The Zimmermann Note
New Deception
8.2
As a writer for multiple metal publications, I get metalcore EPs chucked at me liked stones if I was a rapist in Iraq. A majority of them suck and I never hear from them again. However, a small percentage (Silence The Epilogue, Through the Eyes of the Dead, With Passion) show enough promise to warrant attention. The Zimmerman Note is one such effort. Named after the infamous decoded message from Germany to Mexico in 1917 that drew the US into World War I, Pittsburgh’s The Zimmerman Note have a war/propaganda themed concept and imagery similar to Sleeping By the Riverside and Until the End and feature members of Better Off Dead, Commit Suicide (yes the grindcore/death metal band) and Broken Free.
The result? A damn solid and perfectly implemented metalcore EP with a death metal lean that promises a pretty special debut album. The mix of svelte harmonies and biting riffs carries that perfect balance and delivery, even if only twenty minutes long. Those craving a reference point of some sort may look to With Dead Hands Rising, The Black Dahlia Murder or Glass Casket. With the name dropping out of the way, it’s on to the music itself which as far as death tinged metalcore goes isn’t particularly original, but just done ever so well. While The Zimmerman Note would like to try and tout their death metal wares a little harder than actually necessary maybe dangling ex-Commit Suicide’s Damian Yenick as death metal bait, but truth be told, The Zimmerman Note could easily fall in line with most mainstream metalcore; the galloping melodies, the burly breakdowns and the now common place dual screamed/growled vocals all a recipe for Hot Topic putdowns, but when done this pristinely it’s hard to knock. Especially considering the track “New Deception” contains possibly the best placed and addictive guitar lick I’ve heard since Hamartia’s “So Hard to Find”, and the rest of it isn’t exactly chopped liver either. The pummeling “Onyx Tide”, the convoluted grace of “Gluttonous Prayer” and the rivulets of melody that soak “Grace in the Depths of Ignorance”; all solid, if not way above average displays of brutal yet melodic metalcore that has some chops amid its harmonies, without being overly dependent on breakdowns.
With Century Media distributing this, I’d be truly surprised if this lot’s debut album is on Inner Strength, as like most EP’s, if its good the band will get snapped up by a bigger label looking to cash in on metalcore$ popularity before it dies a painful oversaturated death, for once though, a band is deserving.
