Killing Floor

Vigilantes of Love | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 6, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sky Records
• ASIN: B000006MTV
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,637 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best introduction to one of the decade's best songwriters., July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Killing Floor (Audio CD)

This album was my introduction to the Vigilantes of Love, and to the songwriting of Bill Mallonee. Killing Floor immediately vaulted V.O.L. into my list of favorite bands. Bill M., is a poetic genius. His words get to the heart of the human condition. Fortunately he has always surrounded himself with talent musicians so the lyrics aren't lost in inanity. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th tracks of Killing Floor stand out as the strongest trio of songs I've heard anywhere, musically as well as lyrically.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful, haunting fusion..., November 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Killing Floor (Audio CD)

At a time when most artists were attemting to combine punk with noise pop, a la Nirvana, Vigilantes of Love took a different approach. On this remarkable album, the band injects the fiery energy of punk into echoes of lost southern folk music, not unlike producer Mark Heard's Dry Bones Dance before it, and the resulting concoction is frightening and beautiful. Lyrically, these songs hang their toes over the edge of depression and despair, but a perfect moment of grace and redemption always keeps the album from plunging over. Sick of It All, Motel Room, and Keep Out the Chill perfectly capture the hopelessness most people feel at some point during life (and some of us feel much more often), while the best songs here, including Earth Has No Sorrow and River of Love, shine with a unexpected grace and hope. The darkness layered throughout this disc does not make for an easy listen, but the occasionally dazzling shafts of light pull the listener through. The Vigilantes have yet to top this superior work of art, as furiously haunted as it is, but then, so have most bands. Buy now, and enjoy one of the best over-looked albums of the decade.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense, February 1, 2004

By 

Joseph McCarthy (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Killing Floor (Audio CD)

This album has a strong beat. Bill Mallonee and Travis McNabb do an excellent job on drums. Killing floor was released in 1992 when the Vigilantes Of Love consisted of two members: Billy Holmes and Bill Mallonee. They play many of the instruments on this cd. Holmes was also a member during the first two records: "Jugular," and "Driving The Nails." (Mallonee lost the rights to Driving The Nails through some legalities involving Core records; the label it was released on.) Billy Holmes left the band after Killing Floor and didn't reappear until almost a decade later. (at one point in the interval he was a record producer of Death Metal bands.)

The playing on Killing Floor is fueled with so much energy that reviews of Vigilantes shows would label them as manic pop. And that has nothing to due with the speed of the songs, but more to the excited tension of the music. Mallonee unexpectly dropping to the floor on one knee and bouncing back up during a guitar riff only adds to the impression, as does the sudden slamming of his closed palm against his head in the midst of passionately sung, tense lyrics. There seems to be a nervous strain lurking behind even the slower songs.

Undoubtedly it's the music that gets your attention, but once pulled in, the lyrics take center stage. There's a psychological darkness to them that indicates an internal struggle. Mallonee's (he writes all the songs) choice of words are intellectually clever but down home enough to feel comfortable with. In fact, the silent war inside his head is portrayed in his songs using phrases and lines that we can all relate to.

"Real Downtown" is the song that got the most airplay, but other tunes not to be missed are: "Anybody's Guess," "Strike While The Iron Is Hot," "I Can't Remember," and "Sick Of It All." These songs alone, should have made this album a hit. But as Bill's 14 year musical career proves, talent can go unnoticed by the masses. As a struggling artist, he has learned that when it comes to corprate rock, it's not about "talent," it's about the bottom line - money. No matter how talented you are, if the big companys don't invest in you, then you'll be stuck in some dark corner of the market they cornered.