Kill Devil Hill At The Key Club: A Great First Impression

By Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal

My rating:

April 29th 2011, Key Club, Hollywood CA: This was a historic occasion for the quartet of Vinny Appice, Rex Brown, Mark Zavon and Jason "Dewey" Bragg, as they prepared to present themselves as Kill Devil Hill for the very first time in a live performance in front of a sizable Friday night crowd at the Key Club. The only music that we heard from the band before tonight was in the form of one-minute demos of the tracks "War Machine" and "Voodoo Doll", so this was very much a first hand experience of what the band is capable of, and after seeing their 30-minute set, I can safely say that these musicians have lived up to their greatly celebrated history, and have done no harm whatsoever to their reputation.

They played seven songs in total, including as many as six original tunes which was great to see. Out of these I most enjoyed "War Machine" and "Gates Of Hell". While War Machine is an extremely heavy mid-tempo tune, Gates Of Hell came across to me as a dark, bluesy and incredibly trippy song. I loved every moment of it, and it was so powerful that I felt like it had a grip on me. I simply can't wait for it to be released as a studio recording on the band's debut album. In fact, every song played tonight brought something different to the table so to speak, and that's why I feel this was the perfect representation of the band's music. They ended the set with a cover of Black Sabbath's "Lady Evil", a fitting tribute to Vinny's association with the Ronnie James Dio-fronted Black Sabbath and a tune that went excellently well with the vibe of Kill Devil Hill's own music, hence turning out to be a great choice.

Talking of the music itself, if you haven't even heard the demos yet, think of Black Sabbath's sound on the "Dehumanizer" album and combine it with Alice In Chains and Led Zeppelin. It's a great 'old meets new' sort of style that heavy metal fans should be able to appreciate with ease. It certainly doesn't sound exactly like Sabbath or Chains, and absolutely nothing like Pantera. So for fans of these legendary bands, you can be assured to treat yourselves with a pleasant surprise whenever you get a chance to hear Kill Devil Hill's music.

In terms of individual performances and stage presence, Rex Brown's bass sound was absolutely thunderous. He looked like the ultimate epitome of cool, wearing a smile throughout the performance and making plenty of eye contact with fans in the front few rows. He did seem unsatisfied with the sound during a couple of the songs, but the bass was sounding perfectly heavy from where I was standing. Shoulder problems haven't slowed down Vinny Appice even one bit, as he pounded away on the drums with full fervor and aggression. Frontman Dewey did a good job on vocals and his voice seems to be a perfect fit for the music. Guitarist Mark Zavon also did his bit. The only reason why they've lost half a rating point in this review is that they didn't quite change positions on stage. For example people facing stage right never got a proper chance to look at what Mark was doing. Other than that, this was as good a first gig as they could have hoped for.

I would definitely call the band's live debut a success, and look forward to great things from them during the rest of the year. With a performance as grippingly solid as this one, Kill Devil Hill have put forth what could turn out to be one of the heaviest rhythm sections the metal world has ever encountered, in the form of Appice and Brown. A great first impression indeed.

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