ZEROSCAPE

ZEROSCAPE are one of the most hard-working bands you will ever come across.

Their mentality over the last seven years has been to pawn everything they own roughly once every 18 months and then use the money to buy plane tickets to another continent, a van from somebody over eBay in the country they are going to, and just enough to feed themselves.

They then spend as long as their visas allow them gigging everywhere they can for somewhere around six months at a time.

Last time I caught up with them, they had just come and dropped in to Malton to play a gig at Suddabys (which still goes down as one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen), they then drank a local bar dry with some of the bands and audience form the gig.

Now, that might sound like pretty normal rockstar behaviour, but how many rock bands do you know that would be up at 8am (having gone to bed at about 6am) doing their morning workout of sit-ups followed by breakfast?

They even had the energy to challenge some of the locals to a game of football later that morning . Where do some people get the energy from? The mind boggles.

So, when I heard that they had managed to land a pretty great support slot with InMe, I had to get hold of them for a quick couple of words to find out how they were doing and how it had all come about.

Since you were last over in the UK, you’ve had a couple of bassists come and go, how difficult has it been to find the right person?

Yeah we had a lot of people get in touch but it’s really important for us that the person we chose was awesome at bass, brought their own style but still fitted in well. When you are spending half a year at a time in a van driving all over the world you really find out if you can get on with someone or not. When we were last touring, we played in 13 countries across the European mainland and by about the fourth country we wanted to leave one of our former bassists on the side of the road. We’d all had enough of him. Max is an awesome guy and a great bassist to so its all worked out in the end.

You’re touring with one of the UK’s best rock bands, InMe. How did that come about and how is the tour going?

When we were touring the UK a few years ago, we played with InMe at a couple of shows and we all got on really well. We have been aiming to come back over a while now and this was the perfect chance so we jumped on board. The tour has been awesome, the crowds have been great and its been great to see some friendly faces to.

Zeroscape has played more than 400 shows, which is the best band you’ve ever played with?

Ahhh, that’s impossible to say because we’ve shared the stage with more than a thousand different bands. We’ve played with The Killers, The Hives, InMe, Five Finger Death Punch and some amazing bands that people might not have heard of. I think that every band has something to offer and you should get respect you for getting up and playing on stage.

If you want to check out more information and listen to some free songs from Zeroscape then get yourself on www.myspace.com/Zeroscape

- Gazette & Herald

Entering onto the stage to an intro tape akin to the start of a prize fight, Canadian ‘Reggae Metallers’ Zeroscape helped to raise the atmosphere in the venue further, following the great opening set from Pegasus Bridge. Of course it didn’t hurt that Binski (vocals) proclaimed his love for Birmingham (and Scruffy Murphys) on a number of occasions throughout the set.

I have to be honest and admit that I have no idea what songs were played (apart from ‘Friday Night’), but I did thoroughly enjoy the bands performance and, just like Pegasus Bridge, I will definitely look to catch Zeroscape live again in the future. Fine fellas and a fine band. Catch 'em in Derby on the 6th Oct (again with InMe).

- www.midlandsrocks.co.uk

Making their way on stage to possibly the most ridiculous entrance ever, Canadian quartet Zeroscape rid themselves of tops, don capes, and take stance as a cheesy-yet-brilliant Lets Get Ready To Rumble announcement beckons them into their first song; coincidentally, a track in which the main riff is near identical to that of Survivor’s Eye Of The Tiger.

Maybe Zeroscape made a mistake of proclaiming themselves the “undisputed kings of ragga-metal”, taking into account they’re on Skindred territory, but they certainly match up well. They blast out all manner of different scales, ranging from some extremely heavy breakdowns and some vicious screaming, to the contrast of some great, laid back reggae songs, sang brilliantly by frontman Binski.

Each song thankfully, goes over brilliantly with said audience, the likes of single Friday Night gaining new fans in amongst the people staring back. With that, a rapturous applause breaks out, and Zeroscape have certainly made a lasting impression, even if they quite didn’t cement their proclamation tonight. - Change The Record

Tonight’s bill is opened by canadian 4 piece Reggae/Metal ZEROSCAPE. Surprisingly at first, it doesn’t take a song for the already numerous crowd to tighten around the stage and allow themselves to be convinced.
ZEROSCAPE might seem to step on Skindred’s toes in the UK, but on the other continent it would no doubt be the other way around. They manage to alternate between metal and reggae with an impressive ability and have got their very own style. They later will successfully sell their E.P within the crowd who couldn’t help being a bit surprised at the half naked girl wearing a blinging pendant on the cover. - Ruled By Rock

Zeroscape from Toronto, Canada arrived onstage with lead singer "Binski" draped with a Canadian flag looking like he was a boxer ready to get in the ring, with the rest of the band also stripped to their waists ready for action they start their "reggae metal" style of music a fusion of metal with reggae and ska. Guitarist "Speshalitz" was sporting some evil looking face paint and a huge afro wig which covered most of his face, how he was able to see to play his guitar I will never know. The sound is powerful and the audience really does not know what has hit them, "Binski" tirelessly works the crowd whipping them up and urging audience participation this soon pays off with the audience singing along to a metal version of the Bob Marley classic "Get Up Stand Up". The band end their fast paced set with a track called "Friday Night" from their lastest EP which goes down really well and the band gets a large amount of appreciation as they leave the stage. - www.themissionuk.com

Thursday night at the Relentless Garage in Highbury and three bands on the bill. The venue is perfect for this kind of gig; wherever you stand you’ve got a pretty good view of the stage and the live sound is spot-on.

First band on are Zeroscape who appear to have invented the new genre of Canadian reggae metal. They hit the stage like a whirlwind and don’t ease up until the end of the set. An opening set when the audience are fanatical about the headliners can be incredibly difficult, but Zeroscape win them over by being incredibly energetic and incredibly good. Their version of the Bob Marley classic “Get Up, Stand Up” has to be heard to be believed. A great set which looks difficult to follow. - Music Riot

The second band to climb the stage was a group from Canada called Zeroscape. I had never seen this band live before. The context was certainly interesting. The band is mixing rock, metal and reggae. WHAAAAAT?!! Sounds like a difficult task, and almost impossible. Reggae as a genre is so far away from metal, at least to me. The lead singer Binski offered the audience a full set of power and might. He seemed like he was at home on that stage. Although the songs didn’t really convince me on the record, as a live band Zeroscape was just great. All-time festival favorite this one! The songs were somewhat confusing, but the music was perfect for partying. I shall say no more, great music to bring the summer back to this frozen ass of a country.

- www.holymetal.com

ZEROSCAPE are an independent, international, touring band who play heavy/alternative music, with a blend of metal, hardcore, reggae and soul to produce a truly unique sound. Powerful, intense and exhilerating. One must witness the explosive raw energy of the live show to truly experience ZEROSCAPE.

All the music in the world, from all the places in the world, from all the faces in the world... The band is founded on the principle that there are no limits to be set and none to be accepted. The music is intense, melodic, infectious, driven, and alive with many different musical influences including but not limited to reggae, alternative rock, hip hop, and metal.

In these days where avant guarde considers to be in the vein of JANES ADDICTION and SOAD, this is one of the clone bands, that may have something to say. Aggressive, yet structured metal, with changes in the vocals that remind a lot the way SOAD approach their songs. Heavy metal riffs, hardcore sing along chorus, JUDAS PRIEST like solos, eastern scales, thrash passages all along in the same song. To make it more contemporary. Undeniably, good, but still missing the golden chance of innovation. From FM nu metal friendly music to the “thinking”-antiestablishment metal of ‘Toy soldier”, the distance aint too far, but the result, is not strong enough to support ZEROSPACE as an entity, at this point Political lyrics like at “uncle Bush wants you” just point the bands direction, not necessarily support it. Along with NEUROSIS, MIND OVER MIND and SOAD this scene, is been dominated by very talented artists. Be just good, is not enough, so you need to work more on originality.

What ZEROSPACE have is a less aggressive tempo, compared with SOAD and an approach to be more focus on social-political subjects. Musically, they feel closer to RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, without the Morelo guitar innovative playing.. Listening to the album, you see we don’t have only the nu metal generation descendants, but also the political activists, descendants, here we have one of the stronger one. Listen and decide, if they can add something to your antiestablishment armoury. - Metal Invader

Zerospace are a four piece band from Toronto, Canada, who formed in 2003, comprising of "BINSKI" - Vocals/Guitar, "SPESHALIZT" - Guitar, "FIZZLE" - Drums and "MAAAX" - Bass. They all came together from the grimy roots of reggae, metal, ska, hip hop, rock, dub and other musical genres for one reason, that’s to melt it all together and create a solid authentic sound of their own and to be the leaders in the untouched and unclaimed genre of REGGAE/METAL. 2009 sees the release of their brand 4 track new EP "Friday Night" a taster of their new album which is due sometime in 2010. The lead track "Friday Night" opens wild a real heavy in your face guitar followed by Binski's rapped/sung lyrics merging a complete mix of lots of genres. "Get Up Stand Up" is a reggae/metal version of the Bob Marley classic which has the drummer and the bass player playing a reggae/ska beat with Speshalizt the guitarist playing very heavy metal riffs over the mix. Binski has a huge Bob Marley tattoo on his upper forearm arm and is obviously a big fan, I wonder what Bob himself would have thought of this version of his song. The last two tracks are two versions of "Wild Wisher" one of which is a radio edit, this is a lot more of a metal track featuring some great guitar work. zeroscape's live show is something really special there is so much energy and it is delivered with large amounts of theatrical humour, if you get the chance check them out you won't regret it. - Mudkiss Fanzine