ALBUM REVIEW: Kill! Kill! – Frida Kill

FRIDA KILL are a small band from Brooklyn, made up of four members with a big attitude and purpose. Jumping from swelling intensity to joyous riff-filled tracks, their debut album Kill! Kill! has two distinct modes, and that flexibility keeps the record exciting and especially invigorating when it comes to tracks like Last Ditch Effort that are drenched with a sense of unity and the mode of dissonance, breaking into the edges of unfiltered messiness. The quartet channel the tongue in cheek influences of riot grrrl at times which meld with their sure sense of identity to make exciting grooves that refuse to falter. 

Opener Camp For Nothing is immediately exciting but nostalgic; like rediscovering something you lost a while ago, it’s full of high energy riffs and a warm summer feeling, but the lump in your throat is quickly undermined by a track that is out of place and much like what Camp For Nothing was, lost. Castle Moat compared to every other track on Kill! Kill! is tempered for the first half before adopting an intense urgency; it’s measured, doesn’t run away from itself as the band opt for a more post-punk sound. Thematically it’s perfect for the record but it’s a crime that it wasn’t used in the middle as a pivoting track into something more poised than the following Demons.

Mujeres Con Mangos (Women With Mangos) takes a droning angle; the hypnotic repetition of the chorus emulates what it would feel like to sink down a hypnotic circle, the sound shrinking further away as you descend. Ironically the novelty of the hypnotism brings to light how monotone Maria Lina Canales’ vocals can be after being so engrossed by them, but that quickly changes on tracks like Get Over It and Exit Please – really it’s a talent.

Zine Song encapsulates the DIY aesthetic of any adjacent riot grrrl band, with no fear of releasing harsh screams that set the track apart from the rest of the record. Danceable, furious and damn catchy, Zine Song is a sum of Kill! Kill!’s actions. FRIDA KILL sell themselves to you whether you like it or not with that track; it represents all parts of them that are queer, rough around the edges, not the best at one thing but damn good at a lot of things that will take them a long way, and – above all – determined to fight back. 

Rating: 8/10

Kill! Kill! is set for release on December 1st via Insecurity Hits/Get Better Records.

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