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Reviews
Kerrang
KKKK
Kent-Based Metalcore
Troupe Bring the Pain
With an emphasis on early Poison The Well-esque dynamics and sonic
bludgeon, this debut six track EP from the Kent-based five piece
is a welcome addition to the UK metalcore scene. They're not exactly
reinventing the wheel; everything you'd expect is present and
correct - chunky, chugging riffs, furious double-kick, wide-open
guitar melodies reminiscent of Helmet and the occasional swerve
into gentle passages that emphasise the menace surrounding them
- but the whole thing is infused with a powerful conviction and
vicious delivery that firmly places boot in arse. With the throat-stripping
vocals of Daniel Duggan pushed to the fore, the production is
hefty but raw, emphasising the band's abrasive edge without compromising
on overall wallop. This is music packed with malicious intent
and tailor-made to whip up circle-pits the land-over.
Metal
Hammer 7/10
UK fashioncore fans,
meet your new gurus.
Love That Kills have been ferociously promoting their name and
have gigged persistently, playing with the likes of Himsa and
Darkest Hour. The band may seem like the latest in a trend of
Myspace-core, but their hard work and self promotion is finally
backed up by a brilliant mini-album. 'To Cruel Nails Surrendered'
is aggressive and technically accomplished - LTK are not just
pretty faces - and their very British take on the Poison The Well/18V
style of metalcore is needed in a scene that is drowning in American
bands. Featuring ex-members of xCanaanx and The Break In, songs
such as 'Razor Blade Smile' definitely pay homage to UKHC, albeit
with a more commercial edge. most of the multi-selling metalcore
bands from America feature members of once underground-hardcore
bands, and now the UK may just have their counterpart.
Terrorizer
7/10
If UKHC was ever
smug or influential enough to use the word 'supergroup' then Love
That Kills would be it. The former lungs from bruisers The Break
In and the riffs of XCanaanX all pile into a melody-infused gothcore
cul de sac where It Dies Today twitch the net curtains and Integrity
lazily trim the pivet. In a scene where plagiarism is king, conviction
is all it takes to squeeze a drop of genuine creativity from the
emaciated teats of an over saturated market
Powerplay
7/10
Kent-based Love That
Kills debut on In At The Deep End Records is a promising six tracks
that leaves the band with a solid base to develop from and improve
on in the future. Playing a form of metalcore not unlike that
played bt bands such as Poison The Well, Zao, Remembering Never
and It Dies Today, Love That Kills is another promising British
band on their way up. The highlight is probably opening track
"Bloodless", which boasts a beat that you'll find hard
not to enjoy, and some solid rhythmic drumming. While most of
these six tracks are well written and well played and when all
said and done, this is a pretty good effort. While this may not
be the best unsigned British metalcore band that I've heard, Love
That Kills is certainly towards the top end. With a bit more varied
song writing style, this band would really be onto something.
it's releases like this that make me feel good about the future
of heavy music in this country because, along with bands like
Forever Never, Shaped By Fate, Bring Me The Horizon and Sika Redeem,
it's a future that is starting to look pretty good.
Raised
Horns 9/10
Now
here is a band that is having fun. Don’t know what I mean?
Well Love That Kills are releasing their new CD after a summer
tour with the UK’s premier Zombie Core outfit Send More
Paramedics. Obviously they survived the carnage and unadulterated
human slaughter and they do seem none the worse for the experience
and so here they are with their 2006 Self Titled release, “Love
That Kills” “Bloodless” starts proceedings,
a slow grinding screamo track, heavy and ruthless in approach.
Sound quality perfect, riff age heavy and unleashed upon you with
awesome precision, vocals raw and unbridled and a fantastic back
line of sturdy solid drumming and hard hitting repetitive bass
lines.
Notching the pace up a little, “The Great Depression”
hits in displaying all the characteristics of a tight musically
professional and talented band. It is hard to decipher what the
vocalist is saying in his lyrics but take nothing away from LTK;
they do have their softer moments hidden away in all that raw
energy. Starting with awesome riffs and fast sporadic drumming,
“Razor Blade Smile” keeps the tempo high throttled
and fast. Definitely more emphasis on the guitar work when it
comes to the choruses in this track as the rest take the backseat.
Some parts are just hard hitting slamming riffs one after another
in a crescendo of noise and break neck heavy metal. “Head
First Straight From Hell” slows the pace down once more
as the vocals on the chorus become more audible. Still heavy and
grinding until the middle section where light chord work comes
into play with almost harmonic vocals in a real chill out moment
before the carnage sets back in and the lyrics “HEAD FIRST
STRAIGHT FROM HELL” are screamed out raucously. Taking the
tempo down still further “Hangman’s Game” mixes
pace and styles from soft to hard to create one of the songs of
the CD. An almost Machine Head style riffs punctures the middle
part of the song and rolls on through until the vocals hit in
once more.
So to finish things off we have “… To Cruel Nails
Surrendered”. A high-octane energetic song. The only thing
missing from this is the “End of the album” feeling,
which a lot of bands manage to capture which unfortunately LTK
don’t. But hey one bad point in a whole CD of talent, precision
and brilliant riff age is hardly something to be dwelled upon.
Love That Kills are growing in reputation and talent and this
year will see them really emerge as a major force on the underground
scene. Definitely for all fans of emo/screamo, but those who don’t
follow that scene, check these guys out anyway, you may be pleasantly
surprised.
Die
Shellsuit Die Zine
Looking
at the artwork you can pretty much imagine what this album is
going to sound like. Initial prejudging would say it’s an
emotional hardcore release. Going from the artist’s name
and album title, it’s most likely the latter. There’s
a slight difference with the EP though, in that it’s not
quite what you’d expect when you finally get round to listening.
This is a “metalcore” release. However it’s
not merely a slapping of hardcore breakdowns between metal riffs
and solos. This album actually fuses the sections together, no
more are the styles clearly defined. It doesn’t use the
bone crunching power chord so much as it’s backbone, employing
the higher end of the scale more. This adds more dimensions to
the sound, raising it clear of 2D “heavy template”
albums. In many respects this isn’t so dissimilar to screamo,
except that this has been applied with taste rather than it smothering
the album like over buttering bread. There’s not too much
more I can say about this album. At 20 minutes it’s the
perfect length, never sounding stretched and perfect for listening
on repeat. I don’t think I’ve found an album yet that
sounds quite like this, so I’ll be interested to hear what
future releases sound like. In all, it’s well worth a butchers.
8/10
Subba-Cultcha
Fair
play, although these are based in Kent their members range from
a host of other areas such as Canterbury, Margate, London and
Southend and are made up from ex-members of bands such as xCanaanx,
Raiden, Up In Arms and The Break In. And when I saw this was coming
out on In At The Deep End Records I pretty much knew that I would
instantly like this. True to Deep End form, this CD is great and
has such intensity that brings together and show off some of the
members’ former band influences and elements so well that
if you liked the bands these guys were involved in then you are
guaranteed to love this. When you listen to the 6 tracks of death
metal tinged metalcore (which also has some hardcore feel to it
in parts) you can’t help but hear a comparison to say the
likes of Poison The Well, Zao and It Dies Today to name a few
and where as I said it is a death metal tinged metalcore release,
don’t think that it is an out and out barrage of intensity
and cranium splitting beats, oh no, there is so much more to this
as there is also some great structured beatdown parts (the lean
to the hardcore element I mentioned) and there are even some melodic
moments that are most evident inHead First Straight To Hell and
Hangmans Game. I also think Hangmans Game is a great one to show
off their genre amalgamation as this track covers the hardcore,
metalcore, melodic piece and death metal so well. To Cruel Nails
Surrendered is also a storming and powerful pounding slice of
metal that then swoons to melodic hardcore while maintaining the
metal raspy throated torment of the vocalist.This truly is a CD
I will be listening to over and over again without fail and I
just know it will impress you too.
The
Communion 8/10
With
ex-members of Canaan, The Break In and Raiden, many were probably
expecting a certain style of band and were disappointed when this
didn’t turn out to be the case. What we didn’t get
either was a band for fans of ‘metalcore/death metal’
as the press release suggests, nor a Haircare Bunch band as the
artwork and band name might suggest. Instead it’s something
slightly surprising and better than all of the above – a
melodically-inclined hardcore band who sound like they should
have come out when poison the well, hopesfall and others were
on top of their game. With a nod to the churning sounds of The
Esoteric (US) as well as the driving melodies of Jairus, what
you subsequently have presented to you is a powerful hardcore
band who aren’t afraid of writing epic-sounding riffs that
sink into your brain effortlessly.You could a damn sight worse
than leaving preconceptions at the door and giving this bunch
a re-appraisal.
Blacklisted
Featuring
ex-members of xCanaanx and Raiden there is little surprise that
Love That Kills are pretty hardcore, and I'm not talking the glo-sticks
and E variety. The songs tend to contain word combos such as 'the
great depression', 'frozen tears', 'cold razorblade' and my personal
favourite- 'Fuck tonight, I'll be dead by dawn.' In fact, there's
an overriding sense of despair throughout that really warms the
cockles. The cockles of hate and anger that is. The title track
is by far the stand out number, changing up the pummelling with
a little bit of melody in the early stages of the song before
galloping off into the pit of oblivion. I'm
no expert on the heaviest side of hardcore, but I've heard enough
of this stuff to appreciate the good shit when I hear it and Love
That Kills definately fall into that category. (05/04/06)
No
Front Teeth
LOVE
THAT KILLS contains members of XCANAANX and THE BREAK IN amongst
others so you know what to expect- viciously heavy hardcore, hostile
and forceful with breakdowns and guttural vocals. This is the
sound of categorically British hardcore.it's so brutally intense
but there's an fundamental melody running through the whole thing
and that precise blend is what makes this sound.the American approach
seems so different to me, even though the merge melody with heaviness
they do it very differently.I don't know, it seems more 'separate'
but with LOVE THAT KILLS it's all layered and intertwined. Even
though this is a 6-track EP, there's enough force on here for
about 10 albums worth.this will knock you right back.
New
Noise
You
know you aren't listening to Westlife as this EP opens with "Such
a beautiful bloodless corpse / Still warm yet breathless".
A metalcore cliche from the lyrics to the so-now-it-hurts name
and the black/white/neon pink artwork, it'd be easy to write Love
That Kills off in an instant. Featuring members of various underground
UK hardcore/metal bands, have managed to meld all the best bits
of a saturated genre together and come up with something - though
not especially original - more than palatable. 'The Great Depression'
has spoken word parts and beatdowns a plenty and 'Head First Straight
From Hell' screams and tears its way through three minutes like
Bleeding Through or Eighteen Visions before they went all soft
on us.
Indigo
Flow
Featuring
former members of xCanaanx, The Break In, Raiden and Up In Arms
(UK) members, Love That Kills have spent the last four years writing
and performing to perfect the songs that appear on this, their
debut EP. The result is six slices of unrelenting metalcore a
la It Dies Today and Poison The Well. As opening gambits go, this
is pretty impressive.
Blood
To Shed Zine
Theres
something about this 6 track ep. Something dark, brooding and
nasty as hell. Opening track "Bloodless" proves to be
just a pre-cursour of what to come. As LTK rip through 6 tracks
of vitriolic hate in under 20mins, this band prove you dont have
to be masters of epic riffs and facemelting solos to be at the
top of the UK metalcore scene.
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£3
€5
$7
£5