Fall of the Archetypes

Fall of the Archetypes looks like an album initially but turns out to be six new tunes and the entirety of 1998 EP Dark Tomorrow (the last thing they released before splitting up) tacked on as a second half. Killing Addiction reformed in 2006, after what seems to have been a brief career playing pummelling and unfriendly death/grind. Having completely missed their previous life, listening to this is like discovering that first zombie from Fulci’s Zombi 2. It’s not someone you recognise or ever knew, and all you feel is a sense of revulsion that this morbidly obese, decaying grotesque is shambling after you.

Because, far from the trendy tech that you might imagine from the title, this is as chundering and belching a slab as even the most unkempt basement dweller could ever wish for. The closest thing to flashiness is Gabe Lewandowski’s drumming (a guy who’s done time in the awesome Hellwitch), which has all the flailing, clattering verbosity of a less polished Flo Mournier. Riffs are fuzzy, churning guitar spectres and the vocals are scraped-out death rattles. Often the six new tunes seem like indistinct, murky shapes only occasionally given tangible form by jagged, urgent riffs like on Syndicate Empires.

Then, entering the second, 12-years-decayed half is like tripping into a concealed ditch and finding yourself neck, rather than waist, deep in slurry. Deathly lead guitar comes to the fore a little more, perhaps, but this is generally like listening to a drug abuser jabbering incoherently, with thunderclaps for vocal chords. Rustic as hell.

Kind of a weird effect overall, what with the rumbling noise of the riffing and the techy rattle of the drumming. All told, it’s not an entirely successful one, and I’ve found it isn’t so much any particular moments that slime their way into your memory, but rather just the overall aura of it. Interesting. Though I never registered your existence, welcome back, Killing Addiction.