Ten new tracks after 5 years of waiting since 2016’s ‘Total Tranquility’ means the gaps between albums are blowing out as we waited a mere 4 years between the debut and the follow up (and remember that debut was really a mini-album with just five songs). So I have to say much as I’ve liked ToxicRose’s output so far it’s a long wait for fans and a lot of time to lose momentum.
Thankfully we get a solid start – ‘Blood’ the opener has attitude, grit and a great melody that somewhat eases the pain of separation, and it’s back up with the galloping ‘Heroes’ that almost sounds like Power Metal before title track ‘In For the Kill’ adds some real sass, it’s another fist-pumper.
One the other hand ‘Remedy’ starts with synths and a circling industrial groove that backs a snarled vocal before the huge chorus breaks in and sends us skywards. It’s one of the most immediate here, taking in, as it does, a number of different styles. After those forays into heavy territory ‘Angel’ sounds like it’s going to be a ballad to break things up, but it’s actually a nice lengthy and rather cool Power Metal flavoured epic that isn’t afraid to skew the template and may just be the most interesting thing here.
Despite the Black Veil Brides meets Shout-era Crue imagery and style – that look is far from the sound of ToxicRose, and two of the best tracks ‘Outta Time’ with its great harmonies, dark edge and galloping guitar and ‘Domination’ with its even heavier edge seek to underline that.
We close with the dark verses and poppier refrain of ‘Open Up’ that’s probably my least favourite here, though at times it does make you think of Black Tide; but the final one-two of the roaring ‘New Breed’ and the huge backing vocals of ‘Great Escape’ leave us on the up.
At the end of the day we have here a rather nice slab of Heavy Metal Rock and Roll much like previous offerings and sure to please fans.
7.5 / 10