EP Review: MrKill - Day of Reckoning (2020)
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| Picture Credit: MrKill |
MrKill - Day of Reckoning
Release: July 31, 2020
Label: selfrelease
Format: CD/Digital
Length: 26:10
Genre: Groove Metal / Melodic Death Metal
MrKill love to express the extreme. Both music-wise as well as in their lyrics, the quartet from Melbourne exhaust everything to the maximum (I really hope that phrase is not connotated negatively). While the songs on "Day of Reckoning" concern chasms of human interaction such as hatred, war, exploitation, greed, or neglection and ignorance, the musical accompaniment is brutal, too. I can easily quote the band's self-description here: "From deep chugs, sonic high notes, shredding and dark draw moments, MrKill captures such a wide range of energy to be experienced". Yep, Mango-approved!
"Day of Reckoning" is MrKill's second release. Last year, the "Untitled" three-track EP (or demo?) marked the first output by Xines (drums), Baltion Radi (bass), Scott Henderson (lead guitar), and Justin Ks (rhythm guitars, vocals, programming, songwriting).
Embedded between calm and classical intro 'The Descent' and outro 'Elegy' there are four tracks of grooving and melodic Death Metal with certain influences from other genres (I'll come back to that). With the opening of the song 'Annihilation', I first was a little skeptical. The first minute featured an extremely simple and inflationarily used groove riff. Luckily, this stomping motif only reappeared once.
Except for that one motif, the EP has no real flaws. I absolutely enjoy the way Justin makes his garglingly growled vocals cling to the melody of the riffs - a feature that somehow reminds me of German Death Metal band Debauchery. The songwriting too, is very pleasing. MrKill add a lot of variation to their four tracks while always keeping Groove and Melodic Death Metal as their foundation. Features like the oriental scale in the solo for 'Hatred', influences of Symphonic, Prog and Heavy Metal in the opulent 'Oblivion' or a certain Black Metal atmosphere in 'Annihilation' make this EP very interesting.
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| Picture Credit: MrKill |
After listening to the EP for several times, my conclusion is that MrKill are a band you should keep in mind. There hopefully is more about to come and I am confident that on a future release, MrKill will have defined their own style even more. Keep grooving!
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