It was 2009, and I have just returned to Malaysia from my two-year stint in Australia. Also, I was the freshest meat in the KL scene, having grown up in Penang for 20 years prior to that. It was at the 2009 Sunburst KL Festival, my first music festival ever, finding shade at the vendor’s tent nearby, when I heard, over at the Indie Stage we were facing, the piercing vocals of former lead Hafizul Azim singing Bright Lights.
It was then everything started for me. Something in me awakened, as They Will Kill Us All’s set echoed across the fields of Bukit Kiara Esquestrian Club, as this ambition to unearth every and any local indie acts that I can find came to be. I felt like a kid with a treasure hunt map. I want to listen to them all, know them all, and speak to them all.
By the time I hopped on the fanwagon, They Will Kill Us All’s fans have spent a duration of time anticipating for their long-awaited yet somewhat unsatisfying debut EP release, Secret Episodes. At that time, outsiders never really knew that the band was already slowly falling apart, and what came next was an even longer wait – three years, to be exact, as they subsequently kicked the lead vocalist out of the band, and went on a soul search to look for their new identity.
By the time Vultures was released on Christmas Eve last year, so much has already changed. Probably frustrated with being leaderless for the longest time (they had a female vocalist between Hafizul and now, Sharon Chong, but she too left), guitarist Edwin Raj decided to step up to the pedestal and lead They Will Kill Us All to the rest of their lives in music, and perhaps hopefully, restore the band to its former glory.
I won’t lie. Edwin’s vocals are nothing compared to Hafizul’s prowess. He has a distinctive intonation that Edwin’s lower and smoother vocals seem to only peter things out instead. Whilst he might hit all the right notes in Under the Red Sky, ultimately, no matter how heartfelt he seems to conjure up this former energy, it is only till a certain level that Edwin can achieve, and in Sons of the Fearless, it somehow did the opposite instead, overlaps that come off too messy for a closing song.
Whilst Edwin’s vocals may not be one that I started of with, it is one that I come to accept. And one thing that did not change, and prolongs the band’s lifeline in this resuscitation, is They Will Kill Us All’s strong backbone of a rhythm guitar. Compared Secret Episodes, Vultures is coated in honey smooth guitar riffs that in the former EP only seem to sting like bees in one’s ears. (Whilst Situational/Separation is one of my favourite tracks, I do cringe every time the pitchy guitar goes a little out of the wavelength). A musical endurance that breathes life to the band’s second becoming in Great Glass City, sings essence to Under the Red Sky and Future Nights, and affirms the band’s durability in Sirens and Sons of the Fearless.
Whilst Vultures may mark They Will Kill Us All’s comeback, but it’s more of a “Phew! Glad we survived that big obstacle” kind of album, and to the fans, a “Welcome back! My God, we have missed you” kind of album. To me, they have not regain their glory days they had once upon a time just yet, but I would say you have to start somewhere, and Vultures is where the starting point is for them. A proper introduction, albeit a few years late, for the band to the music scene.
If the reformation had happened in 2009, when I was still new to the KL scene, They Will Kill Us All probably would not have captured me the way they did. They probably would not be “the first band” for me to start exploring the local music scene. Fortunately, as fate would have it that it was their old sound that made They Will Kill Us All “the first band” for me, I stuck around to see if this band can survive a breakup with, of all members, the lead that has been known to paralyse even kill a lot of bands throughout history.
Let’s face it. Change is inevitable. Back then, Hafizul really has to go after the many alleged internal dramas he has bestowed upon his band members, in which I would rather not divulge here, and in which I am certain the band would rather not be reminded of either. The change might have caused them a certain number of their fans, much like many of them had turned their backs on Dave Grohl when he decided to start Foo Fighters a little too soon after Kurt Cobain’s legendary death.
But with this change comes the opening song for Vultures, Great Glass City. And in this song, Edwin stresses: “We’re starting a fire / We’ll never leave you out in the flames”. As if saying, “I know we didn’t hit off with the greatest start, but here we are now and we’re staying. Take it or leave it.”
Personally, I would take it, and see to where forth these vultures would soar to in days to come.
W: TheyWillKillUsAll.com
T: @twkua
Backseat Radio II 