In a post apocalyptic world, somewhere in the hopefully dark and distant future (though the way things are going it looks like it might come sooner than that), Status Quo have now all long since departed, but their souls have been possessed by evil demons who loiter at various locations along the Channel Tunnel, pressing their slowly melting ghoulish faces up against the windows of each carriage as passengers slump fearfully into their seats and cower unsteadily under their tables. This is, in essence, what Kill West sound like initially, at least until the uber-monsters come along, this time an unholy hybrid of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Black Sabbath. The Quo spectres (see what I did there, band origin anoraks?) put up a decent fight, but ultimately, nobody messes with Geezer, right?
So it may surprise you to learn that Kill West, the purveyors of this godless racket (and I mean that in a good way, I really do) actually hail from Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires. It’s a far cry from Chris De Burgh, it has to be said. This is trance-inducing stuff, often eschewing such throwaway banality of actually having a chorus in favour of swathes of echo and shredded, distorted guitars that may recall the heavy blues of a number of rock’s forefathers, but also cuts a hypnotic swagger that is right up there with The Jesus And Mary Chain. This is a psychedelic drug trip of an album, as though one of US history’s most revered blues musicians (pick one, any will do) has accidentally set foot in an alien lovecraft and spent the evening orbiting the earth creating almighty space jams with his new found extra-terrestrial friends.
There isn’t really much point in me breaking it down into a track by track review, for while the songs certainly don’t all sound alike, there certainly is a lot of common ground between them. So while ‘Faces‘ and ‘This Daze‘ are urgent and brash, by the time we reach the title track and ‘Skull & Bones Blues‘, things have descended into a slowly hip-swinging, rootsy bluster, but, and here’s the key, there is always, ALWAYS, a sense of malignant menace that seems to pervade throughout. But then at the same time, the sound is so invigorating that you just can’t help but find yourself being swept away on the aforementioned spaceship too, ready to experience whatever sordid pleasures await you on the planet Gush.
Oh yes, Kill West might well take no prisoners, but they’ll sure as hell hold you captive, at least for thirty seven minutes, until the finale of the vaguely Stones-y ‘Jungle Mind‘, which, fittingly, you might well find yourself waking up with. Ace.
