Luke Starkiller
Luke Starkiller
Independent
With the countless variety of music instantaneously available to listeners today, it is rare to discover anything that sounds new; it's even rarer to discover something new that sounds good. Thankfully, Luke Starkiller's recipe for blending contrasting rock flavors (pop-punk and speed metal) delivers a delectable alt. rock dish that's refreshingly unique...oh, and it's REALLY good. Each of the four songs on their eponymous debut EP flawlessly fuses the fluid hooks and melodic vocals of contemporary commercial punk rock with the detailed guitar-playing precision of '80s thrash-bands like Metallica and Megadeth. It's aggressive, but not assaulting, injecting just the right amount of auditory adrenaline into your system to get you feeling pumped.
"Let Go" and "Hard Merchandise" are the album's most compact and infectious tracks - both kick off with catchy surf hooks and then ride in on a ferocious wave of head-banging riffs. "Hard Merchandise" also shows signs of jazz guitar influence, and delivers the EP's popiest chorus ("do-do-do-do-do-do"). "Solid Blue" switches up this pattern; its blues-metal chords sprint out the block from the start, only slowing the pace for the refrain before going full-speed again for another lap. "Same Sorrow," the album closer, begins as a melancholy piano/acoustic ballad accompanied by a softly sung account of cyclic loss and mourning. However, the slow dirge eventually erupts into a five-minute-plus maelstrom of thundering thrash-rock, ending the track with an epic explosion of instrumental emotion - think a funkier, punkier rethinking of Metallica's "One." Luke Starkiller are currently working on material for their first LP. Get a taste of their early work now before they break big.
