Perth’s long-serving heavy rock and rollers Jupiter Zeus are dropping their third album Frequency Prison on January 31st!
Another piece to the weird and wonderful puzzle of Perth’s heavy rock band Jupiter Zeus will be added on the 31st of January, as they release their third album, Frequency Prison.
2011 gave us our first taste of the band with their debut EP Green Mosquito, a 13-minute collection of songs that sent listeners into a groove and heavy rock trance with its deep melodic flow. Three years later, the band progressed their sound with their mammoth debut album On Earth. Finally, the band’s 2020 album Central Ave saw the Perth rockers’ heaviest sound to date.
The band’s upcoming album Frequency Prison will explore the band’s ’90s death metal pioneer inspirations, continuing their heavier direction with colossal riffs that intertwine with growling guttural vocals.
Self-produced, Frequency Prison is almost a double album with 14 songs showcasing Jupiter Zeus’ unique blend of stoner rock, doom metal and heavy rock. The opening track Silent Screams is one of the highlights of the album, featuring a haunting piano intro with trademark bone-crunching sabbath-esque grooves. Soaring outcries that reverb into a megaphonic volume create an intimate atmosphere before the track shakes with power and ’70s heavy-metal psychedelia. The vocals bend from crispy and clear to half-drowning within the deep demons of anxiety.
The second track, Dystopian Nightmares reiterates its title through ruthless deep vocals, battering against the ascending electric guitar riff. Following that, Stationary brings a restless and expansive energy through its delicate intro. which is trailed by pounding volume and bashing drums.
In the 4th and 5th tracks, Dangerous Freedom and No Where to Play, Jupiter Zeus explore ’90s grunge elements, combing them with static sounds and raspy, screamo/deep vocals that overlap with softer, clearer melodic vocals and rough rampant electric guitars.
The next two tracks Plandemic and Falling down, delve into anxieties, disappointments and confusion through their deep and gloomy tones and in-depth lyrics. Following these tracks, Mark Passio embodies the sabbath-esque grooves that Jupiter Zeus is all about, infusing the song with obscure, hazy unease.
In the 9th track, It’s not Happening, the song riffles and splinters its way through a sense of dread. This sense of dread is continued through the next track Written Off, which takes this dread and adds shuttering unsurpassed strangeness through deep-low end bass, electric guitar and pounds of percussion.
Coming to the end of the album, Jupiter Zeus gives us Scientism which unleashes listeners into what feels like exciting but daunting unfamiliar territories with its elastic high-wire harking. As the 12th track on the album, Frequency Prison exemplifies the band’s love of the power of the slow groove, weaved with hauntingly heavy smacks of sound.
The next track Merciful Father is a melting pot of mood that vigorously explodes through shattering smashes and stripped back slow soulful spills. Continuing the stripped-back agenda as the previous track, Chaos Reigns Supreme, is an acoustic melodic howl of confession and sadness. There are no amplified riffs, scratchy screams or crashing drums, only an acoustic guitar and the unmistakable baritone vocals of singer Simon Staltari. It’s soft yet still retains the desperation and gloom of ’90s grunge and ’70s heavy metal. Lyrically, this song speaks of the current upheaval that the world is experiencing today.
“I was thinking of the album title at the time because there are so many frequencies in the air—TV, radio, WIFI, even the human body operates on frequencies, like the heart—and also because music has the power to uplift or depress you.” Jupiter Zeus dives into the process behind the album title. “Regarding the prison aspect, I believed the microwave would be ideal because it operates on frequencies and has an impact on the human body. With that in mind, I imagined something in the matrix style, where the light inside is a gateway that operates on frequencies and can take you anywhere, at any moment. The skeleton symbolizes what transpires over time when we are imprisoned by our own ideas and are under the influence of the outer world.”
The record is filled to the brim with the authentic characteristics of stoner rock and doom-driven melancholy, swirling around with a broad range of sounds and ideas, where familiarity and strangeness collide. Frequency Prison is the perfect snapshot of a time and place that Jupiter Zeus visited on their grand journey into the vast universe of heavy music.
The new Album drops on the 31st of January! Check out the band’s Spotify below.
