Singles

Boy Kill Boy - Civil Sin

Sam Wetherell 19/09/2005

Rating: 3/5

Bringing indie-metal to the masses (or at least they will be when they become popular, and people other than me starting using the term “indie-metal”) Boy Kill Boy arrive surfing the crest of a wave of prickly guitar playing and half-realised aggression. If you listen hard enough there's also a faint hum of critical acclaim to boot, after airplay from Jo Wiley and a rash of positive reviews among the prominent underground indie organs.

“Civil Sin” is austere yet catchy. The glacial guitars are pasted evenly and thickly across the track, like 65daysofstatic, veering dangerously close to some pop-metal clichés, but fortunately never quite plunging into that mountain. The opening chord progression sounds as if its taken from Pachelbel's canon, which adds a touch of class. This “class” is unfortunately undermined somewhat in the coming three minutes by the recurrence of a dull, echoey and melodramatic chorus. The wobbling and rather clichéd vocals let down what is otherwise an extremely tight and dense second release.