Cross-armed obscurity as purpose, “fun” as an excuse for copped ideas, and the personae-n’-pleasure void idealism of sub-genre “tradition” in various stages of re-creation plague all forms of metalpunk and that isn’t to say it is a singular phenomenon. Some consider this endlessly invaginating generational participation a foundation built and others have been spitting and sneering since the mid-80’s. The only hope any inclined musician has left here on battlefield dearth beyond darling naivete is some manner of character, a loud and ill-advised idiosyncratic personality too compelling to ignore. Los Angeles, California-based speed metal inspired hardcore punk trio ZIG-ZAGS have been there, I mean they’d gotten there at some point in the last decade, “crossing over” from acid rock and heavy metal inspired garage punk toward increasingly distinct speed metallic punk foray. On this fourth full-length album they’ve strapped on a new third leg and in the process rocked the foundation of their noise down to purity-tested essentials, a main vein directed hit of their gig which takes us further from the garage and closer to a full basement-level dive with its wiles. ‘Deadbeat at Dawn‘ is a different take on the same basic sandwich, the band’s clearest and most “metal” production values to date applied to an ever tightening fusion between punk, metal and heavy rock.

Zig Zags formed around 2010 and it wasn’t long before they could play their instruments… They’d put out a handful of smaller releases on the walk up but it was their Ty Segall produced and In the Red backed self-titled debut LP (‘Zig Zags‘, 2014) that’d first hit as notable introduction to a larger audience. The success of that record and its own odd flavor of metalpunk (or, “punk metal”) prompted an eventual second LP (‘Running out of Red‘, 2016) as a fitting outlier on Castle Face and a prime companion to their debut. I won’t get too deep into describing that era of the band for the sake of their sound changing drastically over the next few years, getting heavier with every minor release until ‘They’ll Never Takes Us Alive‘ (2019) struck like lightning at its own brilliant fusion of metal and punk (again) stepping away from where they’d fit in on previous records and now creating something which was approximately ’79 NWOBHM in spirit, southern California hardcore punk in motion, and far too laid back to feel like the usual stoney retro gig in any sense. If you could identify the first Beowülf record by ear, hang with a mid-80’s Wipers album and learned to play the guitar to a pre-’86 Bay Area thrash metal album you’d probably liked that record. I did, praised it in review at the time and it ended up on my Top 50 Albums of the Year. That third album basically set the standard going forward, it was their own thing and they’re still more-or-less doing that here on ‘Deadbeat at Dawn‘.

Back in 2019 I think I’d compared some of Zig-Zag‘s sound and ethos with The Shrine, so, it’d been a trip to hear the latter’s drummer (Jeff Murray) had joined the former after Dave Arnold left the band during the pandemic pause. This new configuration took the time to hone in on the stuff they agree on most, a better days metalpunk sound which is unpretentious and seemingly having a blast of it. This is especially true as we hit Side B and the grittier hardcore punk aspect of their gig checks most fully in. Their work doesn’t shrug off the tuneful, spaced-cased garage-level metalpunk they’d geared into on the prior LP though it does dial back some of its excess freakery as they write catchier pieces and lean into a more immediate punk-metal militia vector. If you’re stunned by this for whatever reason roll back exactly a year prior and ‘Strange Masters‘ (2024) had already hinted at a more aggressive interpretation on some re-recordings and you’d likely already gotten the drift.

With all of that said ‘Deadbeat by Dawn‘ isn’t one obsessed directive but an embrace of the inner-gone-outer nerd still stoked on the still vibrant cornucopia of 80’s underground music, low-budget cult films, science fiction and smacks of seriously dedicated L.A.-specified man-child vibes. You’ll probably get this once you’ve read the lyrics to the heavy metal charge of “At War With Hell” b/w “Take Me to Your Leader” and recognize they’re not just having fun with it but embodying a vision inspired by all of these things, taking on power fantasies as the protagonist within various scenes. Side A is packed with that feeling, a set of songs which offer Zig Zag‘s top five selection of B-movie plot lines they’d cooked up involving aliens, drugs, slashers, demons and such. If you don’t give a shit about all of that and you’re here for the riffs, I mean they’ve still got it locked to a sort of punk’s interpretation of heavy metal in a circa “Possessed to Skate” headspace but having an early Fu Manchu level of a good time doing it.

For my own taste Side A has the stuff I wanted and kinda expected, they go harder with it on a few songs and I’ll be stoked when I hear ’em all live, but I was still relieved that the second half of ‘Deadbeat by Dawn‘ didn’t just flatly repeat the first. Not sure if it’d be fair to say they’re leaning into a more melodic skate punk kind of gear to start but we’re stepping one foot back in the garage for a few of these songs (“Rats in Love”, “Get Loud”) and generally hit closer to the ~3 minute mark rather than the four as things begin to wrap up. Closer “Say It to My Face” offers the most direct whiff of late-stage hardcore punk on the full listen and again reaches for a memorable groove and repeated chorus that’ll likely stick on you as an endpoint for a record that takes its time ripping through ten songs in roughly ~33 minutes.

The main thing I appreciate about ‘Deadbeat by Dawn‘ is that it finds the right time to cut things off, doesn’t dawdle and fuss through any filler as Zig Zags cut back to the pure efficacy of their gig, still managing to sound like a mid-80’s metalpunk record from kin of the late 70’s. Though they’ve cleared the smog a bit for the sake of the listening experience there is yet grime to be found within this streamlined, direct to neck record and that helps to keep it their own beyond building atop the prime successes of their previous record. For a release that just about didn’t happen from a band that’re just happy to still be alive you can feel the stinking joy of having another go of it all over this one. I’d found it infectious, easy to rip through on repeat as an existing fan. A high recommendation.

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