Labels: slowdime
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Here is something slightly different. Kerosene 454 are a US band out of Washington DC, making stripped down yet complex, unpredictable, and downright messed up music. Spread over the 10 tracks on “At Zero”, there is much more going on than at first meets the ear.
Described as post hardcore, its difficult to get a handle on what that implies. OK, so there is lots of heavy guitar in there, but K454 are equally capable of mellowing out. Emotive vocals slide between pop and shoutily sung at a moments notice, whilst jagged guitars alternate from a subdued intensity to violent attack as necessary.
“Automatic” gives the impression of a more chaotic and challenging version of the Driven, the singers versatility being very much in the same vein as Brendan Markham, and the guitar sound isn’t a million miles away from Irelands finest. Then there is “Negatives” and the strangely beautiful “On Exit” which see K454 purveying a more sinister and quiet sound, the former more a long the lines of emo band Far.
K454 never actually come up with a pop song, that simply isn’t possible with the sound they are making. They do a nice line in rocky emo-pop though on “Electric on the Rise” and the magnificent “In For Even”. Just don’t expect to it to be quite in line with the Promise Ring.
The album is rounded off with the truly fucked up “Pay Attention”, a 6 minute exercise in sonic terrorism. The Wrens do a good line in musical sabotage to the most perfect of tunes. K454 go a step further and rip one to shreds. It starts off in relative sanity, but descends through shouted vocals. The tune starts taking a backseat as everything falls apart, guitars become a mass of noise, and the drumming takes control to lead you through to the finale. Once that’s over, and you think you’ve heard it all, you get a jazzy instrumental that is based around a drum solo and features no guitars at all. Man alive.
“At Zero” is a darkly compulsive listen that demands your attention. Something for those in need of rock thats doing something different. Immerse yourself.