Amplified is a weekly column focusing on new and emerging artists. Got a band that fits the bill? Email amplified@metalinsider.net.
Sometimes, you encounter things in this line of work that are so strange, so gloriously stupid, that you’d be crazy not to write about it. Ohio’s Killer Refrigerator is an example of that if ever I saw one.
Formed as a two-man side project of Cincinnati band UnKured, Killer Refrigerator’s aim is to raise awareness against murderous household appliances, specifically “Lord Freezus Christ,” an enormous world-destroying fridge, and their love of terrible horror movies.
The Fridge and the Power It Holds shifts between technical death metal, sputtering grind, and Revocation-esque demented thrash riffs, with forays into folk metal and even chiptunes. (yes, really) There’s some chaotic mathy bits in there as well, EP opener “Terrorvision” works in a pretty drastic tempo fluctuation that gives it a seasick, lurching quality.
Metal is, on its own, pretty absurd when you think about it, so easily the best thing about Killer Refrigerator is that more effort and flat-out brilliant songwriting went into this than hundreds of bands I’ve listened to for this column who take themselves completely seriously. There’s a song on their first record called “Bed, Bath & Beheaded.” I’ve been laughing like a maniac while I write this as the spoken-word intro to “Killer Refrigerator vs. Godzilla” chronicles a massive Tokyo-destroying battle between the eponymous fridge and the King of the Monsters himself, with terrible Japanese accents to boot. This is the dumbest goddamned thing I’ve heard in I don’t even know how long, and it’s also one of my favorite new bands I’ve heard this year.
Stream The Fridge and the Power It Holds below, courtesy of No Clean Singing. You can also pick up their first effort, When Fridges Rule This World on Reverbnation for the low low price of free! Lastly, you can also stream “Gas Station Strangulation,” a sneak peak from their upcoming third release, Refrigeration Plague.
