Killaman
S/T
6.3
Hold on tight, because Killaman has no intention of obeying the speed limits. Featuring members of Deranged, Reclusion, and Murder Corporation, you would be forgiven for expecting a death metal collaboration. Instead, what is delivered is more of a brutal thrash metal assault. The recipe here is riffs on top of riffs, a hearty dose of gruff vocals that sound a little like those of Corpsegrinder, give it a dirty, retro-death metal production, then play it all at speeds faster than should be legal. The easiest comparisons are to imagine Slayer’s fastest works, or the vicious thrash of Demolition Hammer, played by the boys of Cannibal Corpse.
Rune, from modern thrash act Reclusion, delivers a throat-scarring vocal performance, and it seems as if his voice is more befitting of a band like Killaman, than his main band. The guitar duo of Johan Axelsson (Deranged) and Roger Johansson (Insision) are relentless in their mission for auditory dominance. Johan’s bandmate Rikard fills out the lineup behind the drum kit.
Immediately as the disc starts spinning, you’re initiated into the blazing-fast world of Killaman. They viciously conjoin the rough and choppy attack of The Crown with the tightness and riff-sense of Kreator. “Hatekill” just crushes with a wall of distorted mayhem, as if an SYL song was beefed up. “Breed on Kills” pounds away with Dew-Scented flair, but then a Slayer-bred solo rears its ugly head. The thing I find most unexpected about this album are the random hardcore power-chord riffs that poke out at random, such as in “A World of Shit” and “God Told Me To”. They add to the urgency, for sure.
Killaman’s self-titled debut is not for the weak or those with a cardiac condition. Frequently, they just get carried away with the speed and get sloppy, but when everything comes together, it’s seizure-inducing death/thrash. Unbridled speed and aggression is the order of the day here, nothing overly technical, and certainly nothing epic. The songwriting is not very remarkable, but it’s really all about the energy contained within. I don’t really believe that Killaman set out to make a transcendent death metal masterpiece, but instead, they just wanted to thrash the bloody hell out of you – and that they do.
