Here’s a fun story from Joe’s headbanging youth. I was a senior in high school when Chicago’s Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse Festival morphed into Legions of Metal. Amongst the highlights that inaugural year were Armored Saint, Diamond Head, Ross the Boss, and making an exclusive appearance, Killer. Now Killer were a band who fit the bill of what Legions’ predecessor, Ragnarokkr, was all about: Here was an extremely cult ’80s euro metal act, virtually unknown to the general metallist population, yet beloved by a small, devout handful. Their set also happened to land on the same night as my senior prom. The choice was simple: I’d spent 4 years seeing these people every single day against my volition. I’d never see Killer again.
Fast forward nearly a decade later, and this remains true. Sure, there was always a chance that the likes of Randy Kastner, Ed Farshtey, or some other diehard American fan/promoter would shell out the dough to bring these Belgian speed merchants back to our shores for another glorious one-off. However, with the release of their latest album, The Grand Finale, I am certain that will never happen, and it makes me all the more grateful to the Legions of Metal team (Shoutout Bob and Shane!) for pulling such a task off, even if I was covered in some drunken moron’s puke during said set, but that’s another tangent for another day.
Yes, after 46 years, Paul Van Kamp, better known to his fans as Shorty, is laying Killer to rest, at least as a studio act. And I will say, that IF this truly is the end for Killer, it’s a retirement well deserved. This band has been going at it longer than most of us have been alive, with Shorty himself boasting a career dating back to the mid ’70s with biker rockers, Mothers of Track. Come 1980, Killer formed, abandoning the boogie-isms of Shorty’s previous act, instead honing in on the lean, mean, then up and coming traditional metal sound. With the exception of a couple splits, they’ve largely been going at it ever since.
On The Grand Finale, Shorty and company do Killer’s legacy proud, staying true to their high speed, high energy approach to metal. Though the comparisons to Motörhead have haunted this band since their inception, Killer doubles down, unleashing pure filth and rage on the metallized rock n’ roll of “Loaded Gun”, punkish bite of “Roll the Dice”, and neck-snapping blitz of “What You See is What You Get”. If they are mere Lemmy disciples, they are arguably his most faithful. Broadening the sonic palette of the outing are cuts like the power metal-tinged title track (A song that feels far more genuine than Megadeth’s “The Last Note”), a passionate power ballad in “Gone Too Soon”, and the ultra-melodic “In the Eye of the Storm”, which isn’t too dissimilar from “Lift Me Up” off 1990’s Fatal Attraction.
In all truthfulness, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a hint of bias when spinning this album. Killer were a band I regularly used to flex on normies in high school (“I love metal! My favorite band is Slipknot!”), so The Grand Finale does take me back to that simpler, more carefree time. As for the songs themselves, they truly are as kickass and powerful as every other raging riff-fest that Shorty has bestowed upon us for the past half century. Belgium will be a less metal country (if such a thing is even possible) without Killer in it…which is why I hope for an eventual change of heart in the next year or two! They’re still “Ready for Hell”, but they’re definitely NOT ready for retirement!
9 out of 10
Label: High Roller Records
Genre: Heavy Metal
For fans of: Motörhead, Tank, Anvil
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