03/29/2024

MrKill, Melodic Death Metal from Australia

Formed in 2017 in Melbourne, Australia, by Justin Ks, MrKill combines a range of musical styles. MrKill, however, is focused predominantly around melodic death metal and cover the lyrical themes of turmoil, darkness, ignorance and despotism. From deep chugs, sonic high notes, shredding and dark drawn moments, MrKill captures a wide range of energy to be experienced. The heavy guitar riffing and incredible drumming remains at the forefront, together with the vocals, MrKill always knows how to get the balance right. They stick to a melodic concept and pound their way through an emotional backdrop.

MWZ: Hi guys welcome to Musicwebzine ! Tell us something about the band?
MrKill:
Hi, thank you for having us! The first Mr.Kill song was written in 2010 in the UK whilst I was in Uni. Since then I pursued my career in engineering and was unable to dedicate time and attention to music until 2017 when the band was officially formed. Since 2017 I’ve been in the process of actively writing music with the goal to play live and professionally release music. We found a full crew in 2017 and began rehearsing, playing gigs and recording music.

MWZ: How would you define your sound?
MrKill:
Our sound can be described as a heavy, chuggy melodic death metal sound contrasted with sweet melodies. Tight, but heavy sound with versatile but groovy drumming.

MWZ: MrKill is your first single” what about the lyrics of your single and your Ep in general ?
MrKill:
Our debut EP “The Day Of Reckoning” has an apocalyptic theme to it such as the end of the world and destruction, symbolically speaking. The EP tracks describe different moods, events and aspects surrounding the subject. The first single “Annihilation” represents the day of the fall of humanity, it touches on the subjects of tyranny and how mankind cannot escape it. It is evil in nature as is the whole band concept. You could probably see similarities to what is happening in the world right now, depending on who/what you believe, however there is no way we could have foreseen this at the time of writing the material.
When we wrote the material the idea was to write something dark and evil. Death metal in our view is supposed to be exactly that. During the day we live our normal lives just like everyone else, however I like to think of the band “Mr.Kill” as a separate entity and our aim is to create dark art (music) around that concept.
If you listen to it enough, you will probably find several meanings in the music & lyrics. You could even say everyone will find something of their own in this.

MWZ: Are you satisfied with your new album? or you would have liked to change something?
MrKill:
Yes, very happy with the outcome. Definitely something that someone out there can bang their head to, at least we hope so (otherwise we really fucked it up here!).
Prior to this EP we in the band did a few home recorded singles which we then sent out to different engineers to mix. The results were always average and lacking in something. That was a huge learning curve in how not to do things. In the end I decided to stop doing that and look to work with professionals who have successfully produced metal bands. For this EP we made the decision to work with a top metal producer Chris Themelco from Monolith Studios in Melbourne, Australia who helped us achieve a really good sound for the EP. One of the best decisions I ever made.
Content wise, the material is something that goes back as far as 2010 which is when “Hatred” and “Valiant Amusement” riffs were written. We’re very excited to finally bring this out. All other tracks were written between 2017-2019. This indeed was a huge learning curve in songwriting in general and I’ve had a lot of take-aways for improvements to recording music professionally in a studio as well as improvements on the songwriting that need to happen on future releases.
In summary, on this EP I would not change anything really. It is the best work I’ve done to date. It will be interesting to see how it does and what the feedback will be. I’ll take it as a learning curve.

MWZ: What do you expect from music criticism?
MrKill:
I really don’t know, and I’m not overly concerned about this. There have been some comments in the past about the vocals, but this is also a slow but significant work in progress. They might say something about the song structures or content, it’s really hard to say atm.
My passion and commitment is in making music and striving to do it better with every release. I welcome criticism where it is due and especially if it can help me write better music. The goal here is to make music for people and ourselves to enjoy. I certainly don’t see this as a way to earn income, quite the contrary – I would be very surprised if we made back the money we put into this EP.

MWZ: How much is really important the stage ?
MrKill:
Really not sure how to interpret this question? If the question is about if we enjoy playing live, then yes we absolutely do enjoy playing live.

MWZ: Do you think that Internet is important for music industry?
MrKill:
Well, yes, the Internet is where most people get information from and find music these days (at least I do). As musicians our job is to make music and then try to put it in front of people. The internet is a great tool for that. People can then judge our music if they like it, or not.

MWZ: How is the scene underground on your country?
MrKill:
Australia is a very interesting place music-wise. There is a lot of music here and Melbourne has been voted as the live music capital of the world, or something of that nature. Prior to the pandemic, we have been very lucky here. People were having relatively decent income and could afford good music gear. However, this has also resulted in a lot of bands. Prior to the pandemic, there were a lot of bands here, I mean… really many. I would say it is not too crazy to assume that most people who bought a decent guitar and amp tried to be in a band at some point. The competition for attention is fierce. Nevertheless, it is a good environment to endeavor to make better music.

MWZ: Do you plan a tour ? or MrKill will be only a project studio for this new release?
MrKill:
For this EP and considering the circumstances, unfortunately we will be unable to do tours. The band will need to undergo a significant transformation to get to the next stage. There are things in the pipeline for the band, certain things that are being worked on atm which will hopefully come as a pleasant surprise. In 2021 I look forward to making certain adjustments so that the band can play shows.

MWZ: That’s all!! greeted our readers with a message!
MrKill:
Thank you for having us! Your platform is awesome. Greetings everyone and we will see you all very soon! Best wishes and stay safe, Justin Ks from Mr.Kill

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