Sunday, October 18, 2009

Stoner From Belgium: THE KILLBOTS


Belgium has often good music to offer. The Killbots is a good example of that. They play some energetic Stoner/Hard Rock. Many songs have a high speed Rock 'n' Roll feeling. Listen this album and judge for yourself! Share your findings in a comment!

After two demos and a contribution to a compilation disc, the Killbots finally release their self-titled debut album. First I want to give my deepest respect to the amazing cover artwork which turns out to be a cool, but trashy science fiction poster when you unfold the booklet.

Even if the artwork has a definite Fifties tinge, the Belgians have their musical roots in the Seventies. Their sound is a fluid mixture of groovy stoner and rock’n’roll. If I need comparisons, you don’t need to look further than Queens Of The Stone Age, Fu Manchu and Kyuss, although retro rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Crowes also seem to have left their mark.

The Killbots have a rather raw approach towards songwriting. Their music has some melodic parts, but the huge majority consists of dirty rock’n’roll combined with a maximum portion of noise. The album contains two instrumental songs which seem to contain a lot of improvisation which works especially fine for the ten minutes long Tantra. The album’s last track starts like a outro, but develops into a journey to the weirdest fields of rock music. Another highlight is the sex minute long Rule Me Out with its groovy start before taking a turn to calmer regions and finally culminating with quite fuzzy structures.

The album is nearly one hour long, and the changes from song to song work well enough. On the one hand, the Killbots’ music doesn’t ask too big an effort from the listener, yet on the other hand, it’s hard to concentrate fully on the album as real highlights are hard to find. Everything on this CD has been popular in the Seventies and in the Nineties when this genre experienced a revival. Eventually I don’t see the point in recording an album that doesn’t give a damn about originality. This is a privilege which may be claimed by Motörhead or AC/DC, but a newcomer band should first define their own style before allowing themselves to get rid of innovation.

(From Disagreement.net)

The Killbots - The Killbots (2007)




2 comments:

Bufftbone said...

I found this long ago. It is good and I recommend everyone give a good listen. I'm also requesting those demos mentioned if anyone has them. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Just given this a listen, I think it's a great album.

Thanks for the upload.