Reviews
Kill Division: Destructive force
11/10/13 || Ironpants
“Playing in the second division of kill”
A power trio, how nice. The history is full of bands that have made their way as a trio. Motörhead, Venom, Rush, ZZ-Top and Nirvana have all proved to the world that three is enough. And why should you involve more people than necessary? The expression “The more, the merrier” doesn’t always apply, if you are not arranging an orgy of some kind that is…
In later years several bands have continued this mission and in more modern times bands like Immortal, Grand Magus, and first and foremost Torture Division delivers their unholy messages of trinity to the masses with great success. You may slowly wonder why bands like Slipknot, Mushroomhead and American Headcharge need a fucken football team to produce their crappy music? That´s another subject though, so lets leave it here.
Kill Division is a new power trio of death metal that is put together by a few “older” names in the business. Susan Gerl (God Dethroned), Richard Ebisch (Legion of the Damned) and Roel Sanders (Inhumed/God Dethroned) has decided that there is no time to fool around and picked up some older riffs, added a few new ones and are on a mission to run you over with their relentless grind/death metal. And they are pretty good.
The style of music here is a very action-filled, and a short and intense experience. And that is why they reach the goal line with heads up high. They leave you no time to wonder about what you should do later today or think about why your kids hate you, and if you are looking for some no bullshit music, this may be your shit.
After a military style march intro, the album falls into the track ‘Mechanic domination’ , which sets the pace for the rest that is to follow. And I must admit that after a few spins, this gets me going a bit. I didn’t really like it at first, and that may have to do with the vocals of Susan Gerl? I don’t know if it have something to do with prejudice, but I thought at first that it was a bit thin, but after a few minutes I got used to it. Actually, she sounds a little bit like Jeff Walker in Carcass… I don’t know if that is a compliment to a lady, but in this case I guess it is? And she trades vocal lines with Ebisch, and they act as backups to each other, switching vocal parts, and it comes out pretty neat. Ebisch has a darker growl, and once again that Carcass vibe comes around.
The music is as I said earlier, pretty hectic, and I get some vibes from Terrorizer/Morbid Angel. Most probably is that the drummers “fault”, we are presented with bomber-blasts, grind beats and fast 2/4 rhythms in a “Sandoval” style. And that´s fine by me, even if it gets a bit repetitive, they avoid the death trap of being tedious by acting with sheer speed and brute force. Many of the songs are quite short and intense, several of them clocking in under the three minute mark, and that works in their favor. The album is somewhere around 37 minutes in total, and that is a quite perfect total time.
If you want your music served with brutal force and snarling vocals, and also want to let off some steam, this is your album. Pop it in the stereo, and just give in to the action. But in honesty, there is nothing new being brought to the table here, and that does not have to be a bad thing. I enjoyed this album quite a bit, and you don’t always have to be out of this earth original and innovative. If these guys continue and work on new ideas, they may develop to something really good further on, but for now, this is pretty good and can act as a topping for your death metal cravings.
- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Metal Blade Records
- Website: www.killdivision.net
- Band
- Susan Gerl: vocals, guitars
- Richard Ebisch: vocals, guitars, bass
- Roel Sanders: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Kill division march
- 02. Mechanic domination
- 03. Fear of life
- 04. Locked up forever
- 05. Made of lies
- 06. Destructive force
- 07. Sadistic oppressor
- 08. Distorted reality
- 09. Generated hate
- 10. Master manipulator
- 11. Toxic world
