Chicagoland-based Starkill was formed at the tail end of 2008 by Parker Jameson (lead guitar, vocals, keyboards and orchestral programming), Spencer Weidner (drums) and Charlie Federici (guitar), later being joined by bassist Mike Buetsch. They state that their main influences are Children of Bodom, Nightwish, Amon Amarth, Dimmu Borgir and Dragonforce, and even if I hadn’t seen the press release I would have been mentioning most of those bands in the review, as these guys aren’t making any secret at all of what drives them. “Whispers of Heresy” opens the album with some gentle Savatage-style piano and a single tolled bell before moving into Dimmu-Borgir/Nightwish symphonic keyboards and I was entranced already, long before the guitars come in, being driven along by some incredibly frenetic drumming and double bass drum work that makes most bands sound as if they just play at it. I mean, Spencer could find a job with any grindcore band if he ever gets fed up with this.
Here is an album that cries class from first to last, as the band mix and meld from many different metal spectrums. It is hard to comprehend that this is just a debut and renowned producer James Murphy has done a great job in capturing these guys. They have brought in elements of symphonic prog, death metal, prog metal, speed metal, grindcore an death to create something that at its’ heart is probably melodic death but in reality is all over the place and is very much the better for it.
I am convinced that these guys are going to become major players in the scene, yes it is that good. For more details visit www.centurymedia.de
