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BACK
 Kill
II This
Northern Trendkillers
By Paul Silbiger
While relatively unknown on North American shores, Kill II This
have built quite a following in Europe, especially—for some
reason—in France. Their fourth album, Mass Down Sin Drone,
is the first to be released in North America as a domestic. Their
first three albums, Cross II Bear (1997), Deviate (1998) and Trinity
(2000) have all served to formulate the sound Kill II This carry
today, which is one of creativity, experimentation, and a focus
on the emotions that music can portray.
These days, it’s only Mark Mynett, guitarist and principal
songwriter, who has survived from the band’s early days, and
I have his cheery voice on the other end of the phone, calling me
while on tour across the United Kingdom to promote the new Kill
II This album. <br><br>
"We are a very song-based band," Mark says, summing up
the personality of his band’s sound. "Personally, I’m
very bored of heavy bands not writing great songs. If you look at
bands like Faith No More and Soundgarden and Alice In Chains, they
are bands that wrote great songs, and that’s what we strive
to do. The song comes first.
"We’re writing songs that would most appeal to us from
all directions. And there’s so few heavy bands out there writing
truly great songs. The continuing theme with this band is to really
challenge the listener. Too many heavy bands deal with just one
emotion, which is aggression or energy. I like to hope that Kill
II This deal with a real range of emotions and textures.
"It sounds slightly contrived, but we like to experiment with
all the emotions from the human condition, which comes from all
sides. On the album we’ve got tracks such as ‘Suburbanality,’
which could be played at any metal club, to ‘Circles,’
which you could quite happily play for your parents. So that’s
what we go for—to cover as many emotions as possible."
It is interesting to note that there is a distinctive, non-North
American quality to the Kill II This sound. One band I automatically
compare to Kill II This is fellow Brits Earthtone9. Are there defined
approaches to songwriting depending on where a band comes from?
"Both Kill II This and Earthtone9 are northern bands,"
Mark says, "and our surroundings definitely affect our output
as musicians. The surroundings in northern England are very bleak,
very grey, very industrial, and that’s certainly affected Kill
II This. I’m sure that affects lots of other bands as well."
Mark continues, "I’m pleased that we sound British, and
I don’t say that meaning any disrespect to any North American
bands. I want to sound British. I don’t want to sounds like
we’re just emulating the latest thing to come out of America.
What’s the point? I’m more interested in doing something
original, because if you’re doing something original then you’re
in a league of your own and you’re not actually directly competing
with anybody.
"To be honest, I actually hope the album is completely unfashionable,
because I have no interest in being a fashionable band. Any of the
bands that are out there right now, I don’t want anything to
do with them because I want to be considered a band on our own."
<br><br>
When the conversation turns to Mass Down Sin Drone, I can honestly
feel Mark beaming through the phone. This is a chap with a lot of
pride in the music he’s written and the musicians he’s
working with. While Mark is modest enough to say he "thinks"
the new album is a good effort, his confidence speaks what words
do not.
"This album was recorded without any record company pressure
and without a producer leaning over our shoulder," he says
with authority. "We had no time scale to finish it. That means
that the vision the band had was really captured on all the songs.
We would frequently leave the studio and rearrange songs or rearrange
a vocal part to actually get the song to the point we envisaged
them. We created an album with a lot of peaks and troughs, and it’s
a real musical journey. It was a big challenge, and I really believe
we achieved what we wanted to."
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