Max Cavalera (SOULFLY, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY) and Greg Puciato (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN) spent a marathon three-day session in the desert together, working up over a dozen demos with the same drum machine and four-track recorder Max had used to work on SEPULTURA’s »Chaos A.D.«, among others. After recruiting drummer Dave Elitch (ex- THE MARS VOLTA) and bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders (MASTODON), KILLER BE KILLED became a real band in a small rehearsal room.
Following a batch of practices in Orange County in early 2013, the four guys reassembled at The Fortress in the fall under the watchful eye of producer Josh Wilbur (LAMB OF GOD, GOJIRA, Steve Earle) and collaborated on their debut album, with Cavalera, Sanders and Puciato bouncing lyrics and song titles off each other right there. The end result should inspire other heavy music makers to collaborate more often, in the community-minded spirit of jazz, hip-hop and other genres.
“This is a very special project. It’s a one of a kind thing, with a lot of potential,” asserts Cavalera. “The album is a mix of heavy, fast and melodic songs.”
Featuring lead vocal contributions and lyrics from Puciato, Cavalera and Sanders, the aggressive assemblage of songs run the gamut from percussive crowd-inciting brutality, jagged basement show style carnage and melodic, off-kilter hooks. Sanders described the band as “a perfect blend of a legend, a freak, a beast and a wookie.”
It’s all delivered through a prism of metal history conjuring the raw aggression of SEPULTURA’s earliest rumblings, together with the progressively esoteric shamanistic approach of MASTODON and just a hint of the dissonance of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN. It’s a set of songs with more traditional structure than most of them are known to perform, with a drum performance from a master of precision, power and groove.