Review: IKILLYA - Recon

 Being a state that is associated with such high class glamour and having such a considerable influence on popular music, my first thoughts on New York's music scene is that it would never be home to many major metal artists. The research on Anthrax and Cannibal Corpse happened and I was proven wrong. Further inspection on the city's metal scene showed the city to be the home of Type O Negative, Life of Agony, plus it showed the city to be a mjor home of thrash, also homing Nuclear Assault and Overkill. With this is mind, the recent beginning of what seems to be a rise of popularity for fellow NYC thrash act IKILLYA is something that's excited me. Having recently appeared in Kerrang!'s introducing section, their debut Recon has appeared on the page of the magazine causing a greater rise of interest to the band. Rightfully so. The album is pretty damn awesome.

 Recon shows that IKILLYA are a band who manage to combine the rapid and intense classic thrash stylings of Anthrax or Testament, with the more modern brutal pummeling techniques of Lamb of God, or Bury Your Dead. A LoG reference is effective in describing IKILLYA, listeners can often find Jason Lekberg's fierce bottom-of-lungs growling vocals comparable to those of Randy Blythe. We are treated on this album to an intense session of groove orientated heavy metal that is filled to the grisly brim with a furious and war-mongering energy. This tight and vibrant groove work from Dave Kerr gives tracks like Razorblades and Godsize a very-much fighting based attitude, making them the kind of of song that you will want to have playing as... you destroy things. It also makes Escape Plan pretty much definitive of a metal hook.
 So, if that's your kind style, you should be kept entertained througout the whole album. Hopefully you will, because there's not a lot of diversity to be found, sadly. Especially when the likes of Machine Head and Lamb of God bring such a passionate and fresh sense of dynamism and unique charm to all they play and these are the kind of groups who have been an obvious influence here. The lyrics amongst the album about... violence, war, killing and fun aren't exactly the most sophisticated lyrics I've ever heard and have the tendency to make Five Finger Death Punch look like Mastodon in terms of intelligence.
 Overall, Recon shows IKILLYA to have a real talent and have the real potential to become as respected a metal act as LoG has become over the past few years. But there will need to be some improvements along the way. This band needs more work in terms of better production, more creative lyrics and a little more creativeness. Once that is done, I may have a new favourite band on my hands.

IKILLYA's Recon is out now.