than you might expect a Californian band to do. My overriding memory of the band, as I watched them tear up the stage and lay sonic waste to all and sundry, was, “How the hell do you capture such a furious, squalling, punk tsunami of a sound on a recording,” a problem faced by many such bands.

But, as the concisely named I proves, it is possible to replicate that monumental live sound in the studio. As the third and, presumably, final in a series of chronological countdown EPs that began a couple of years ago with the logically titled III here, we have the band capturing their live essence in the recorded medium.

Although the EP isn’t officially out yet, the band has been releasing the tracks as singles, meaning that most of the EP is already in the public domain.

The latest single, “Sink Like A Stone,” sees them doing what they do best: that fierce blend of rap and rock, punk, and, in terms of accessibility and infectiousness, pop, that roar of energy shaped by more poised and poignant sonics. “Doomsday on the Radio” snarls with the same ferocity and lands with the same punch as the likes of Rage Against the Machine always have, and “I Have Mixed Drinks About Feelings” reminds me of bands such as Fugazi, which is never a bad thing.

Nearly thirty years in the game hasn’t taken anything away from the band’s power and potency, and as I and the EPs before it clearly show, they can be as impactful on record as they are live.