Freedom Bondage

AMG Review of Freedom Bondage

Patrick Kennedy
All Music Guide

Like one of Akira Kurosawa's acclaimed Samurai epics cross-pollinated with the type of bludgeoning metal championed by Slayer, Freedom Bondage charges stoically, stolidly, furiously, but in firm control, bolstered by the tremendous engineering work of Steve Albini. Guitarist KK Null -- known also for his experimental, sometimes ambient, sometimes painful-beyond-listenability soundscapes -- plays with a decided flair for both overdriven death metal and more painful, art rock-inspired single note runs, quite similar to Today Is the Day's Steve Austin. However, Null's most impressive and overwhelming trait is his vocals: He sings the way Toshiro Mifune screams and grunts in Kurosawa's films. It's quite daunting and powerful to listen to. In fact, Freedom Bondage is Zeni Geva's most potent and consistent work, a surgically precise blend of Japanese avant-noisescapes, death metal, art rock, and industrial sensibilities, all harnessed brilliantly, with tremendous attention -- as usual -- to drum tone and breadth, by Albini.