There are several bands and artists operating under some variation of the name XX. There’s The xx, the indie-electronic trio responsible for making minimalism sound devastatingly romantic. There’s Jamie xx, who makes dance music for people who look like they’re having an existential crisis on the way to the club. And then there’s XX, the Chicago hard rock outfit that apparently decided subtlety was somebody else’s problem.
This is rock XX. No indie-pop melancholy, no tasteful electronic dance interludes. Just guitars, industrial grime and a vocalist who sounds like he has several unresolved arguments with the universe.
Released through Pavement Entertainment, Kill This… is the band’s six-track debut EP, bringing together former Diamond Rexx vocalist Nasti XX and guitarist, songwriter and producer Dee J Nelson. It’s a meeting of old-school glam-metal DNA and modern industrial-rock production, with both musicians seemingly interested in finding out how much distortion a song can reasonably withstand before the building inspector gets involved.
The Diamond Rexx connection is worth mentioning. The Chicago glam-metal outfit once landed a deal with Island Records and Nasti’s history with the band gives this project a recognizable hard-rock foundation. But Kill This… isn’t particularly interested in recreating the past. But Nelson, known for work on music projects such as Dope as well as The Joy Thieves, instead propels the material in a direction far darker, heavier and more mechanical.
This is the moment where the EP finds its personality. Nelson’s playing feels both piercing and mechanical, the riffs coming across less as if he’s distorting his guitar through an amplifier and more as if he’s manufacturing them in some illicit underground factory. Even with all that calculated abrasiveness, the songs maintain enough solidity to prevent it from turning into six practice exercises in making your guitar sound pissed.
Nasti’s vocals are another interesting component. His delivery has the theatrical grit you’d expect from someone with glam-metal experience, but there’s a more aggressive edge here. According to Nasti, Nelson pushed him into vocal territory he wouldn’t necessarily have explored himself. That creative tension becomes part of the EP’s identity: familiar ingredients being forced into unfamiliar combinations.
The opening title track, “Kill This…,” establishes the mood immediately. It’s an appropriately confrontational introduction, built around muscular guitars and Nasti’s rough-edged vocals. “Get A Life” follows, keeping the momentum moving with the kind of sneering attitude that makes hard rock work when it isn’t taking itself too seriously.
Then comes “Hungry Like the Wolf,” arguably the EP’s biggest conversation starter. Covering Duran Duran is already an interesting choice, but XX doesn’t simply slap heavier guitars onto the original and call it a day. The band transforms its new-wave groove into something considerably more sinister.
“S.O.S.” and “Throw Me Away” are among the longer tracks, giving Nelson more room to explore the EP’s industrial textures and heavier guitar arrangements. “Stand Up” rounds out the six-track release, helping maintain the project’s forward momentum.
At just six songs, Kill This… doesn’t overstay its welcome. Its major appeal is that it sticks to its guns musically: a glam-metal attitude squished into various expressions of industrial rock, alternative metal and punk fury. Though at times the production comes close to being too much and some of the riffs seem too derivative, the duo of Nasti and Nelson find a way to make it all recognizable enough to not be lumped in with another wave of uninspired contemporary hard-rock.
Ultimately, Kill This… seems more like a heyday nostalgia trip of Diamond Rexx than it does a we’re-going-elsewhere-in-the-past version of where they’re headed, as it definitely points the way of things to come toward a much more grotesque place. It’s loud, abrasive, occasionally ridiculous and clearly having a good time with all three qualities.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
