Zulu (band)

Zulu was founded by Anaiah Lei in 2019. Lei became aware of heavy music because of his father, who was involved in the Los Angeles hardcore scene in the 1970s and 1980s, and introduced him to groups like T.S.O.L. and the Adolescents. At the age of five, he had begun to learn guitar. However, he soon discovered he preferred drums.[2] He and his older brother Mikaiah formed garage punk band the Bots in 2007, in 2016 Lei began drumming in straight edge hardcore band Dare and in 2018 he began playing in rock band Culture Abuse.[3] Zulu began as a solo project in 2019 due to Lei wishing to pursue vocals in an all black hardcore band however being unable to find anyone to form one with.[4] Lei originally intended for the band's music to be sporadic and atypical powerviolence.[5] Zulu's debut EP Our Day Will Come was released on October 18, 2019, on Bandcamp.[6] The band played their first live performance in summer 2020, with Lei now accompanied by Christine Cadette (drums), Dez Yusuf (guitar), Braxton Marcellous (guitar) and Satchel Brown (bass).[3] Zulu's second EP My People... Hold On was released on September 2, 2020.[7]

On November 30, 2022, they announced the release of their debut album A New Tomorrow, and issued its lead single "Fakin' tha Funk (You Get Did)".[8] On January 11, 2023, the album's second single "Where I'm From" was released, which featured Pierce Jordan of Soul Glo and Obioma Ugonna of Playytime. The single was accompanied by a music video which featured a cameo by Eric André.[9] On June 14, 2023, they released a double single featuring a cover of "Wait and Bleed" by Slipknot, and a reworked version of their jazz-funk instrumental track "Shine Eternally" which features King Isis on vocals.[10][11] Beginning on June 15, 2023, the band toured Europe alongside Speed.[12] On 12 September, the band revealed in an Los Angeles Times interview that Cadette had departed.[13]

The band's music has been categorised by critics as powerviolence,[2][3] metallic hardcore[14][15] and hardcore punk,[16] incorporating elements of beatdown hardcore,[17][18] rhythm and blues, hip hop, reggae,[16] dub,[6] spoken word, slam metal,[19] death metal,[20] retro soul, jazz-rap and funk music.[21] Their music is based around contrasting the extreme elements of hardcore with samples and passages from black music styles like soul, jazz and reggae.[20][22] Treblezine writer Tom Morgan stated their sound is based in the sound of late-1990s hardcore bands like Disembodied, as well as that of death metal and powerviolence, upon which elements of hip hop, jazz and indigenous African music are incorporated.[15]

Zulu's lyrics discuss progressive politics, particularly black pride. On Our Day Will Come, they sample speeches by both Nina Simone and Malcolm X, and on A New Tomorrow, the track "Créme de Cassis" is an interlude featuring black poet Alesia Miller,[16] and the album's concluding lyrics are interpolated from Bob Marley's "Small Axe".[23] Kerrang! writer Sam Law stated that "their music marks the intersection where the current hardcore movement and the energy of Black Lives Matter thrillingly meet."[24] In particular, the band have discussed topics including racism, disenfranchisement, racial injustice and police brutality.[17] The band's lyrics are also informed by the gang violence in Los Angeles, Lei's Rastafari faith as a youth and his current Islamic faith.[25] Stereogum writer Tom Breihan stated that their lyrics can "be angry and defiant, but it can also be celebratory."[26]

Revolver writer Eli Enis called them "one of the heaviest bands in contemporary hardcore",[21] and the New York Times writer Hank Shteamer stated their music is "a visionary fusion of cathartic heaviness, hip-hop flow and artfully interwoven samples from classic R&B and reggae."[16] Metal Hammer writer Stephen Hill stated their music is "the classic sound of punk rock, hardcore and powerviolence reimagined and rebred with both the liquid grooves and righteous protest polemic of the golden era of funk and soul."[27]

Current

• Anaiah Lei – vocals, guitar, bass, drums (2019–present)
• Dez Yusuf – guitar (2020–present)
• Braxton Marcellous – guitar (2020–present)
• Satchel Brown – bass (2020–present)

Former

• Christine Cadette – drums, vocals (2020–2023)

Albums

• A New Tomorrow (2023)

EPs

• Our Day Will Come (2019)
• My People... Hold On (2020)

Singles

• "Fakin' Tha Funk (You Get Did)" (2022)
• "Where I'm From" (2023)
• "Wait and Bleed"/"Shine Eternally" (2023)