The Kickass
Death Metal is For
Bifocal Media
The Kickass would be a pretty a hard name to live up to for most bands, but lucky for us, this band does just what its name suggests. As it turns out, the music is not the only thing that “kicks ass” – the album’s cover is one of the year’s best, featuring the band members clad in much too tight, matching pink wife beaters and briefs. It’s classic!
So anyway, The Kickass’s music is best described as math rock with metal guitars. There are equal parts Shellac, Don Caballero and Whitesnake. The guitarist’s tone has a very warm Marshall stack sound that calls up memories of Whitesnake, Dokken and other power pop bands of that day. The drums are big and powerful stompers, sounding very similar to drums produced by Steve Albini. The bass is standard indie-rock fare, both ringy and overdriven and sounding very tough. The combined noise the band makes is very herky jerky and starty stoppy, with aggressive phrasing and performance throughout.
You might be wondering if the album is actually any good – it is. It is quite enjoyable, as it both rocks and puzzles the mind. This is an album of such timing, and should only be approached by fans of instrumental math rock; it will probably give non-fans a headache.
Bifocal Media: http://www.bifocalmedia.com/
