Lion Heart

Taken from a 1970s adage by George Rodriguez, "It is better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb," One Day As a Lion officially has come to fruition with an EP that features a teasingly, small five tracks.

If someone told me Zach De La Rocha (vocals, electronic keyboard) would be uniting with Jon Theodore (drums) fusing two of the best alternative bands in the past decade (Rage Against the Machine and The Mars Volta), I wouldn't have held my breath. It seems that the marriage is so unbelievably natural that you wondered why it hadn't happened before. The first thought that will undoubtedly come screaming from your consciousness is how eerily close this band sounds like Rage Against the Machine. This is a true testament to how much of Zach's style was in RATM. His rat-a-tat style of rapping fused beautiful rhythm was all the pattern RATM needed to fire its message in the membrane of every woman and man from the age of 18-30.

"Wild International" is the first single that was leaked and released from the band. First composed for a successful union attempt to accrue fair wages from McDonalds the song was first ceremoniously called "CIW Why" until Zach re-wrote most of it and released it under the aforementioned title. Featuring all the good parts of Rage, ODAL kind of feels old hat. Comprised of just two men, they have even said they want a "sonic reflection of the visceral tension between a picturesque, fabricated cultural landscape, and the brutal socioeconomical realities it attempts to mask." Good words, but does this album feel evolved or powerful enough to achieve such feats?

The fact is, it feels sluggish, slow, and stale to start out. The theory of this album makes sense, but at times you just feel like Zach's words may not be the centerpiece of this album, which it should be. While on RATM, his voice shot through the music like a serrated knife through cream cheese, but not now. "Ocean View" features the usual distorted guitar effect, but it often feels oppressing against Zach's style of rapping. The holes aren't matching up. Two styles are fighting for prominence in this song and the wrong side wins.

"If You Fear Dying" is the best track featured on the self-titled EP. The juxtaposed sound they were going for finally feels conveyed. The brooding, distorted guitar lays the bed for the track, but it's Theodore's stark drumming rhythm that makes this song feel like it's teetering off a cliff, overlooking the dark abyss below. Instead of draping over Zach's vocals like a blanket, it feels quilted to enunciate all the right parts reminding you of how powerful De La Rocha can be given the right ambience. This song also features Rocha singing the melodies in a almost raggae tone spirit. "If you fear dying/Then you're already dead." This is the soundscape promised to us by ODAL. This one track has me excited for the next stint. Hopefully, they can channel the sound captured here.

The song that shares the same name as the album is a fitting ending. The lo-fi vision that Rocha and Theodore had in mind is realized here. With lyrics falling into the dissonance created between the percussion and aggressive, whooping guitars. It's hard not to feel the blood rush to your face as Rocha resembles his anti-myth rhythm rock shocker persona that he holds with a iron-fist grip. The bass lines set the low end of the spectrum while high squeals punch the high end with beautiful melodies stacking this hero sandwich sky-high. It is perhaps the track that sets them furthest apart from RATM and that is a good thing. One thing that could be said about this record is that it slowly weans the RATM die-hards off their old sound by de-evolving into a natural predator set aim at the world collective. And boy, the last minute of One Day as a Lion ends in a roar, fist-pumping, head-banging, all-out explosion of pathos that only Rocha can stir up.

This is not a perfect beginning, but Rocha and Theodore would scoff at any such description anyways. The best part is that Rocha is primed and ready to start pulling the trigger and he may be more unsettled than before. Time and age has only unleashed the beast that has long since been dormant.

"I'm the orange jumpsuit that's tailor made/I'm a flick of the shank that opened your veins/I'm the dusk, I'm the frightening calm/I'm a hole in the pipeline/I'm a roadside bomb."

Damn right.


8/10


This. Is. Truth.