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KILL II THIS
Variant

Revolver (2024)
Rating: 4/10

It seems a long, long time ago that I was first introduced to UK experimental metalheads Kill II This. In fact, it was the bands 1998 opus Deviate which really got me hooked and a few live shows after. The band were a four piece at the time and a very interesting one at that with their mix of industrial tinged groove rock which featured cool samples, female vocal injections and a general diverse sound that nodded towards Fear Factory. Sadly, like a lot of bands, line-up changes and a complete overhaul of sound seem to have hindered Kill II This who since reforming in 2014 have become downright bland.

Variant is the fifth full-length studio outing from the band, and the first since 2003’s Mass. [Down.]-Sin (Drone.). Simon Gordon of Hellfighter is now the frontman and his style could easily fit into that soulless nu-metal as the rest of the combo – consisting of founding members Mark Mynett (guitar), Pete Stone (bass) and Jeff Singer (drums) – churn out equally colourless tirades that are as common as muck, sadly.

‘Less Human’ seems devoid of weight as the posse opts for such a clinical production. Hints of Machine Head at their most tame spring to mind. ‘SleeperCell’ has a thrashiness to its approach, but there is little variety as the mundane theme takes us through Gordon’s cold tone which is either generic modern thrash scowl or nu-metal croon.

Sure, I’ll be chastised for such criticism, especially for wanting Kill II This to resemble what I originally loved them for, but the likes of ‘ComaKarma’, the awful ‘Fugues Of Amnesia’ and slow builder ‘Prosthetic Gravity’ are so sanitised that for the duration I picture myself in an empty white room with a migraine tortured by those generic vocals.

Tedious, achromatic and as uneventful and bereft as the original nu-metal invasion, the return of Kill II This numbs my brain.

Neil Arnold

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