Material: Kill The Past are a fun little metal act that not only cover challenging songs by their progenitors, but also pen original tunes like “The Anarchist.” With its rapid-fire delivery and jaw droppingly good bass work by Green, that song is the strongest in their set. The group begins their performance with an original instrumental introduction, “Cause & Consequence,” before they plow straight into Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” If that isn’t enough, they also cap off their set with Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction,” which they claim was the first song the group performed together. Impressed yet? McElwee completely nails a death growl on the metal songs while Green and Munsey offer quirkier spoken-word deliveries on punkier originals like “Green Fairy.”
Musicianship: The band has the perfect rock combo of Fender and Gibson guitars while Stanton’s drum kit incorporates a small and eerie sounding cymbal that provides a creepy clacking sound perfectly suited to the material. McElwee embellishes on his solos to make them his own, while Stanton dazzles with her nearly album accurate renditions. Munsey makes interesting choices for the genres at play, utilizing a slide on the original song “Breakdown” to good effect. Unfortunately the primary issue at this gig was that the rhythm guitar rarely came through in the mix. This was not really the fault of the mixer in this circumstance; the band needs to work on their individual volume levels.
Performance: McElwee and Green are both good with their banter, which comes across as both friendly and genuine as they take the time to introduce the band. While the group is more than adept at covering “When You Were Young” by the Killers, it doesn’t really seem to fit with the overall flavor of the show. The song, however, encourages the audience to dance and therefore serves a vital purpose.
Summary: While there’s ample amount of skill exhibited here, each musician frequently competes for sonic space and cancels out the others to the point where bass or rhythm guitar can sometimes not be heard at all. Probably the greatest asset Kill The Past has at this moment is versatility. If each band member sticks to doing what they individually do best—and learn to perform as a unit—they stand to refine this act into something unique and special.
The Players: Wynn McElwee, vocals, lead guitar; Kaiden Munsey, rhythm guitar; Rhys Green, vocals, bass; Zoe Stanton, drums.
Photo by NYE Green
Venue: The Mint
City: Los Angeles
Contact: [email protected]
Web: killthepastband.com
