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ZEX
Fight For Yourself

Capitalicide / Uncle D (2014)
Rating: 7/10

When I read that Canadian rockers were being described as something akin to a maniacal hybrid of “The Clash meets Helloween” I just had to grab myself a copy of their debut full-length platter Fight For Yourself; more so when I read another comment that stated that Zex are also a combination of “Buzzcocks-meets-Accept”.

Of course, Zex sound absolutely nothing like either of the German heavy metal acts mentioned and with all due respect to these guys, their punk attitude and aggression is most certainly a leather jacket short of a few safety pins in spite of their raucous melodies.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed this debut ten-tracker – the music is upbeat yet rarely snappy, and while the combo has the ability to write a gang of infectious tunes, it’s all relatively harmless pop punk that could do with a far greater force on the vocals. Gretchen Steel has a harmless sort of accessible rant – Brody Dalle during her stint in The Distillers she most certainly isn’t – but her softer, almost tuneless tones do fit nice alongside the riveting rhythms and almost joyous licks which give this record a real bounce.

Zex are the sort of band I’d rather see live than hear on record because I don’t feel that the production here does the band any sort of justice, and it feels as if their brand of foot-tapping punk rock is restricted, almost bursting to take a chomp at its audience. If you can look past the lack of spit and rust though, then you’ll no doubt enjoy the rock-steady flow of the opening title track with its metallic entrance, the hand-clapping anthemic trudge of ‘Wild Blood’ with its bubblegum punk bop, and the energetic ‘Wanderlust’ which was the band’s first single.

It’s certainly not the sort of punk rock to get me venomous, but with ‘Savage City’ and the trundling ‘Break Free’ bolstering the tail-end of the album I’m finding myself nodding along to this short and sweet opus, but deep down expected something a lot sharper and damaging to the ear drums. Having said that, Zex show a lot of promise and is a band certainly worth following over the next few years.

Neil Arnold

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