Kill the Thrill

As the opening song, "A Little Salt For A Better Feeling,” draws to a close, it becomes apparent that Kill the Thrill may have been marketed incorrectly. Their down-tempo, brooding, lyric-driven songs seem to fit better under the blanket genres of goth or at the very least alternative — it’s the metal connection (the one that is pushed) that seems tenuous as Kill the Thrill, despite the occasional low, grumbling angry vocals, only truly rock it out like that once or twice in the duration of the 12 tracks, keeping their musical explorations mostly to a slow dark burn. Their arrangements are too clean — they save the majority of their distortion for the vocals alone. Quite frankly, this French trio have produced a record that is not easily categorised; for instance, "Soave” is made up entirely of distorted female ranting and yelling over a dense soundscape. The least effective outings are those where the vocalist relies too much on effects-laden angst and reversely, the most effective are those where he allows his own emotions and his own vocal talents to bear the weight of the conveying the songs’ intentions. Atmospheric and unhappy, Kill the Thrill’s fifth release is not entirely fulfilling; it seems for each track that really hits home there is one that misses or feels like filler ("Head”). An "A” for effort and for those moments where the genre cliché is challenged, but a hard-earned "C” for the final product.