Customer Reviews

In on the Kill Taker

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For my money, this is the best album by Fugazi, a band that has never put out anything less than top notch material. It may not be their signature album, "Repeater" would have to take that distinction, but it is the one on which the band fully unleashes its energy. The result is an intensely stirring listening experience.

"In on the Kill Taker" gets off to a flying start, the first five songs are some of the best punk/hardcore anyone has ever released. The songs are a little more unhinged than anything on band's first three albums but that doesn't mean the virtuoso musicianship is in any way diminished, this is after all the most skilled quartet of rock musicians around. "23 Beats Off" is a great song that the band mystifyingly chose to ruin by turning the last two minutes into a ridiculously unlistenable mess of anarchaic distortion and noise. As disconcerting as that turn of events is, the bands rallies beautifully with "Sweet and Low", one of the best instrumentals by one few the few bands that actually understands how a rock instrumental should work. The second half of the album is no less energetic than the first but the energy is vented in a very different manner. The last five songs don't go full speed ahead like the first five, instead they grind, releasing their tension in a much more measured manner. In that way the last five songs might be considered more indicative of the band's distinct sound.

Overall, the material on this album is top notch and who would expect anything less from Fugazi. It is the different approach that this album takes that makes it my personal favorite.

OK, props to James below for his thoughtful assessment of Ian's contributions to Kill Taker. Made me think.

After a solid minute of contemplation, this is what I came up with: I still love every single song on this album. I bought it when I was in the 10th grade -- oddly enough, I found it at the Base Exchange on an air base in Germany. Go figure. Anyhow, I couldn't stand 10 of the 12 songs for a good year -- everything they had done before was so...melodic, in that fugazi kind of way. And then one day, right in the middle of that perfect execution of a feedback jam (on 23 Beats Off), I had what can only be called a musical epiphany. This album has inspired me time and time again to make my own music better, and unfortunately, it has made hundreds of other albums (hardcore, indie, whatever..) look poor by comparison.

Why is it so good? What's so special? Just about everything. The contrast of quiet and loud, beautiful and abrasive -- not much else comes close to the changes within the 5,6, and 7 tracks: Rend it, 23.., and Sweet and Low.

It's a tough record, certainly not open to everyone. Hardcore for the thinking man, or something like that. For me, it is THE textbook on how to make an excellent album.

The balance between Guy's more melodic, emotive songs, and Ian's rough, grating sounds is just right -- I don't think they've done an album this cohesive since. Repeater and Kill Taker are tops for me!

This is the first i heard of this band and probably my favorate album by Fuguzi.

The album remains loud and punky throughout. But on this thread Fuguzi strings lots of bloody matallic textures, stedy precussive noises, and all kinds of shadings and dynamics you don't normally associate with hardcore music. The album is also engeneered with a soundstage feel, as if your in the back of an empty theatre listening, so the many flurishes stand out very well.

"Kill Taker" is perfectly paced, with some great rockers to open the album, followed by complex experiments like "Rend it." The sugues always surprise and work perfectly.

Fuguzi may be a do it yourself band, but they do it themselves extremely well.

This album really blew me away upon first listen like no other Fugazi album has. The production is insane! Guitars so noisy and violent that you wonder how they hear themselves when they play! In other words, excellent.

Especially following up the more sedate Steady Diet, Kill Taker comes on full-bore and doesn't let up. Always known for being experimental guitarists, the boys really play with their instruments to conjure some of the weirdest, coolest, and seminal "indie" guitar textures of the nineties, not to mention their best riffs to date. Every track is great; you can't even distinguish because the whole album is so amazing. My faves are 2, 4, 5, and 11, though...

When you listen to 13 Songs and this one back to back, you see what an amazing leap Fugazi took in only a few years. Every album progresses, but Kill Taker inspires to new levels. After listening to Kill Taker, you basically throw out half of your cd collection and go, "yeah, but the original is SO much better..." because they really did inspire so much of the 90s guitar rock with this one.

Their most raw, rocking album out of a catalog that contains some of the best hard-rock-punk in existence. BUY IT NOW!

This album is effortless, supercharged with energy and great songs, blasting away thru experimental textures and great lyrical idioms (pride no longer has definition... crush my calm you cassevetes). Unfortunately, it gets a bit soggier in the middle w/ the 4 minutes of feedback ending "23 Beats Off" flowing into the rather limp instrumental "Sweet & Low." Other than that, this record is beyond incredible -- it's unique. I'd buy it for "Facet Squared," "Smallpox Champion," "Public Witness Program" and "Great Cop" alone.

You know something, I've encountered many Fugazi fans who think that this is one of their best albums. But I sort of don't get it. On the surface, it should be awesome: it's got the hardcore in post-hardcore, but at the same time, I feel like it is never memorable, and that's what made stabs at it like 13 Songs and Repeater + 3 Songs much more fun to listen to and more convincing for that matter.

Is it bad? No, it's actually pretty decent. Which is probably why I still have a copy of it, in spite the fact that I like both the aforementioned records AND the later more artistic albums like Red Medicine and The Argument. The lyrics are still interesting like most Fugazi, and I guess that "Great Cop" does actually appeal to me. But it's one of those things you hear and don't feel a lot towards. Maybe it was harder to get into for being before my time, but so were three of the four that I mentioned that I like so much more than this record. It's just pretty midling when you get to how you really are with the songs. That actually makes giving a well thought out review for this album a bit harder for me than the ones that I love and a few that I really dislike.

I suppose if you want something with more energy you'll enjoy this, and it's not like I'm doing a very good job at stopping you from it either. But I look at it more skeptically than the rest of their work. Yes, the integrity is still there but I just don't find a lot in it. Or maybe I could try to give my copy to someone who does.

The one thing I love about Fugazi is that no 2 CDs from this band sound the same. Made up of members who have been in the music scene for well over a decade or two now their music is a product of those decades of influence that have not just come from the traditional ethics of independent music but from just about every form of music you can think of.

Fugazi are lucky let that be known, if a young, little known band tried to experiment as much as Fugazi have done they would never get even half the recognition that this band does but Fugazi are blessed with ex members of Minor Threat, Rites of Spring and others.

The album moves from the almost late 70s Oi punk of facet squared to the almost Stiff Little Fingers 'inflamable material' sounding Public witness program. Just when you think you know what to expect you have returning the screw that begins almsot in a wisper and ends in anger. Other songs you can hear almost funk and blues rhythm comming through, this is a band that knows its music.

I have to say I always prefer Guys vocals, there is something about his style, manic, almost chaotic. I recall on the Fugazi DVD one crowd member described Fugazi as 'controled anger' that is probably the best description you can come up with for this band.

Last chance for a slow dance is for me the track of this CD, great that they showed this entire song on the DVD. Buy this, its one of Fugazis best.

This is my favorite Fugazi album. It's incredibly aggressive, while also dynamic and very rhythmically and melodically complex. What I don't like about a lot of punk/hardcore bands is that all the songs are at the same tempo/intensity the entire time. Ian McKaye helped define hardcore in the early eighties in his band Minor Threat, and he has continually reinvented new facets of the genre ever since. This is a lot more than just a bunch of sweaty shirtless guys yelling over distorted guitars. This a crushingly cathartic masterpice that oozes warmth and soul like no other band is able pull off. It varies from fast punk songs like "Great Cop" and "Facet Squared," to loud/quiet downtempo songs like "23 beats off" and "Instrument," and the soulfoul instrumental "sweet and low." This album will have make you get out of your chair and dance around bumping into furniture.

For me, "In On the Kill Taker" has been a profoundly influential album and work of art. It is my favorite Fugazi record, hands down. Perhaps it is one of the greatest of the hardcore punk subgenre as well. I have no place in deciding that for everyone, but those are my thoughts. Definitely one of the most terrifying, dangerous, unrelenting, and confrontational albums ever recorded. From start to finish, it packs a visceral punch and will bring you to your knees within a few minutes. Call it thrash, hardcore, or just heavy music. It will move, whether you love or hate what Fugazi does.

Side note: I love how it closes with "Last Chance for a Slow Dance." The perfect ending to this devastating record.

A guy I work with recently asked to borrow one of my Fugazi albums (he had never heard their music before). So I lent him In On The Kill Taker. It was the first Fugazi album I heard. When I saw him the next day, he looked like he didn't get a wink of sleep the previous night and his eyes looked like someone someone had pricking them with sewing pins. He looked at me and said "wo!".

This is certainly THE album to naff off your parents / partner / neighbours. It's got everything:

(1) Massive bass
(2) Thundering drums
(3) Highly agressive vocalisations
(4) Extremely angry guitars
(5) Unpredictable quiet and loud passages
(6) Feedback that could rot your Granny
(7) Esoteric lyrics (but not pretentious) and ...
(8) Some sweet melodies. [What?????] Yes, seriously!...P>Miss UK