I Killed The Prom Queen - Beloved (31/03/2014)
Artist of the Week (31st March - 6th April 2014)
Adelaide Metalcore stalwarts I Killed The Prom Queen have rather infamously slogged through consistent line up changes since their inception way back at the start of this millennium.
Unlike many other outfits who lose steam through the departure of members (especially vocalists) over the years, IKTPQ seem to have done nothing but build steam as time passed and members interchanged.
Calling Beloved a return to form would prove foolish for two reasons; the current line up have never released an album together, and the album is superior to anything the band - in any assemblage - have released in the past. An eight year break between studio albums has bore a hit with fans, and with music this spectacularly executed it’s not hard to see why.
Recorded in Sweden with renowned metal producer/ Soilwork front man Bjorn Strid, Beloved will prove familiar in many places to IKTPQ fans of old, while still leaving two big, black, and gloomy wrought-iron gates flung wide open for newer, younger listeners. Breakdowns are all the rage these days in the heavy music scene, and as pioneers for the ever-growing popularity of modern metalcore in Australia since day one, the boys certainly deliver in spades.
Beloved is bleak and unrelenting. Atmospheric intro track Beginning Of The End sounds like a plea (or war cry) to return to a simpler past. After all the ups and downs IKTPQ have seen as a band over the last decade-and-a-half, the song lyrically delivers a double entendre musically and emotionally. It crescendos immediately in to the walloping and break down pocked floor shaker To The Wolves. It is almost inarguably the best song on the album.
Discerning highlights in such a ripper release is tricky, though first single Thirty One & Sevens is truly outstanding, and certainly the most anthemic track on Beloved. Track seven, Kjærlighet (Norwegian for ‘Love’), successfully slows the pace of the album. Relying heavily on the melodic vocals of IKTPQ’s hugely adored guitarist Jona Weinhofen sweeping between thunderous breakdowns backed by a string section, the song is as epic as Prom Queen get.
Measured and meticulously constructed forays in to most sub-genres of metal in a mere eleven tracks serves as proof that I Killed The Prom Queen are masters of their craft. Here’s hoping it’s a far cry shorter than eight years before Australia’s Metalcore yardstick blast out another release this good.
Todd Gingell
Unlike many other outfits who lose steam through the departure of members (especially vocalists) over the years, IKTPQ seem to have done nothing but build steam as time passed and members interchanged.
Calling Beloved a return to form would prove foolish for two reasons; the current line up have never released an album together, and the album is superior to anything the band - in any assemblage - have released in the past. An eight year break between studio albums has bore a hit with fans, and with music this spectacularly executed it’s not hard to see why.
Recorded in Sweden with renowned metal producer/ Soilwork front man Bjorn Strid, Beloved will prove familiar in many places to IKTPQ fans of old, while still leaving two big, black, and gloomy wrought-iron gates flung wide open for newer, younger listeners. Breakdowns are all the rage these days in the heavy music scene, and as pioneers for the ever-growing popularity of modern metalcore in Australia since day one, the boys certainly deliver in spades.
Beloved is bleak and unrelenting. Atmospheric intro track Beginning Of The End sounds like a plea (or war cry) to return to a simpler past. After all the ups and downs IKTPQ have seen as a band over the last decade-and-a-half, the song lyrically delivers a double entendre musically and emotionally. It crescendos immediately in to the walloping and break down pocked floor shaker To The Wolves. It is almost inarguably the best song on the album.
Discerning highlights in such a ripper release is tricky, though first single Thirty One & Sevens is truly outstanding, and certainly the most anthemic track on Beloved. Track seven, Kjærlighet (Norwegian for ‘Love’), successfully slows the pace of the album. Relying heavily on the melodic vocals of IKTPQ’s hugely adored guitarist Jona Weinhofen sweeping between thunderous breakdowns backed by a string section, the song is as epic as Prom Queen get.
Measured and meticulously constructed forays in to most sub-genres of metal in a mere eleven tracks serves as proof that I Killed The Prom Queen are masters of their craft. Here’s hoping it’s a far cry shorter than eight years before Australia’s Metalcore yardstick blast out another release this good.
Todd Gingell