Any bands that take any sort of long break between albums are truly playing with fire if they wish to ever put out new material be it due to a lack of interest, personal responsibility, or a desire to play in a different band. Fourteen years can spell the end for any band easily, but some acts refuse to go out with a whimper. Zeke hasn’t put out an LP since 2004, and many fans lost hope of these punk-thrash titans returning to the studio, and luckily, their fears have been dashed with this monstrous comeback.

The tricky thing with punk is that a lot of times it’s incredibly short. That leaves no room at all for error with many tracks not going past a 90-second burst of pure energy that can’t be adulterated if it is to be done properly. Many either put too much or too little effort into the post-production and that makes the many tracks feel either too manufactured or too raw (which, yes, can sometimes be a good thing), but Zeke are simply masters of their craft. Anybody who has any doubts about what Zeke brings to the table with “Hellbender” has clearly never allowed their ears to be graced by these legends, and the ensuing fifteen tracks of pure intensity are just what we need in our lives every now and then. The whole of “Hellbender” is an action-packed trip the likes of which I haven’t seen so concentrated since the introduction of Iron Reagan, but Zeke make such an art out of this album by making each track its own little explosion that chains from one to the next, and each one produces a different type of flame to make the album create a fucking crater in its wake wherever it’s played. While the tracks of “Hellbender” tend to blend together, there’s no denying that Zeke has made an absolute blazer of an album here in all of its magnificently glorious fire.

It’s not often enough that punk legends return from the past and grant us new helpings of awesomeness to properly sink our teeth into. “Hellbender” is so much of what the fans of punk have been clamoring for, and its raw power and energy is nothing to scoff at for even a moment!

“Hellbender” releases on March 30th via Relapse Records!

PRE-ORDER “Hellbender” via iTunes here.

LISTEN to advanced tracks from “Hellbender” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Zeke on Facebook here.

FOLLOW Zeke on Twitter: @ZekeBand