Review by Paul D Houston
If you like big sounds, the Israeli band, MAZEPPA has that in spades. This self-titled album is a huge sounding effort. The production on this is so smooth, so huge, this album just lays on you. With tracks like "Solitude" and "Storm" you know this band is for real. There's some serious business going on with this album and for a debut album, this is about as strong as it gets.
While I enjoyed this album immensely, my only criticism is every now and again, it will sound like a 90s alternative band/album. Something like Garbage, Mazzy Star or the Cranes, which isnt a bad thing necessarily, but as much as I enjoy the aforementioned bands, they are so distinctly 90s alternative bands that its unmistakeable. But, not every song on Mazeppa's debut album has that 90s feel, its really just a few songs. Otherwise, this is unmistakeably a uniquely strong effort, which I highly enjoyed.
Beyond just the high level production values on this, the instrumentation, the ability of the musicians in this band (Michal Pérez Noy: Vocals + Guitar, Asaf Koren: Guitar , Elad Bardes: Bass , Amir Noy: Drums) is top notch. So, color me impressed from many facets.
Here are my two favorite songs from the album:
But dont take my word for it, check out this whole album here: