Review Summary: Its not as funny when you actually listen to it, but still great.
To be quite honest, the only reason I bothered to check this album out in the first place was because of the rather "interesting" cover. I suppose marketing must work after all. While previewing the music, I was immediately drawn in by the hilarious track names, and Killwhitneydead's signature sound; power metal/deathcore laced with movie quotes and samples. At first it sounded like a somewhat lighthearted, deathcore band with an actual sense of humor. Then at track five, a woman is buried alive in a box in between jets of rampaging grind riffs. The earlier "novelty" of the album was basically erased, replaced by a furious, shape shifting sound that lies somewhere between grind and deathcore.
Fortunately, the album isn't all gloom doom and murdering your ex-girlfriend. There are random and humorous quotes from Stewie and other popular movies, as well as a lone (but incredibly awesome) power metal performance in "SheDidn’t Look like She Had a Disease" complete with cheesy high pitched vocals and epic riffing. Surprisingly, the constant sampling does not spoil the consistency of the album. The quotes are placed strategically throughout the songs, sometimes during the actual music and for the most part, the riffs accommodate the samples, stopping and starting instead of cutting off randomly. However, there is still a constant shift between extremely heavy riffs and total silence that may spoil the effect for some, but I find it to be a breath of fresh air, breaking away from the constant mind-numbing grind assaults of some deathcore and grind bands.
As previously mentioned, Killwhitneydead is a fusion of grind and deathcore with most tracks clocking in at about one and a half to two and a half minutes. None of the songs pass or even scrape at the three minute mark, cutting the album down to about thirty minutes. Throughout the album, the guitar constantly changes, switching from savage crunch to more laid back lounge lines such as the ones in “You like Knife Play?” Unlike most deathcore, this album isn’t actually just a sloppy chug fest; it’s strewn with blistering melodies and shreds that make the album much more enjoyable and less likely to bore the audience. The bass is generally drowned in a hell-storm of palm-muted frenzy and crushing drum rolls, but it’s an acceptable loss, considering the genre.
The vocals are a standard mix of throaty growls and screams with the only clean vocals coming in on track 13. This is somewhat unfortunate, considering that “I didn’t Know She had a Disease” is the best track on the album hands down. This style of power metal blended with deathcore is not only awesome, it’s fairly unique and definitely an aspect of their music that KWD should definitely try to focus more on. Though this is unlikely, a power-death album would be an interesting listen.
Three and a half naked scene girls tearing their hearts out of five
“What do you want?”
“Your blood… all over me!”
