If you popped into your local independent record shop looking to bag a copy of the Kill Chaos début album PromisesPromises, and were far too cool to go to the counter to ask you would probably be well advised to head straight to either the post-hardcore, post-punk, metal, emo or even just the plain old rock section to try and find it. As the band’s name strongly suggests they are not the sort of people who deal in fey folk or acoustic whimsy.
Emerging from some Midlands Bermuda triangle and having been in live action in various forms for over six years now, the recorded beast that is Kill Chaos has finally been unleashed courtesy of PromisesPromises. And just like some ferocious dog it is at our collective throat snarling and snapping from the moment we are formally introduced. Recent album taster ‘Boy Done Good’ transports the listener right back to 1979 and the release of Gang Of Four’s Entertainment such is the similarity with that record’s twitchy guitar pugilism and half-spoken/half-screamed vocals. From there on PromisesPromises veers across decades and continents, embracing Meat Puppets, Sebadoh and Biffy Clyro on its sonic journey whilst also inviting the almost inevitable Fugazi comparisons.
Unless you have spent decades in a coma influence is almost impossible to avoid within contemporary culture and it is to the credit of Kill Chaos that on PromisesPromises they manage to rise above the obligatory accusations of derivation that will be sure to head their way. How they achieve this is through a deft léger de main which involves the juggling of some top tunes, killer riffs and an unerring ability to not lose complete sight of the art of melody.
With its claustrophobic rhythm ‘Crush’ re-imagines suffocation as the most pleasant of experiences; ‘Falling Down’ is probably what the Sex Pistols might sound like today if they came from Mansfield; ‘Got A New Drug’ hardly ploughs virgin territory yet still remains strangely addictive; another contagious hook underpins the early single ‘Satellites’; and ‘Company of One’ is what you can expect when the Gallagher brothers finally make up and Oasis is re-formed as a three-piece heavy rock band. Listen to PromisesPromises , and just as this penultimate track advises, you’re gonna get sucked in.
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PromisesPromises was released through Field Records on 18th November 2013
