| CD REVIEW Kill 21 |
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Band : Kill 21 This London and South-East England based band was formed from the ashes of several previous bands in...in early 2008, I guess...with its members tearing away themselves from today's heavy music culture, and a desire of “...reminding audiences what music once was...” (taken literally from the band's bio, according to which also...) “...Versatile vocals, gargantuan guitars, blasting bass and destroying drums are what you can expect from Kill 21...” (sounds good enough, but let's have an interim reality check: 1) Versatile vocals? Nnnn...nahhh, they're really rather unilateral, although the lead singer doesn't always get backings – maybe that's what's meant with versatility? 2) Gargantuan guitars? Ach, on stage the guys perhaps crank up the volume, and seen the guitarists play a lot of (admittedly melodic) riffs a lot of the time, I'm sure the guys get a “big” sound alright! I mean, I can very well imagine the music played on this album to be “larger than life” in a stage setting!!! 3) Blasting bass? Well, the instrument is occasionally very prominent in the band's sound, alright! 4) Destroying drums? Let's not exaggerate...but the drummer doés a more than adequate job!) “...; not to mention they make sure their audiences get involved in every aspect of the show...” (jiust for a joke, I got my imagination running amok around this time: I suppose the guys have the audiences help take out their instruments from the van, contribute in the installation on stage, has people snatch their instruments from 'em while performing, and then has the audience help the band help put away all the gear in the van again?). Back to band history, Kill 21 (the line-up of which consists of singer Jason, guitarists I.C. Dave and Blake, bassist Glenn, and drummer Chris) reached semi-finals of the Surface Unsigned and Live & Unsigned festivals during 2009, as well as headlining in several known UK venues such as Bull & Gate, Water Rats, The Cellar, 229, Hobgoblin, Camden Rock, and more. Important items on the band's agenda during 2010 include a participation in the Smoggy Molly Rally, booking a show at London's infamous Scala venue, and finish work on their debut full-length album. While giving the album its number of listening sessions in order to be able to review it, I noticed a lot of the lyrics revolve around the (army-related) “killing” bit in the band's name...and as such one might call Kill 21 a conceptual band. Also noticed is the fact that the guys are not afraid to show a more sensitive side to themselves, first by questioning the fact that they were raised to kill, then with the semi-acoustic (and enhanced by atmospheric keyboards) “Healthy Obsession”. Oh my, and all this time if “forgot” to tell you what kind of music this quintet plays, eh? Well, I'm afraid that with “reminding the audiences what music once was”, the guys only bothered to turn back the clock 1 ½ decades...which brings us smack in the middle of the Grunge frenzy induced by an overkill concentration of the major label music industry on that genre! Now although at myspace.com/killtwentyone, you'll find the band presenting their music as “Gunge/ Metal/ Rock”, you'll find the 3 songs posted are closer to the Rock than to the Metal, with the great “World In Flames” representing the heaviest on the album. Yeah, I used a “great” in that sentence, because in contrast to the possible negative vibe you may have gotten from me about the band's music in the first paragraph of this review, the boys nevertheless succeeded in making a nice album. Sure, they exaggerated a bit in the description of their own material, but that's to be expected of any band which is excited with its own material! And in spite of my describing the band's music as being foremost riff-oriented, the lead guitarist nevertheless brings in an enjoyable amount of lead play as well. Closing the album sees Kill 21 turning back the clock about 20 years for their version of AC/DC's “Whole Lotta Rosie”. Wish they hadn't done that, because even if the track is nice enough musically, the slightly nasal and range-limited voice of the lead singer kinda messes up things somewhat for me. Nice “bonus” (the track was not mentioned in the label info sheet) for people who're already fans of the band, but not exactly what I'd call a positive calling card towards people whom still need to explore the band's music! Originally, the album was slated for a Nov. 22 release, and a UK tour was supposed to start around the same time. Most probably, that tour was about finished when the album eventually was released, and I've found no current or upcoming shows posted on the band's (MySpace) website! 88/100 Tony. |