Melbourne's premier Alt-Punk duo Kill Bell have dropped their debut album
I Don’t Think I Have What You Want.
Formed in 2019 from the remains of Girl Germs and Birdhouse. Based in Melbourne’s inner-northern suburbs, Kill Bell’s music has been inspired by a variety of artists and styles including The Breeders, L7 and Kim Gordon. Despite the title of their debut album, Kill Bell prove themselves wrong, delivering to us exactly what we didn’t know we needed, a grungy, crispy Pop-Punk buffet.
Kill Bell have been warmly welcomed to the scene with a plethora of community radio play across PBS, RRR, 4ZZZ and many more, even reaching number two in the AMRAP Metro Charts, and remaining there for the next six weeks, with their 2020 release ‘Sad Song’. Swanky, flirtatious melody’s float over ‘Sad Song’ followed quickly by daring toe tapper ‘Grrl’, featuring infectious drums and catchy aggression. Fuzzy vocals peppered throughout add to Kill Bell’s distorted view. As lead singer Charlie expands on the album's themes,
“a lot of the tracks reflect coming of age in your mid-20s - looking around and seeing that suddenly all your friends either have a 9-5 as an accountant or are finishing up what feels like their 3rd PhD, while you’re struggling as a part-time waitress and trying to not feel like a fuck-up.”
The album picks up with ‘Not On Loop’, it’s most commercially accessible track. Triple J would exhaust their replay button if they came across this upbeat brooder from Kill Bell. Clean vocals and stomping riffs on 'Bathtub' entrance, gifting us with a head turning, foreboding baseline carrying the swanky tune.
Reflecting on the creation of the album, Charlie shared,"'I don’t think that i have what you want’ has been a long time coming for Kill Bell, the tracks we’ve written are able to tell a story from early 2019 to now. Between the tracks, you can hear us growing as a band and working out our sound. We made sure that once it finally came to releasing the album, it would be unified in tone and energy to reflect the project as a whole.”
Ominous stand out, ‘Alex Left The Light On’ . an eclectically angsty record featuring an intriguing, breathy vocal performance.
A locomotive like chugging on 'Baby' boasts a bombastic wall of sound.
‘Minimal’ opens with curious chords but the distorted vocals and wall of sound fading in and out leave this one hard to penetrate. With the album mixed and mastered by Calum Newton (Candy, Lunatics on Pogo Sticks) and Tom Keyte, though distortion goes with punk like cream in a coffee, one couldn't help but feel some of the later track's mixes's weren't as clean as they could be.
Closing the album with it's title track, 'I Don't Have Think That I Have What You Want' sonically sounds akin to a female Nirvana, with a pensive bass, grinding guitar and floating vocals.
A tight, controlled album, this debut from Kill Bell places them an extremely good stead for a rebellious career as flag bearer of Australia's prideful punks. This punky goodness will certainly satisfy listeners and we look forward to hearing more from Kill Bell in the near future.
⭐⭐⭐
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