Dazzling Killmen - Face of Collapse
Release date: 1994
When I got it: late 2006
Record label: Skin Graft
Styles (according to allmusic.com): Alternative pop/rock, indie rock, noise-rock, experimental rock, math rock
Top tracks: Staring Contest, Blown (Face Down), Windshear
When I got it: late 2006
Record label: Skin Graft
Styles (according to allmusic.com): Alternative pop/rock, indie rock, noise-rock, experimental rock, math rock
Top tracks: Staring Contest, Blown (Face Down), Windshear
I was talking to my good friend Bill a few weeks ago about music, and I somehow managed to refer to the band Dillinger Escape Plan as "just a poor man's Dazzling Killmen." That of course put Bill into a fit of laughter, even more so because he knew I was being dead serious.
Anyway, Face of Collapse is sort of a surprise on the Top 25. Honestly, if I had made this list about two months ago, I never even would've considered this album because it was pretty much forgotten by me until then. I bought this during the early part of my senior year in college when I became intrigued by reading it had been named the best heavy record of the 90s by Alternative Press at some point. I had also heard the band compared to The Jesus Lizard and even a little bit of Slint, so I figured I had to give them a shot. Even though it was hard for me to believe a good hard rock band could come from St. Louis. I immediately fell in love with "Staring Contest," the album's opener, but nothing else really clicked with me. I listened a few times and kind of just forgot about it until a few months ago.
Face of Collapse wasn't even on my iPod until recently, and once it was on there, I started to get into some of the other songs. As of now, it's easily the album I'm listening to the most right now.
I really see this album as a wild card on this list. If I revisit this in two or three years I could easily see myself thinking "Wow, this should've been Top 10, easy!" or "What?! Laaaaame. I'm deleting this entry. What was I thinking?"
I would say Face of Collapse is probably the hardest-hitting album on this list, so this isn't quite for the faint of heart. I mean, it took me two and a half years to get into it! Dazzling Killmen didn't have a very prolific output (two albums, I think), but they didn't fuck around. The guitar player, bassist, and drummer were all jazz students and the singer was ... well, angry.
I think the reason it took me so long to get into this is because you never really know where the songs are going (typical jazz students). And of course a lot of the timing is fucked up of purpose, to make it just good enough not to be catchy in any way. However, once you've listened to Face of Collapse a few times, it really starts to hit you how awesome the drumming and bass playing is, and that's really what drives the music.
"Staring Contest" is still my favorite song on the album, but every song is fantastic. In fact, the first 40 seconds of "Windshear" is one of the most amazing, intense things I've ever heard. It sounds like the lead up to some sort of explosion, so of course they mellow out at the end of the song instead. I don't think it would be possible to keep up that intensity anyway.
The album probably climaxes at the end of the 14-minute "In the Face of Collapse," with about a minute of grinding guitar and noise. And for those who know me well, that's right up my alley.
All Music review of Face of Collapse: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ajfoxqwgldse
Dazzling Killmen Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzling_Killmen
Listen to Dazzling Killmen: http://www.last.fm/music/Dazzling+Killmen
Band page on record label's Web site: http://www.skingraftrecords.com/bandhtmlpages/dazzkillmen.html
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