The Killer – Not Everyone Who Is Lost…

Chicago’s The Killer play a rough mix of sludge and hardcore.  Roughly translated, the band takes the slow, dense riffs pioneered by metal’s legacy bands like Black Sabbath, and mashes them together with belted, throaty vocals.  The result is a style that is a little more structured than metalcore, but still retains the depth of an ambitious metal band.  The easiest way for me to describe The Killer’s second full length,Not Everyone Who Is Lost…, is as if Black Flag slowed things down and was influenced by the doom-metal bands of the late 90’s.

One of my biggest complaints with throaty hardcore in general is the degree of repetition that is amplified by indecipherable lyrics.  In other words, if a band repeats the same riffs, and employs a vocal growl, then everything tends to mash together for me.  Thankfully Not Everyone Who Is Lost… avoids this trap by moving between different tempos and keeping their lyrics at least partially audible.  For example, while “Darker” starts off with a deep, sludgy intro, they waste no time at all before launching headlong into a vicious hardcore sensory assault.  The Killer maintains this balancing act by consistently switching between tempos and styles.  Songs like “Higher Than the Sky” take this even further and feature some very vigorous drumming and well-defined guitar work.

From what I can understand, the band isn’t particularly unique lyrically.  They fall in line with most doom metal bands, focusing on hopeless imagery with a “the end is nigh” state of mind.  Tracks like “God Forgot” describes earth as a spiritually forgotten wasteland consumed in an unending cycle of hate and war.  “Final Prayer of the Devil’s Bastard” makes the apocalyptic subject matter more individual and details a fallen soul’s descent into violence, rage, and damnation.  While I don’t listen to a lot of doom metal, based on the number of album covers I’ve seen for the genre (which is substantial), this isn’t particularly hard hitting or original stuff.

Furthermore, their lead vocalist falls flat.  His voice seems to lack a certain intensity usually prerequisite to the genre. Most growls and shouts hover around the same level, without a lot of variation between highs and lows.  It’s as if he meets both the growl and hardcore styles halfway, but neglects the real heart and soul of each.  Fortunately the instrumentation overcomes these flaws, preventing such lackluster vocals from becoming detrimental.

Overall I think Not Everyone Who is Lost… is a pretty listenable record.  While not necessarily in my personal genres of choice, I feel that the album offer a lot for both fans of hardcore and sludge.  It’s not a perfect marriage of genres, but an adequate and thoughtfully executed one, performed with sincerity and conviction.