IKILLYA Rep Street Metal on ‘E.H.R.’

IKILLYA recently released their official debut EP, 'Recon,' a mix of modern metal and Pantera-esque groove metal. The band itself prefers the term 'street metal.'

"We actually stole the term 'street metal' from some old friends of mine in the band Demiricous," explains vocalist Jason Lekberg. "I just thought it perfectly described who we are. To me, it means metal that is made by regular people, with a more groovy, dare I say urban, flare. So, both meanings of street. Street because we're from the street, and street because it has a pulse like a city... like New York City."

City or country, the band's debut was a long time coming. It turns out that it took IKILLYA longer to get their lineup right than it did to write and record songs for 'Recon.'

"We've had nine different guitar players over the past six years," says Lekberg. "When you're a four-piece, losing a guitar player it means you start over again."

Current guitarist Dave Kerr has been with the band for two years, and that has helped the band with writing and recording. The band also had some help from veteran metal insiders like producer Josh Wilbur, who has worked with acts like Lamb of God and Hatebreed. Still, the band is self-managed and actively looking for a label. Lekberg admits the music industry is at a bit of a crossroads and being a new metal band is sometimes a hard sell.

"It's a very strange time in the music industry right now," he says. "Everyone is gun-shy of new bands because even the established acts aren't selling like they used to. We've sent the album out and if one of the labels is interested, we'd love to talk, but for the time being we're content to build this from the ground up. We believe that the music is the most important thing and if people respond, then you know to move forward. Obviously, it's tough to have the money to compete, but we're very fortunate to be able to work with many of the same people the labels hire so at least we've got a start.

"One of the tenets of this band is that our music should push us to be better musicians and we believe that's best accomplished when we write as a group," says Lekberg. "One of us may come in with an idea or a partial song, but then we all write our parts together, pushing each other to be more creative. We want to write songs that don't always sound abstract on the surface but whose parts are unconventional."

Today, Noisecreep is proud to offer a free download of the blistering IKILLYA track 'E.H.R.' from the 'Recon' EP. You can listen to and download the song below.

IKILLYA Rep Street Metal on ‘E.H.R.’ — Free MP3 Download