Picture by Panos Skordas – The Art Asylum
On February 13, New Zero God (Athens, GR) self-released their brand-new 5th album “Of Love and Death” LP, a journey from life to death and back again, and at the end victorious on all levels. Many people have already said that it is their best album so far. Still, I don’t want to get into such comparisons since it would be unfair to the emotions of the previous years, but it is certainly their most unique and different album – and until the sun burns out, it will forever be like that.
“OF LOVE AND DEATH” LP describes the battle with death, for life and love. There are lyrics that Mike Pougounas (ex-Flowers Of Romance, and still as a solo artist with his other moniker Nexus) wrote after he was hospitalized, describing some hard images from moments that many people around us experience. We’re talking about the battle with Cancer…we’re talking about everything a person will experience through this private war in the struggling public hospitals of Athens. And yes, he emerged victorious.
Picture by Panos Skordas
New Zero God is a post-punk act linked to the gothic rock realm, but on this new album, things changed almost dramatically. The new life of the ΝZG now leans more on the fusion liberty of art-rock (although there are samples from the past, few and discreet) and on the insatiability of the no-wave. With a new member in the band, the charismatic guitarist Panagiotis Arsenis, and the other two long-time members Mike Semertzoglou (bass, keys, guitars), and John Psimopoulos (drums, and mastering), the leader of the pack Mike Pougounas (vocals and lyrics, keyboards, bass, programming) reveals this fight for life in a unique and at times scary way (you’ll hear the lone sound of the Flatline in one track), at times compassionate, but completely grounded in the reality of a cancer ward. In the lyrics, you will see people come and go (not the family members)…hallucinating, thinking their last thoughts before departure, struggling…but how nice is that all is given not in an ‘epic’ way but rather as a chat with his thoughts by himself and with the doctors too.
I can tell you more, like for example that in the opening track of the album, “Turning Darkness Into Magick”, the words are the first paragraph from “Roman Candles” by Jack Kerouac…“no one will show you how to turn darkness into Magick”…and in the second track, “Keep Me Safe from Pain”, his lonely wandering within this battle begins with his conscience wide awake…“Think of it as a second chance… Relax on the cold operating table. Relax. Now that the weave of reality grows thinner. Relax”…and in the rest of the album each track is another day in the ward, another step towards life. You will hear stories that only friends tell among friends (or doctors among doctors). You will hear his friends playing the music of his life, the NZG band, in a way that only such skilled players know how to do, and perform, as each of them is putting a unique element into the music of its creators.
Yes, it is a concept album (similar to the band’s previous works) but the ‘risk’ of the project seemed to force them to give their best. Believe me, this album is well within their capabilities; however, this pivotal event had to occur for them to enter the studio and record an album that is beyond the expectations of death.
Life and love won in the new album “Of Love and Death” by New Zero God. I could give you some focus tracks but this time I won’t. It is an album of about half an hour so you can choose alone what to listen to again after the first listening, after that endless half-hour. Luckily, the band has put the lyrics on their Bandcamp page. The album was recorded at QZN Studio (Athens, GR). Engineered and Produced by Mike Pougounas. Mastering by John Psimopoulos. Artwork by Anna Psarreas. Artwork by DD. Turn Up the Volume; this LP is phenomenal.
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Picture by Thanasis Kefalas
Written by Mike D.
