It is often tempting to judge a band based on their name. In the case of Fold Zandura, that'd be doing this band a great disservice. To think the band is weird simply because their name is, is simply to be dead wrong. Fold Zandura, consisting of Jyro and Jerome from Mortal, along with drummer Frank Lenz, is essentially the same imaginative, progressive band that Mortal was. And this shows through clearly in the music.
Musically, they classify themselves as pop-rock. This seems to be a fair assessment, but some clarification may be necessary with regards to the term "pop." When this band says pop, it doesn't mean Celine Dion so much as the noise pop practised by bands such as Starflyer 59, Driver Eight, Morella's Forest, et al, only with a much heavier reliance on synthesizers, sequencers, and samples. There were moments when I was reminded of Mortal's album, Wake, but it is fairly evident that Fold Zandura is trying not to just be Mortal with a new name. Gone are the elements of industrial music, replaced with the more easily accessible pop song structure.
The songs themselves deal with several aspects of life, and the Christian life specifically. There are songs of faith ("Return" and "My Last Joy"), songs of human love and its shortcomings ("Valgreen") and songs that simply encourage the listener to think about the relationship between faith and love, such as "Ember," with its refrain of "See for yourself!" The lyrics throughout are interesting and thought-provoking, instead of being flat and over-evident.
There are only two complaints that I can register about this album. The first is that at eight songs, it just doesn't seem long enough. The songs whetted my appetite, and I wanted to hear more just as the album was ending! Of these eight songs, five were on the previous Fold Zandura release, so, if you have that one, there's not a lot of new material here. The other criticism that I have is that there are times when it seemed like I was hearing chord-for-chord renditions of Mortal songs. This is okay, since it's the same songwriters, but for long-time Mortal fans, it can make the music seem a little stale at times. Still, in the final analysis, this is a well-crafted and solid debut album for national release. Anyone who enjoys noise pop will probably find this to their liking, as might Mortal fans.
Similar sounding releases
2002SilverchairDiorama
1994MortalWake
1999BleachBleach
2003The Prayer ChainHere Comes the Rust
2001The Benjamin GateUntitled
1996Dissident ProphetWe're Not Grasshoppers
