Killing Spree "Deception Betrayal Revenge" CD
[What's My Cut?]
Killing Spree may not be the best band name in the world, but it's fairly indicative of the promising thrash that this San Francisco trio delivers... and it's a hell of a lot better than their former moniker, Flush! For the most part expect classic styled thrash metal circa the late-80's/early-90's with plenty of tempo changes, lead breaks, and a little bit of a crossover sort of edge to it, both vocally and musically. It's a little too rugged and has a few too many problem areas to totally win me over, but with a little more effort these guys could kick some serious ass. I'm really digging the higher-pitched vocal yells that kind of sound like a mix between Dave Mustaine and John Connelly, the only problem is that the dude too often forces himself beyond his range for a semi obnoxious sneer that sort of takes away from his performance. If he could iron that shit out he'd be awesome, because there are far too few bands these days that still use the traditional thrash metal vocal style, and these guys are definitely staying true to that approach. "Garden of Heathen" is solid thrash that maintains a consistent midpaced roll with efficient dissonant accents, "Killing Spree" remains pretty solid even though all of the gang vocals don't sound too hot and kind of lessen the blow, so... they ought to rethink how they go about that stuff, etc. "Hollow Structure" opens with an interestingly melodic chord progression that almost sounds more like post-hardcore or something, eventually opening into a grungy sort of groove that's kind of a nice change of pace, if not severely out of place. But "Power of Hate" is the only track that gets way too groovy and fucks with some later era Prong sounding harmonics that are too harsh and irritating for me to even think about tolerating. Since the core of their writing is based around the heyday of thrash I have no idea why they'd flirt with the same kind of shit that killed the genre, but whatever. The last two tracks come from an older EP, but were probably re-recorded since they sound dead even with the 10 new tracks that precede them. Stylistically, "Going Nowhere" is actually pretty damn cool with its zippy little rock riffs and lead runs and almost reminds me of Excel or something at times; while "At the End" is more in your face and breaks off some 90's styled rhythms for variety. The recording's not bad, but it needs a little more polishing up. Were the performances totally dead on and the songwriting a little more consistent I'd easily be able to get past the rugged perimeter of the production, but regardless, if they could smooth out the guitar tone just a bit to get more control out of the crunch, as well as making sure to prevent the levels from peaking out here and there they'd be in a better position. Most of the tones sound alright, but something about the levels sounds a little overloaded, which kind of creates a forced sort of low-end density that messes with some of the clarity. They're close, though. The band logo and certain elements of the layout need some work (the logo's just too immature and uninteresting), but the collaged cover art is actually pretty damn cool, and I like how the panels of the booklet fold out to reveal a larger depiction of that same image. The lyrics cover your usual topics of violence, corruption, and attacks on religion, and range from acceptably simplistic and typical ("A simple mind, a simple truth, wasting our youth...") too absurdly immature ("Molestation, masturbation, take a dump on that cross..."), so there's only so much of that I can take, and honestly most of the content is pretty lame, so... that's another are to work on in the future. It's kind of a shame when records like this come so close to achieving an admirable throwback to such a great era, and I respect these guys for trying honor the revered Bay Area tradition of their hometown without mimicking any particular outfits, but they're not quite there yet. I do enjoy aspects of this CD though, and I'll absolutely be pulling for these guys to win me over in the future. There's some real promise within this material. (6/10)
Running time - 41:58, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Garden of Heathen, Killing Spree, Going Nowhere]
Killing Spree - http://www.wearekillingspree.com

This review has been displayed 1305 times.