Zayn, a three-piece from Croatia grew tired of negativity and the depressive atmosphere in their country. To cleanse themselves, they started playing music together and somehow this seemed to work pretty well. The line-up has been the same since 2011, except for the guitar player who left for six months and then came back. Field Of God is their first album. It shows an enthousiastic and energetic band, searching their own niche within the instrumental rock world.
The songs on the album are pretty short pieces (two to seven minutes) of instrumental rock, placing this band between acts like Kong, Monkey3, Sleepmakeswaves and Sardonis. Note that these are all mainly live bands and I have a feeling that Zayn is no exeption. I can imagine this music working very well on stage, probably because one of the most potentially annoying elements, the vocals, are just not present. Instead, Zayn treats us to an intense amount of fuzzy riffs, pounding drums and often complicated, almost chaotic and dissonant structures.
Zayn's weapon of choice is distortion, that's for sure. After the drony intro, 'Ungodless' kicks in with some destructive force, fierce and intense enough to entertain yours truly. The rest of the songs follow similar patterns of heavy passages and short breathers. Highlights are 'They Will Not Have The Stars' and 'Emperor, Guide Us'. The first few songs on the album aren't bad at all but it seems this one continuously improves and gains more and more power, pretty much like a diesel engine.
There's little need for lengthy atmospheric passages or symphonic elements. Zayn mainly wants to rock and that is perfectly fine. However, I have a feeling that Zayn has more potential than they show on Fields Of God, certainly live. This is a band that can grow and become a solid standout in their chosen niche. Title track 'Fields Of God' is actually the living proof of that possibiliy. This is simply an awesome piece of music, somewhere between stoner and post rock with a touch of psychedelica.
I'm going to keep an eye on Zayn and so should every instrumental rock music. You don't often have the chance to see a band grow and become the best version of themselves. With Zayn you actually can't go wrong. This is high-potency rock music with a tremendous DIY-attitude