Kill The Lights: Back To The Future

2008 doesn’t seem like a long time ago, but for rock and metal, especially mainstream rock and metal, it was a whole different world. Metal was more in the public eye then, and tuning to local rock radio stations would land a whole host of heavy music with big riffs and even bigger hooks. At the time, Michael ‘Moose’ Thomas was the drummer for BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, a perfect representation of popular heavy music at the time: metal that captured a heavy, but accessible edge with a high dose of singalong choruses and soaring melodic leads. When Moose left BULLET in 2016, he found himself wondering what to do next, when the year 2008 somehow found its way back into his musical life.

“I was sitting at home thinking about what do I do now after BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, when Jordan (Whelan of STILL REMAINS), who I’ve known for over ten years since we toured together, showed me songs which he wrote back in 2008,” Moose explains. “I said ‘dude, I want to play drums to this one! And this one is incredible.’ They had been lying around and I’m saying ‘fuck dude we gotta get these out!’’ And so began the birth of KILL THE LIGHTS.

The band and its music was a well-kept secret until January of last year, when their first single dropped and was met with fervor from the metal press. But making the album was a process of pure creative energy and a time of camaraderie for Moose. “I’ve known these guys for years, but making the record, we realized how much the same we all really are,” he says. “I knew the least about Travis, but once we were together it was like we’d known each other for 10, 20 years even. We were so comfortable together.”

That mantra of doing what felt right was central in the structure and sound of The Sinner, as each member dug deep and found ways to push themselves to the limits of their own skills. For Moose, the self-discovery was initially technical. “I pushed myself more on this record than I’ve ever done on any of my previous albums!”

In his own time, however, the lessons of his past began to inform his newfound voice and vision for the direction of the band and record. Having gone through the journey of starting a band with BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, touring the world many times over, and releasing record after record to critical and fan acclaim is not an easy feat. Starting the path again with a brand new band is even harder. But for Moose, the newfound creative freedom and carte blanche was perhaps the most invigorating aspect of the endeavour. “Honestly, the most exciting part was being able to listen to myself,” he explains. “The last few years in BULLET, I was listening to people say the wrong things. On this project, it’s nice to be in control of myself. Together, with all the other guys, we’re being ourselves and coming together as a band. In this band, you can be proud of how you are. It’s not what you can’t do, it’s what you can do.”

What they can do turned out to be crafting a snarling and soaring record that perfectly captures the best of metal as it was a decade ago and fusing it with the sensibilities of metal as it is today. The Sinner gives no fucks to trends or popularity of today, and yet still feels very much rooted in 2020 as it does 2010. At its heaviest, the album’s massive and thick production courtesy of Colin Richardson thrusts it right into the conversation along with today’s biggest modern metalcore, but the band is certainly not afraid to go full on with melody in every song, whether that’s explosive lead playing, huge choruses and hooks, or a proper rock ballad in the vein of the rock radio classics of decades past.

“We were just conscious of writing the best songs,” Moose explains. “If it’s a good song, it has to go on the album. I enjoy heavy music but I also enjoy a record that has diversity, and so do the rest of the guys. We’re all classic metal fans. Look at METALLICA, they go from Fight Fire with Fire to Fade to Black.” To Moose, the duality of heavy and melodic song-writing in metal is part of what makes it special, and that quality is what he wanted to capture for The Sinner, and that, he reveals, is something that’s been a bit lost in today’s ever shifting metal sound palette. “A lot of bands these days just focus on how heavy and technical they can be and then the songs get lost. There’s lots of overplaying and no focus on making a good song.”

After more than a decade of being a part of one of the UK’s most massive modern metal bands, touring the world for fans in numerous countries, and writing huge songs that travelled across airwaves and reached millions of ears, Moose Thomas is the living embodiment of his new band. Which, of course, is exactly how it should be. For him, it’s a chance to find his voice in a way that he never has before. “This is definitely a more personal record than I’ve ever done before and this really seems like more of a band than BULLET ever did,” he says. But as Moose and KILL THE LIGHTS forge ahead, the sounds and stylings of the classic stylings of late 2000’s metal will never be far away. “It’s good to be heavy, but if I had to be heavy or classic, I’d be classic all the time!”

The Sinner is out now via Fearless Records. 

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