Review: The Killers “s/t” 7”

Awesome. More ultra discordant and sinister material with a good range of tempos and tons of vocal layering with lots of sneering screams, as well as plenty of shifts between distorted and clean guitars. There are some truly fast moments that hit on a grinding feel, while very thick dissonance and little hints at melody kind of take the lead role throughout. Sometimes the vocals kind of give things a bit of a screamo edge, while a few of the more basic speeds have a traditional hardcore vibe for very brief spurts ("Disengage" is the fastest and most frantic of the songs, and exemplifies some of these moments). The band never sits still for very long though, and the constant shifts actually work very well in this case. I'd still say they're loosely comparable to Dystopia on some level, but not too literally or anything. Honestly, I kind of think the vocals aren't the best match for the force of the music, which doesn't hold them back per se, but does take away just a bit from their impact. A lower or less exaggerated vocal approach could really do some serious damage with this kind of material. The recording is slightly noisy but works fine. Other than the vocals being ever so slightly out in front they've got a solid mix with good density. The picture disc 7" comes in a full color sleeve with some awesome artwork (as always from both The Killers and the Hater of God label) and nice looking handwritten text for the lyrics. The lyrics are overtly socio-political and very pissed: "You severely underestimate the coercive powers of this nation state, we rely on 'Third World' labor which we've got to subjugate. 'First World' countries' destruction of humanity never will abate if everyone's fed lies from this media concentrate..." This is a very creative and interesting band, and while I don't enjo this quite as much as their 10", I'm still very good and I'm certainly looking forward to hearing more... I'd also highly appreciate it if this band dropped a discography CD at some point down the line! Come on!

[Hater of God]
Running time - 7:00 (approximately), Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: all three are very strong]
Hater of God - http://www.haterofgod.com