Authority Zero are a band’s band. Arriving during the mid-90s pop-punk explosion, the Arizona four-piece initially inspired excitement by combining punk, hardcore, and ska, as well as Spanish and Portuguese influences. They had some early chart success, but line-up instability unfortunately stopped them from hitting the heights of their contemporaries, such as Rancid and The Offspring.
This is a crying shame, because in terms of musicianship, Authority Zero are several leagues above a lot of bands that seem to be content to follow the “play-three-chords-fast” formula. Broadcasting to the Nations skillfully flits between hardcore pit starters to straight-up reggae, seemingly without pausing to think.
The problem with this is, unfortunately, the band are certainly better at some styles rather than others. The tracks that border on hardcore, such as album opener ‘First One in the Pit’, are guaranteed pulse-racers, with vocalist and sole founding-member Jason DeVore instructing the listener to “be the first one in the pit/the last one out” with such conviction it’s hard not to take the punk veterans lyrics as a direct order. The ska-punk tracks are absolutely guaranteed to get the listener skanking too, with the title track, ‘Broadcasting to the Nations’, being an upbeat album highlight.
However, when Authority Zero try and aim for a more radio-friendly sound, the album’s momentum is halted. This is most problematic on the chilled-out reggae of ‘Summer Sickness’, which could be cynically viewed as an attempt to write a “summer anthem”. Its catchy, and immaculately produced (in part by The Descendants’ and Black Flag’s Bill Stevenson), but it’s a bit of a comedown after the barnstorming ‘Broadcasting to the Nations’ that precedes it.
Still, Broadcasting to the Nations is mostly a diverse and likable punk record from a hardworking, and perhaps somewhat underrated group. Authority Zero throw a lot at the wall on this release, and although not everything sticks, what does is worth the time of any 90s punk aficionado.
