Zeni Geva comes from Japan, the band’s name roughly translates into “Money Violence” and it’s the brainchild of one Kazuyuki Kishino, better known as KK Null. The band has been described as a “power trio”, with KK Null on guitar, occasional vocals and general dementia, Mitsuru Tabata on guitar and, as of 2001, drummer Masataka Fujikake. Their music is not easy to pinpoint, though, as the band has forged since 1986 a very idiosyncratic and lonesome path in the annals of heavy music. The best description I can give to Zeni Geva’s style is that it’s the bastard offspring of a gangbang with Slayer, King Crimson, early Helmet, latter-day Black Flag, Motörhead and Loop taking part, after having consumed vast amounts of speed and psychedelics.
Does it sound bizarre? Hell, bizarre is Zeni Geva’s middle name. Does it sound heavy? Oh, man, you can’t even begin to get how heavy. “10,000 Light Years” is like a flood of sound, breaking the levee of conscious perception and moving towards the subconscious with the power of a rabid pit bull and the grace of a katana slicing feathers in the air. The music contained in here has incalculable density, although it’s been played by only three people and recorded in an almost “live in the studio” way. Each and every song contains a myriad of details, hidden over, under and in between its very ugly and disturbing surface.
