Power of Metal.dk Review

 
Killer Be Killed
Killer Be Killed
Rating
 
Style: Heavy Metal
Release date: 9 May, 2014
Playing time: 45:47
 


You can call this a kind of super group with Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Max Cavalera (Soulfy, Cavalera Conspiracy), Dave Elith (ex-The Mars Volta) and last but not least Troy Sanders (Mastodon). What to expect? - well their music sounds indeed a bit like a mix of the bands they play or have played for, but more than that. With triple vocal perfomances of Greg, Max and Troy the music sounds very variable.

The first songs start very melodic and in the middle, when Max opens his mouth, it has a small Soulfly kind of piece. The songs are very melodic in general and Greg and Troy take care of the melodic and futuristic singing pieces. The contrast of the brutal vocals by Max with the more melodic and cleaner singing of the other two never sounds forced, but very natural. A lot of styles can be heard in the songs, bits of hardcore, some thrash riffs and even some slower doomier parts. The biggest success for me however is the song writing. The songs sound very accessible although there are a lot of heavy parts as well. It never sounds like some pieces of different styles put together. Every song counts and some beautiful choruses and clean singing parts make it complete.

"Snakes of Jehova" is an excellent example of how aggression and melody go hand in hand. A thrash piece, harsh shouting, clean singing (a bit in Fear Factory style), very fast pieces with sublime tight drumming make this one of the heaviest songs. Immediately a song like "Curb Crusher" starts with a certain groove and this is again one of the faster tracks. With "Save the Robots" they serve a slower and more melodic track, but again with some heavy pieces. In "Fire to Your Flag" there are some similarities with Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy, but still different. The changing from heavy into melodic and vice versa makes this a very complete album.

A lot of times super groups can't deliver what you expect, but this time they bring more than that. An album with synergy.


Tracklist
01. Wings of Feather and Wax
02.
Face Down
03.
Melting of My Marrow
04.
Snakes of Jehova
05.
Curb Crusher
06.
Save the Robots
07.
Fire to Your Flag
08.
I.E.D.
09. Dust Into Darkness
10. Twelve Labors
11. Forbidden Fire
Label: Nuclear Blast Record
Distribution: Sony Music (Denmark)
Reviewed by: Reinier de Vries
Date: 11 May, 2014
Website: www.facebook.com/killerbekilledmusic