Profound Lore Records releases the new album by Soft Kill on November 4. A departure from the sounds that have come to define Profound Lore – avant metal bands like Portal, Krallice, Leviathan, Pallbearer, and Subrosa – Soft Kill is one of the most outstanding new post-punk bands of today, dealing in a romantic and moody post-punk .
Mixed by Uniform guitarist Ben Greenberg, whose recent production credits include recordings by Sacred Bones Records bands like Destruction Unit, Choke puts forth a perfectly crafted, early ’80s sound, melancholy yet wired. Minimal guitar hooks and the haunted vocals of frontman Tobias V.H. set a lush, saturnine scene, as bone-shaking drums drive forward insistently toward the edge of something. Soft Kill sets this tension and lets it ride, conjuring emotion by way of repetition rather than peaks and valleys. Casual listeners might hear hints of early The Cure, early U2, and Joy Division. Fans more clued in to the genre will pick up on influences like The Chameleons, The Sound, and Lowlife – the song “On the Inside” features guest vocals by none other than The Chameleons’ Mark Burgess.
Ghettoblaster recently caught up with Tobias V.H. to get his “best of 2016” list before the band heads out on tour in December (dates below). This is what he told us.
Kanye West – Life of Pablo
Scrappy and scatter-brained follow up to “Yeezus” with the tour of the century to boot.
Blood Incantation – Star Spawn
Morbid Angel trapped on the spaceship from Hellraiser 4: Bloodlines.
Travis Scott – Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight
The next king’s collabo with the legendary Mike Dean recorded mostly on my dad’s mobile home.
Blood Orange – Freetown Sound
Prince’s son he never had’s best work yet.
Sculpture Club – A Place to Stand
The better of the two records with this title; sounds like Xiu Xiu’s high school punk band.
Young Thug – Slime Season 3 & Jeffrey mixtapes
The weirdest and most hated keeps bringing fire, forcing white folks to post their favorite Jay Z album and complain about black culture.
YG – Still Brazy
The new king of west does it again.  “Why You Always Hatin?” = song of the year.
Gatecreeper – Sonoran Depravation
Like Death metal done by classless cavemen raised on Madball and Merauder.
Con-Dom – How Welcome is Death to I Who Have Nothing More to Do But Die
With a new wave of hipsters jocking noise afoot, one of the masters burns down the world.
Way Out – Demo
Wipers meets driving post punk. This will blow the fuck up.
(Catch Soft Kill on tour:
Dec 2 – Sacramento, CA @ Red Museum
Dec 3 – Oakland, CA @ Golden Bull
Dec 4 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Dec 5 – Tempe, AZ @ 51 West
Dec 6 – El Paso, TX @ Monarch)