| CD REVIEW Kill The Klient |
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Band : Kill The Klient This Dallas, Texas based quintet came about in 2002, with a slightly different line-up than today (back then they still worked with guitarist Jody Roberts – of Kalibas, Agiel, Skogag/ Salt This Earth, Bloodbath And Beyond, Brutal Truth, and As The World Burns repute – and drummer Chris Andrews - who's got Morbid Anal Fog and Devourment on his cv), the current one consisting of singer Morgan, guitarists Chris Richardson and Dorian Rainwater (of Noisear and Ditheist), bassist James Delgado, and drummer Bryan Fajardo (also of Noisear, but also of Gridlink, Enemies Of Inertia, and more prominently of Phobia). The band opened “recorded proceedings” with their 11-track EP (with a length of only 14:15 that is a justified qualification of the item) Wage Slave, released in Sept. 2004 on the small imprint Counterpoint Recordings. Using a completely new batch of 15 songs (although the songs didn't differ any in length, album closer “Negative One” had the incredible length of 6:13, resulting in a total playing time of just under 29 minutes), they returned with their Willowtip full-length debut Escalation Of Hostility in November 2005. In April 2007 came a split release with Agoraphobic Nosebleed (a 7-inch which saw each band play 3 songs) on Relapse, and later that year (October) the band released their sophomore full-length (18 songs for an album length of just under 23 minutes) Cleptocracythrough Willowtip, the album also including the tracks on the Relapse split. The band then contributed 3 new tracks (again, used on the following full-length...this one!) to an 8-track split with Thousandswilldie, released through Regurgitated Semen Records in January 2009. And somewhere along the line KTC contributed to an EyeHateGod tribute album with a cover of the track “The Concussion Machine Process”. The Relapse info sheet (taken over by the band on their MySpace page), is relatively short: “Kill The Client embodies the essence of nihilistic Grindcore on their Relapse debut Set For Extinction. Nineteen tracks explode like IED's and spread with the subtlety of sonic napalm, driven forth by punishing low-end distortion and the machine-gun drumming of Bryan Fajardo. Kill The Client have reached a new apex with Set For Extinction, and in the process created a post-millennial classic.” Big words, and definitely meant to promote their new signing to the fullest, of course, but the descriptive words have a foundation of truth in 'em, because the band doés bring a very typical American Grindcore with machine-gun drumming, for the most part viciously fast guitar passages (which are nót devoid of melody lines, as some Grindcore haters would have you believe, and also not devoid of short passages with slowed-down pace), and a singer whom either screams (but not top of the head) or growls his guys out! With 19 tracks (3 of which previously on the Thousandswilldie split) and a total length of 26 ½ minutes, the continuous onslaught might be a bit much for most listeners (hey, here's a nice proverb for those: if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!), but luckily even the band understands that, and after 12 tracks they start “Primetime Dogma” with a short conversation bit (might be a sample from a movie, though) before getting into the song (by the way, the album is opened with a – now funny – public radio announcement sample about The Bomb, which must be dating from the early '60s or so). For your acquaintance with the band's music, KTC posted 2 songs off the new album (alongside 2 of their previous full-length) at myspace.com/killtheclient. Enjoy, then hurry on over to the record store to order your copy (hey, I forgot to check, but if we're lucky the album will also get a vinyl edition?). If you're wondering about my “moderate” rating, in spite of my usual love and year-list nominations of Grind releases that I come across...well, I've heard better, but KTC's Set For Extiction still deserves what it's getting! 90/100 Tony. |