Killing Spree - Camouflage!

Angry Metal Guy 60

As the old ball bounces, I guess I’m becoming the jazz guy around here. Hey, did you know that the phrase “jazz” probably comes from the word “jasm,” which is an archaic American phrase that means “drive” or “energy?” Now you do. Either way, when the inimitable GardensTale claimed this one, he was like “what the hell” and asked – no, demanded – that I take it after seeing my work with Mamaleek, that whack-ass La Suspendida project, and Bunsenburner’s redemption arc. But Killing Spree is here to kick ass and take names, like down in NOLA or some shit. Does it jazz? That’s the question. It jazzes, it’s got jasm, and you best fall into the jasm chasm with me, you dig?

French duo Killing Spree consists of saxophonist Matthieu Metzger¹ and drummer Grégoire Galichet,² and Camouflage! is their debut full-length after 2020 EP A Violent Legacy (a collection of Death and Meshuggah covers). While sax in metal is not uncommon, with bands like Ex Eye and Corrections House utilizing it for haunting accents in sludge-worshiping offerings, Killing Spree goes for both the jugular in its death metal focus and for the pecker in wonkily improvised free jazz with a range of moods and auras. Fed through handmade machines and distortion pedals galore, sax becomes both the chuggy downtuned riffs you expect from an album devoted to death metal, and the wonky solos that you know from freeform jazz explosions. Ultimately, Killing Spree offers an album that surprisingly works even if it is weird as shit.

Camouflage! by Killing Spree

Camouflage! is a tale of two halves. Sparse death vocals appear on intro “A, C and B,” the title track, “Disposable,” and “The Psychopomp,” lending Killing Spree’s first act a distinct death metal vibe, the robustness of the saxophone surprisingly compatible with its mammoth distortion, complete with driving rhythms and pulsing heft. “The Psychopomp” serves as dynamic movement into the second half, chuggy riffs evolving from the configuration of death metal leads to the looseness and freedom of jazz. The second act embraces this freedom, that while death growls and rhythms still pervade, the melodics feel much more apt to Ornette Coleman, John Zorn, or John Coltrane in avant-garde discordance atop bass-heavy sax chugs that feel straight outta sludge. The “All These Bells and Whistles” binary offers a foundation of impossibly heavy staccato “chugs” while freeform improvised wails and robust arpeggios soar atop it, an expression of fluidity that feels ominous, plodding, and hateful. “250 Slaves” is a sidewinder, stealing a similar template for a suddenly major key interpretation, its upbeat rhythms approaching punk. The first half feels a bit like a misdirect, completely locked into its rhythms with a head-bobbing groove, while the second cuts loose into wild jazz ejaculations – Killing Spree is truly fluid indeed.

As you may have guessed, Camouflage! is fuckin’ weird. Aside from the inherent inaccessibility of its music, Killing Spree pushes the envelope of our comfort. Most prominently, upper-register sax wails in tracks like “Disposable” and the first half of “All These Bells and Whistles, Pt. II” are nearly migraine-inducing in their stubborn repetition and lack of variation. Otherwise, the disparate stylings of the two halves feels a bit jarring, even though it is neatly separated by the smooth adjustments across “The Psychopomp” and the clarity of interlude “Toute Cette Violence Qui Est En Moi.” While at its best in the wild-but-not-inaccessible attack of “All These Bells and Whistles,” first-half tracks not only feel less memorable but also too locked into their own rhythms, as “Camouflage!” and “The Psychopomp” grow weary across more gratuitous lengths. However, “All These Bells and Whistles, Pt. I” and closer “Chanson de Cirque – Corrida de Muerte” can feel too freeform in utter abandonment of structure. Because the death growls become expected, the clean singing and talkbox voice of the closer likewise feel jarring for Killing Spree.

Camouflage! is exactly what Killing Spree intends: death metal made of jazz sax. Contrary to the organic acoustics of Onkos, for instance, they embrace the synthetic and industrial in a machine’s distorted voice. Across a frankly protracted forty-six minutes, they finally seem to hit their stride and break out of a robotic rhythm in “The Psychopomp” then get a little too big for their britches by the time “Chanson de Cirque…” rolls around. Does Killing Spree jazz? Yes. Will it give you an orjasm? Remains to be seen.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 256 kb/s mp3
Label: Klonosphere Records
Website: soundcloud.com/killingspree
Releases Worldwide: September 13th, 2024

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