Authority Zero – Andiamo

I love that early 90’s style fast beat punk rock. Bands like Pennywise, Pulley, Strung Out, and so on. Unfortunately, there’s not many bands around now that still play that genre of music. The songs are hard and strong, fast paced, and yet still catchy and melodic. Now, I am glad to say that I have found yet another band that still plays that genre, and that is Authority Zero.

The Arizona natives are pack with their second album, Andiamo. Which, read in English is “And I Am Zero”, or translated from Italian means “we go”. They obviously pull influences for a large amount of bands,Pennywise and Face To Face come to mind. But they always play their songs with determination and conviction, making each song their own and always well done. Jason DeVore’s vocals are strong and don’t show any signs of slowing down soon. His words come flying at you with great speed, but still always catchy and melodic. They have a slight “south of the border” feel to them, with some slight Spanish and Mexican influences, like the instrumental Chili Con Crudo or the cover of Wall of Voodoo‘s Mexico Radio.

To be honest though, you can’t classify Authority Zero as only a punk band. They also dabble in the realms of ska and reggae aswell in songs like Madman and Retreat. Personally, I believe that the album would be better without those ska songs, or the Mexican instrumental. They slow the pace of the album down a bit, and their faster songs tend to be done better.

Andiamo will be played a lot in my CD player. It is a great summertime album to blast while you are messing around. Songs like Painted Window, Revolution, Mexican Radio, Find Your Way, Taking On The World, and the live bonus song, Ratllin’ Bog, are songs that will most likely find themselves of many mixtapes throughout the nation.