9th December 2024

Review: “Vices” by Killerkorp

Sharpening their teeth with shows alongside such household names as Raised by Owls, Celestial Sanctuary and Beyond Extinction in recent times has only served to give Extreme Metal act Killerkorp a greater bloodlust. The five piece came to prominence with a well received debut EP “Pain” in 2019, the savage riffs and powerful lyrics pulling no punches, however since then their recorded output has tapered off. A pair of stand alone singles followed in 2020’s “The End” and 2021’s “Death Day” have kept us sustained but craving more. After three years of famine, a sophomore EP in “Vices” feels like the offering of a feast fit for Kings, especially with the lead guitarist Jakey Day commenting: “This EP is our proudest body of work. We feel that we’ve captured the true meaning of what is to be Killerkorp; we have finally found a sound that we can call home. You can expect pure emotion mixed with raw aggression”.

Thirty seconds of dark atmospheric build up can not begin to prepare you for the audio violence that awaits when “Vices” truly comes to life. A nightmarish vision of Blackened Hardcore fused to a Death Metal skeleton, the track hits like an apex predator playing with its prey for s***s and giggles before consuming it whole. Menacing down tuned riffs from Jon-Luke Bloomfield and Jakey Day sound like they were born in 80’s Death Metal bloodshed, the piercing vocals from Ben Lyddiatt as savage as the winds of plague. Slowing down for a spoken word moment against almost tribal drums from Sonny Wright and rumbling bass from Daniel Lyddiatt allows the five piece to build up once more, tearing out our brains with a final minute of breakdown heavy guitar work. Clearly designed for a wall of death when the band take the track live, this one is going to help them turn stages to sawdust all along the way. That spoken word passage is a trick repeated to great affect in “Last Gasp“, an emotive quality bleeding through in the vocals from Lyddiatt while the groove of the earworm riff will keep it in your head for hours. “Scathed” then dances around the cerebral cortex with Metallic Hardcore drive, the high energy performance maintaining the momentum of the collection in fine fashion. Another cathartic vent from Lyddiatt, these tunes don’t have any of the woe is me introspection of Nu-Metal but instead resonate with anyone who has a daily struggle or intrusive thoughts. Bleeding atmosphere “Weak” surpasses six minutes as the magnum opus of the record with eerie, warped moments of off kilter riffage during almost unhinged verses. The choruses slap hard, the weight between the opposing forces perfectly balanced so you can feel the frustration in Lyddiatt’s voice as the band beat the living daylights out of their instruments [8/10]

Track Listing