 |
  
 
 |
|
I Killed The Prom Queen
|
HQ: Adelaide, Australia NOW PLAYING: Music For The Recently Deceased (METAL BLADE; metalbladerecords.com) WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW 'EM: The members of I Killed The Prom Queen pledge allegiance to all genres of metal while incorporating Swedish-style riffs, huge melodic choruses and nightmarishly guttural growls-all within a single song. YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE: Killswitch Engage / In Flames / As I Lay Dying "We don't have anything against prom queens," says I Killed The Prom Queen vocalist/guitarist Jona Weinhofen. "They're usually really hot and they put out-but we kill them bitches anyway." Not to worry, pageant enthusiasts: The singer's tongue is obviously jammed firmly in cheek. I Killed The Prom Queen, who take their hilarious name from the 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis horror masterpiece Prom Night, are proof positive that American bands aren't the only ones who've mastered the art of metalcore. On Music For The Recently Deceased, the band operate at full throttle, deploying death metal riffs alongside clean, hypermelodic choruses and deep chilled growls. "A lot of people might think that we are just another band in the sea of metalcore," Weinhofen surmises, "but we're influenced by originators of melodic metal like In Flames and At The Gates and hardcore bands like Hatebreed and Earth Crisis. Metalcore bands today are influenced by other metalcore bands, and that's why they all sound the same." Weinhofen, who lived on a prawn-fishing boat for the first few years of his life, believes it's his band's songwriting skills that set them apart from other bands in an already overpopulated genre, insisting that "we're not just chucking a bunch of shitty thrash riffs together with shitty breakdowns." In the past six years, the band have blown through 10 different members but, despite the turbulence, they continue to lay down tunes that seamlessly combine brutal and beautiful. With two full lengths, two EPs and global touring under the belts, I Killed The Prom Queen are building quite a buzz in the U.S. As to why metalcore fans should let the band bend their ears, Weinhofen has this to say: "Basically, we rule!" -Amy Sciarretto |
