It has been almost 15 years since Unit:187’s last studio album and in the fast-paced world of industrial music, that’s an eternity. After the sad and untimely demise of vocalist and frontman Tod Law in 2015, it looked as if the band and their impressive discography would be consigned to history and immortalised as standard to be strived for, but rarely attained. However, it’s the band’s rich legacy that has found them rising, phoenix-like, with former backing singer Kerry Vink-Peterson at the helm, to release an album in KillCure that can rival their early efforts and amply proves why they remain leaders, not followers.
Unit:187’s last album (2010’s Out For Blood) found the band signing off on a high and delivering a powerful album that harked back to the golden age of industrial rock. For their latest album, they turned their turret 180 degrees to set their sights on the future and if there are any doubts about their line of travel then they’re blown away by opening track ‘Glamhammer’. With staccato sound breaking like Morse Code and a wailing siren to wake the slumberous, Unit:187 deliver a bold introduction and one which sends a firm message to any pretenders to their throne. Of course, the band haven’t totally severed their roots, in many ways it’s the same Unit:187 delivering that hard, yet strangely danceable, brand of industrial music that only they can unleash. Yet there’s no denying that a change in personal has altered the band’s dynamic somewhat and Kerry Vink-Peterson’s stepping to the fore has certainly mixed things up. With a vampire-like carrion-cry, Kerry has a voice that fits the band’s sound perfectly and adds a nocturnal air to an already dark aesthetic. Good industrial music should always create a sense of unease, a sinister edge that initiates a feeling of dread within the listener and KillCure proffers plenty of that. A frightening glimpse of a not-too-distant dystopia, ‘New Beginning’ offers an Orwellian vision of life beneath a jackboot junta, it is disconcerting and discombobulating and acts as a kind of warning from the future.
If there’s an overarching theme to this album then it is one of darkness; from the pharmaceutical nightmare that graces the sleeve, to the siren’s wail, the beats which fires like the flash from a .45 to the monolithic title track which curtails the album, KillCure is a trip to the darkest recesses of the human psyche. Kill or Cure? You decide!
- KillCure is released via Metropolis Records on 6th December 2024.
- Official Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | YouTube Channel
Track List:
- Glamhammer
- Eyes Open
- Dick
- New Beginning
- Swallow
- Famous Face
- Overrun
- KillCure
