Friday 25 April 2014

Kemakil - The Shard (EP Review)


01.The Shard
02.Times Up!
03.Dead Wagon
04.Great Minds Destroy
05.Prejudice

Rob Durrant (Guitar/Vocals)
Chris Stockdale (Guitar)
Tim Franklin (Bass)
Aaron Boast (Drums)

Suffolk thrashers formed back in 1988 by Rob and Chris, however it wasn't until 2007 that a solid line up was put together and an album's worth of material was recorded at Rob's house and became the demo 'Gondolas On The Styx'.

In 2008 Aaron and Haydn Morgans joined and after successful shows in Ipswich and London, the 'Blood Removal Machines' EP was recorded at Punch Studios in 2009.

For the next 2 years the band gigged throughout the UK playing support to bands like Virus, Shrapnel, Savage Messiah and Bonded By Blood.

2012 Haydn leaves the band but is featured on the self titled album released in June 2013. recorded at HVR Studios just outside Ipswich, his replacement is Tim from 'Fallen Humanity'.

Recorded earlier this year comes the first Ep from the new line up and is available as a free download.

No intros just straight into the action! 'The Shard' for some reason reminds me of Celtic Frost in the early days, its full on thrash, high speed stuff, but some dark elements lurk.

The pace slows a little for 'Times Up!', very solid timing changes and a vocal that is punctuated note for note by the drums.
Half way through the agression kicks in followed by a screaming guitar solo, the timing style reminiscent of glory days Slayer.

More frantic drumming greets 'Dead Wagon' complete with another great "shout it out loud muthafucker!' vocal.

The last 2 'Great Minds Destroy' and 'Prejudice' form a 5 minute instrumental work out, i counted at least 7 different timing changes ranging from powerchords to almost blues all wrapped in a thrash patched leather jacket!
Theres something for everybody here (except vocals).

Quite a surprisng little ep of well thought out music, with a nice raw feel, proving that when it comes to thrash we can still produce real original quality.

Rating 9/10
For Fans Of : Elimination, Mutant, Evile, Bonded By Blood, Municipal Waste

FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/KEMAKIL

GET THE EP HERE : http://kemakil.bandcamp.com

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