To Kill Achilles – Something To Remember Me By
Release Date: 5th February 2021
Label: Arising Empire
Pre-Order/Stream
Genre: Hardcore, Prog Metal, Alternative Rock.
FFO: Being As An Ocean, Counterparts, BMTH.
Review By: Adam Martin
Scottish quintet To Kill Achilles, a band that has toured with the likes of We Came As Romans, Counterparts, While She Sleeps, I Killed The Prom Queen, Heart In Hand, Betraying The Martyrs, have signed to Arising Records to bring us their sophomore album, Something To Remember Me By. This project easily sets itself aside from anything I have heard in recent memory as it’s a wonderfully thoughtful package that exudes energy and pain in a balanced and well structured way.
But, before this statement becomes the quickest conclusion to a review, lets break down the epic 14 track album, and dive straight in.
Something To Remember Me By adresses such a heartbreaking and devastating topic – suicide. It is a topic that is not easy to tackle, and can be grossly mishandled, but To Kill Achilles manage to embrace the idea through a fictional character that harnesses the members own troubles without it feeling detachted and lifeless. In the bands own words: “Each song represents a month in his life (with the exception of two moments of reflection). In each of the songs we tell a story that a member of the band has been through over the last few years. Every song is real and is a portrayal of how we felt in that moment.”
The first track, fourpercent kicks in with plenty of power with drums that try to knock you off your seat, vocals that are coarse and to the point, and guitars that crunch and soar. It’s a perfect start to a hardcore album. A quick succession of stick clicks at the end of the track counts in the punky In Vain, keeping the pace at breakdneck speed. The smooth and comfortable riff softens the blow of the opening tracks, but as the song progresses you realise that you’re still being hit with the bands relentless power. And that outro…….that outro chugs hard. Luna et Altum keeps this power going, until it drops itself into an isolationists nightmare at the end, with vocals screaming into the echoes of a piano that drifts into focus.
After having a break from the relentless energy, the band continues to give the listener a breather with a more uplifting song with Oh God, I’ve Never Felt This Low. I know what I said, and I know ‘uplifting’ doesn’t fit with that title, but the music feels a little lighter this time around. This song feels more or less like a ballad, which seems a little strange in the grand scheme of things. What stands out is that the vocals become more spoken word, handing itself nicely to the ‘suicide note’ feel, so it still works well here. Black Marble highlights this further, shouting the heartfelt lyrics over a serene backdrop of guitar picking and ambient sounds. At times, I hoped at time the vocalist would smooth out or sing some parts of this track, but this doubt dropped after hearing the final words being screamed with instense pain.
From here, we get more of the same styles and tracks you would expect with a back and forth of high energy, and slowed down reflective pieces When You Live With Ghosts, You Don’t See The Dead brings back the dirt as well as some soaring guitar work, getting the pulse racing and head banging, followed by Agnostic’s minimalist rant about spirituality. A must-have when facing mortatlity. As the song ends, you are left with a moment to have your mid-album break and wipe away those tears.
Once you’re ready to press on, you are faced with On My Mind, another ballad style track that appears as a beautiful reminder that their loved ones will still be on their mind in the worst of times. There’s No Right Way To Say This… and Venom are nice pair to have in the middle here, and are my personal favourites. The former has the best breakdown by far, initiated by the gutteral scream “I wish I could just talk to someone!”, with the later being much darker in tone than ay of the other tracks.
After all of this, the core message of the album is displayed in We Only Exist When We Exist Togther, a spoken word piece that outlines the nature of memory in relation to our existence – that we cannot exist alone. It’s a powerful track with a great message to bring people together in a difficult time. The next two tracks, 21:36 and Beautiful Mourning, bring us back up to pace again with some powerful riffs and some great details that help each track breath, swaying between intensity and serenity.
The end of the album is signed off with Something To Remember Me By, as if the note is being left to the side, waiting for someone to listen to, and be haunted by, the words of this lost soul. This one surprised me, I had not expected the title track to be acoustic guitar. But it is nicely tied in with the coarse vocals shouting the heartfelt lyrics. It’s a powerful ending that only the band could sum up: “we poured our emotions into this, and after we’re gone, it’ll still be there, reminding people that we once existed and that we once felt as strongly as we do. It’s just something to leave behind, a memento, a token, or just something to remember me by.”
You can really feel the emotion across the whole album, it really doesn’t let up. Every now and then, there is repetition in structure and mix. For example, nearly every song has a similar moment when the drums or vocals become the focus, and the rest are ‘canned’ or muted in some way. But hey, you expect this when you are dealing with 14 tracks.
Altogether, it’s a well crafted and painful package of negative thoughts and harsh truths. It has a powerful message of family/friendship and solitude being the heaven and hell of our existence, and that to be alone can feel equal to death. I would highly recommend getting this album, no matter what style of rock and metal you prefer.
(4.5 / 5)
