Formed in 2016 in Cleveland, OH, and now singed to Wake Up! Music Group, A Killer’s Confession (AKC) is led by vocalist Waylon Reavis and consists of Morgan Bauer (drums), JP Cross (bass), Mark Alexander (guitar) and Brock Star (lead guitar). The band’s latest album, “The Indifference Of Good Men”, is the follow up to the band’s critically acclaimed debut album “Unbroken”. The album produced by Sahaj Ticotin (Starset, Sevendust) in Los Angeles, CA, is a stunning achievement. When so much rock music in 2019 feels threadbare and recycled, here comes an album so vividly alive and inspired that it could turn even the most dismayed rock naysayer into a worshipper of guitar-driven music once again.
Seriously folks, A Killer’s Confession drop a remarkable record here, ready to build their supremacy based on instant cred and acclaim that takes some bands an entire career to accumulate. From start to finish, the band never strays from its artistic values or impedes its own undeniable urge to create visceral, fully orchestrated, heavy rock music with supreme melodic and anthemic tendencies.
“The Indifference Of Good Men” arrives at a time of a pervasive aesthetics-over-substance trend in rock, where the digital recording age has everything sounding pleasantly calculated. A Killer’s Confession first write killer songs which they play to an impressive level, and then allow the recording and production process to embellish those sounds.
Many of their contemporaries prefer to reverse that process, to dismal effect. There are also few other bands who explore the atmospherics and dynamics of their sound better than A Killer’s Confession – probably a band like A Perfect Circle, works on a similar level and intensity, in this direction. So while there are unabashed, crushingly heavy parts on this album, you’ll also find some otherworldly, more hypnotic moments that the band embraces so well.
There is no denying that A Killer’s Confession has mastered the heavy/soft dynamics, taking the listener on an ebb-and-flow journey as if they’re riding disparate waves of heaviness. The euphoric album opener, “It’s Not Too Late” thrives off its distorted moments and Waylon Reavis reaching both his upper register belting and his low-end growling.
But there’s so much more to embrace. “Numb” thrives in a mid-tempo, radio-ready way, delivering some of the more crisp sounding, ear-catching moments on the album. It also feels as though it could translate to any mainstream radio station very well. “Trust Me” opens with a spiraling guitar line that draws you in and vocal delivery that makes it a very strong cut. But there are several songs that will either grab you instantly, or grow on you over time.
Among them, the cinematic “Angel On The Outside”; the epically slow burning and nuanced “The Shore”; the massive swell of audio orgasm on “I Wish”; the rapid plethora of emotions that run through “Reanimated”; the supersonic turbulence on “H.C. Tits”; the ethereal echoing of “Render”. A Killer’s Confession know how to hit the perfect balance between melody and punishing volume, between subdued restraint one minute, and outright savagery the next.
“The Indifference Of Good Men” is built on a foundation of a carefully-controlled, tight relationship between Waylon Reavis’ natural inclination to gravitate towards deft vocal lines, and Mark Alexander and Brock Star’s sharp appetite for crunching metal guitars.
Morgan Bauer’s dexterous percussion – thunderous one minute, subtle the next, also plays a major role, alongside JP Cross’ tempting, bone-crunching basslines. In this respect, A Killer’s Confession stand head and shoulders above their programmed corporate contemporaries. The result is that they’ve produced an album that’s bursting with unbridled energy and creative refinement.
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