One Day As A Lion - One Day As A Lion EP

2008
ANTI-
Buy (Amazon.com)

7.5/10

Depending on how many press junkets you have (or haven't) read, you may (or may not) know that One Day As A Lion is a collaboration of Rage Against The Machine's Zack De La Rocha and ex-The Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore, or that their name is taken from what is apparently a "famous" piece of graffiti declaring that "it's better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb."

Awesome. But what does it sound like?

Pretty much exactly what one would expect. De La Rocha's flow is venomous, Theodore's percussion is bombastic, and the former's keyboards flirt with enough electronics and processing that they sound like guitars. The end result comes off more like Rage Against The Machine than anything, albeit with better drumming. The main gripe is that the songs sort of blend together after awhile, with very little differentiation between each track. But when the songs are this solid, how big of a concern is that?

The twenty minute One Day As A Lion EP finds two very talented musicians at the top of their game, and the technical proficiency on "Last Letter" alone is worth the price of admission. My interest has certainly been piqued - here's hoping an LP is to follow.

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Key Tracks:
Wild International
Last Letter