Ride Hard Ride Free b/w Smokestack Lightning - Zeke (Hound Gawd Records)
Seattle speed metal merchants Zeke cop a perennial barberqueing from critics who perceive their Motorhead-meets-Black Flag to be one-dimensional thrash. That might be partially correct - the 2000 cover of “Rhiannon” was certainly an attempt to crack the mould - but what’s wrong with sticking to your guns? It never hurt Lemmy.
This vinyl-only single (as in it won’t be on any streaming service anywhere, soon) vindicates that single-minded approach. The production is more metal orientated than the band’s high-water mark album, “Dirty Sanchez”, but that won’t deter any more than a handful of followers.
With original members Blind Marky Felchtone (vocals and guitar) and Dohnny Paycheck (drums) “Ride Hard Ride Free” is as uncompromising as ever, with a furious whirlwind rhythm the foundation for a tidal wave of fast guitars. Feltchtone’s serrated knife vocal might be even more toxic than two decades ago.
Be forewarned: The B side “Smokestack Lightning” is not the Yardbirds-appropriated blues smoker from “Five Live” but a similarly pitched blistering aural assault.
