Photo courtesy of Will Rees
Here’s some great live shots taken by Will Rees, and more photos by Kenny Sinatra (KCS Photography) from ZED‘s CD release party at Neto’s Market and Grill in Santa Clara on May 31st with Spiralarms, Mukagee and Pushing The Sun. Check ’em out!
Upstate Metal writes:
…Right off the rip, you get a catchy tune coming from the first song on the album, “Please.” It comes out with heavy drums, and a distorted bass guitar. The first few seconds sounds like a funky, jazz/grunge fusion. And, you’ll get that peppered throughout. You can hear the influences of Clutch and Queens of the Stone Age, with the choice in cadence and delivery of lyrics from lead man, Pete Sattari. You can even hear a little bit of Rage in the versatile guitar play of Greg Lopez, and some of that grunge-era bass play from Mark Aceves. By the time you’re into “Crawl Back to You,” the fifth song on the album, you’ve experienced said versatility.
Overall, Zed rings true in what they advertise. To say that you’re not going to get anything new or innovative out of these guys is not meant to imply this album is tiresome or boring. This is you’re Budweiser. This is that steak joint downtown that you like. It’s where you want to go, when you know what you want. Its one thing for a band to say they’re bringing the rock and roll, but it’s quite another when that band succeeds in delivering, and that’s just what Zed can do.
Thanks to Michael Hallisey for the kind words! Click the link above to read the entire review.
Sea of Tranquility writes:
Big riffs are definitely back in fashion, so three years on from their The Invitation album Zed are back with a dose of Desperation Blues, that sounds a damn sight more insistent than desperate to me. Stating Queens Of The Stone Age, AC/DC, Sabbath and Zeppelin as influences Zed (not to be confused with the jazz fusion outfit) stay true to their word by hammering out groove laden bristling riffs, backed by howling, gravely vocals and ground shaking beats.
Pete Sattari hollers loud and proud while banging his guitar to within an inch of its life, leaving a faint stench of bourbon and grimy hit of attitude, while his fellow guitar abuser Greg Lopes doubles the effect. Add to that a concoction of thunder courtesy of Rich Harris behind what probably used to be a drum kit and Mark Acevas who’d probably be arrested for the way he attacks his bass and Zed make a mighty statement. “Please” groovin’ suggestively, while giving you the sort of grin that makes you uneasy in your own shoes, while “Crawl To You” adds a little subtlety in a style that Black Stone Cherry fans will approve of…this is one collection of Desperation Blues sure to put a smile on your face.
The Daily Stab writes:
Those dudes will probably rattle the brains of owners of the big clubs in their city if word about “Desperation Blues” goes ’round on a steady and well-fuelled basis, and it sure earns every bit of fucking hype it can get. What I particularly dig about it is that it’s completely stripped of pretense or attempts to be something it ain’t; it simply goes through the motions set by whatever direction it feels like going in at a given second. That makes for lengthy tracks that can go for multiple types of spicings brewed together in one particularly crisp format that’s hella addictive as much as its background is actually simple with a just-cocky-enough exploitation of the actual knowledge this bunch has of what makes for a great rock sound. Each track takes its merry time to make its point heard, riding high on especially dirty basslines in the utmost slick presentation as it seems incredibly well-organized and embroidered around the rest of the songwriting nuggets of gold we have here. There’s plenty of bonuses to go about in what those cats have to bring to the table. The way the guitar surfs that well smooth and creamy background can at times go for the calculating stringwork, but most often escalates into seriously tasty, punchy, hooky, and honestly fiery main riffs that know to bring a swingy type of feel to tracks like “Killing Machine” whilst going for a bit of a fusionny type of southern rock goodness on “More”, and exploding into full-on pub blues mode with the impressively unpredictable and constantly surprising “The River” which goes to show exactly how many backflips those guys can go through to make every bit of a sweat n’ tear seen and heard as each note gets played; everything has to be completely representative of the mood conveyed by the lyrics. This frontman is completely soaked into what he’s singing about and his backing band looks like they’re brothers or distant cousins because the chemistry is the utmost given here.
Thanks for the wonderful review, Noch!
Tomorrow’s the big day, with ZED’s Desperation Blues hitting the streets!
…and for the first time ever, you can listen to the entire record, streaming online over at Decibel Magazine now!
Thanks also to Chris D for the kind words!
Turn it up!
…Overall, “Desperation Blues” will be a perfect summer anthem for outdoor metal barbeques and beer, (if you’re that righteous of an entertainer, of course). As somewhat of a “Country” girl, this album, vocal tonality, structure, distortion, everything paint an uncanny picture of blasting real and old-school powerful rock with those perfectly timed breakdowns through the windows of my car, just feeling like a total badass.
Read the complete review at Pittsburgh Music Magazine
Chad Bower, columnist for About.com’s “Heavy Metal” section, spoke recently with ZED’s Pete Sattari and posted the interview May 11th, 2013.
Here’s an excerpt:
This core element of groove and grit is the key to the power of ZED’s music and is enhanced by Greg Lopez’ gift for melody and texture. When ZED started writing for what would eventually become the songs for the album Desperation Blues, we deliberately set out to let the music evolve organically, with no pre-conceived notions of genre, style, length or direction. What we sought to do is to distill everything to its core elements…
Read the entire interview here
Thanks Chad!
Recently added to our videos page, this ZED interview with Your Music Magazine from June, 2010.
And since we’re going back a few years, here’s the official video for “Lunatics and Liars” – from ZED’s 2010 debut album, The Invitation. Also included is a behind the scenes video about the making of the video. These and other videos are also available on our video page.
Lunatics and Liars
The Making of Lunatics and Liars
ZEDHEADS.ORG 