I have had nothing but praise for Zero Cost’s previous releases, and thankfully that continues with ‘Finem Ludum’. A finer slab of melodic punk you could not wish for. Hard guitars, backing vocals so loose they’re on the edge of falling apart, pounding drums and throbbing bass.
So the music is fantastic, what more is there? Well let’s start with the fact that Zero Cost tackle issues in their songs, and this continues that trend. ‘finem ludum’ means end game in Latin (yes, I said Lation) and the song addresses how close we are to a global catastrophic disaster. The line ‘100 seconds to midnight’ refers to the time set on the Doomsday Clock – the less time to midnight it is the closer the world is to a possible end. Although originally based on the chances of nuclear conflict, the setting of the Doomsday Clock now includes other factors such as global warning. So this is very much a song for our time both in words and music.
As is traditional with the band the single features an acoustic version of a previous release in case ‘One More Lie’ originally released on the ‘Exponential Decay’ EP. Not only does the song sound sweet as a nut acoustically but it’s going to allow you to really concentrate on the words.
Zero Cost are making great music. This is protest music, it’s music about our times. This people is fucking fantastic release.
