The Dying Light
The Killing Plan
8.3
This is just the album Willowtip needed to release. While the latest offerings from Gorod, Alarum, and Circle of Dead Children were very good, The Dying Light possess the same uncanny distinction from its peers as many of the acts that have made Willowtip Records the go-to label for lovers of death and grind. The Killing Plan is the rare kind of record that is smart enough to avoid any type of wheel reinvention, but still leaves the listener with a sense of having been exposed to something completely uncommon and even original.
At times lurching and foreboding, while at others indulging in dexterous guitar interplay, at well under 30 minutes The Killing Plan features the kind of range in songwriting that begs for repeated listens. The lumbering title track beings the festivities in suitably dark fashion. At just over five minutes, the monolithic bludgeoning of "The Killing Plan" serves as a slightly misleading introduction to an album consistent of quick bursts of articulate aggression. Joe Capizzi and Brandon Diaz stack one riff set on top of the other in each of the relatively short songs to develop coherent structures uncommon to music this aggressive in nature. While Diaz and Capizzi are the artistic foundation of the group, the gruff but discernible bark of Lino Wrecker and kit battery of Brandon Thomas purvey the lion's share of the band's vitriol. Skillfully mastered by Erik Rutan, these primary forces combine for a product equally suitable to the brutal and avantegarde sets.
What The Dying Light have accomplished is a very impressive sort of alchemy on The Killing Plan, in merging the white knuckled viscera of a grind album with the eloquence of technical thrash without sacrificing the nuts of each other. It's the kind of album that lends itself either to extended listening sessions devoted to soaking up the intricacies or simply cranking the volume and enjoying the ride.
