Crush Kill Destroy

Crush Kill Destroy are not in fact a larynx-shredding, double-bass-pummeling death metal troupe. But they do rock, and they do it well. Imagine if June Of 44 stopped fucking around with trumpets and bells and delivered a record solely composed of their more focused, rocking songs... they've clearly got heart, soul, and an excellent grasp of atmosphere and dynamics.
Crush Kill Destroy have a refreshing tendency to let those swells of sound drift into extended, trance-like passages. In other words, they don't blow their wad at the end of every song. Instead, they build and release tension throughout the album on a less volatile (but more rewarding) scale. The band are definitely capable of rocking out, but they do so only in service of the song. Their songwriting skills allow them to keep the often-lengthy songs interesting and invigorated throughout, without resorting to a cliched amp-destroying freakout.
Crush Kill Destroy's other ace up the ol' sleeve is their penchant for seamlessly integrating melody and dissonance. They rival even the mighty Sonic Youth in their ability to marry unorthodox melodic passages to discordant ones; in fact they are so good at it that, several times throughout the album, I didn't even register the clashing notes (check the main guitar melody of "Tim Quits Painting" for a prime example). They've also got some catchy speak-sung vocal lines for good measure (the mantra-like 5/4 chant of "if I stop / will you stop" on "Walter Mondale" will burrow into your skull). - transform online

...math rock that knows no boundaries, that rampages your ineffectual attention span with a deadly arsenal of six-minute grinders that swirl, rise and fall all over your face and tits and everything else you hold dear; while guttural vocals, interspersed rarely as they are in this barren landscape, provide no refuge from the carnage... - boston weeky dig

Those anticipating a Hardcore roar will be -- perhaps pleasantly -- surprised to find CKD to be an intricate, shape-shifting Post Rock juggernaut. That's not to say that the band's music is devoid of tension and intensity. In fact, CKD's music thrives on it... slanted, spooling sculptures of sound, fluidly piloted by emotion, dissonance and tricky, impulsive structuring. The tracks are epic (averaging about six minutes a cut) but never grandiose, sounding like they were composed spontaneously by musicians who are so mentally locked in with each other, you might want to swab their DNA to see if they are blood related. Creating a hypnotic ebb and flow, the drizzling guitars and oscillating rhythms rotate in a bewitchingly circular motion, creating a trickling cascade that is as much Jazz as it is Rock... Though never rising to the aggro implications of its moniker, CKD's meditative, multifarious approach is cerebrally powerful and magnetically creative - cleveland city beat

Chicago's Crush Kill Destroy deviates from the norm and fuses its own style into a twisted synergy of melody and dark distortion. Dueling guitars - one melodic, one heavy-distortion - compete and peak without exploding, and finally fuse into an oddly harmonious duo. Lyrics come at you reminiscent of passionate despair in a red room... guitarists, bassist, drummer, and singer alike all get their respective times to shine, although perhaps not necessarily in solo form - santa barbra independent

The main ingredients of Crush Kill Destroy's rock are a lead guitarist who plays bizarre melodies, a songwriter guitarist who writes fractured, dissonant songs, a bassist who acts like a guitarist (he plays excellent melodies), and a drummer who pulls it all together with jazzy grooves.
The instruments interact so cleanly and so perfectly that it's easy to miss how talented these musicians really are. They've spent a lot of time cultivating their dissonant, hypnotic, rocking work here, and as a result, the songs float on in a very ethereal way. It's a genuinely new sound to me, so the entire experience of listening to Metric Midnight feels a little bit removed from reality... These guys have an amazing talent for songwriting, and it shows up on Metric Midnight. If you're a fan of moody rock, you should not let this one get by you. - Independent Clauses

The dual guitarwork, so daunting that it's nearly abrasive, sets the band apart from typical pseudo-punk excursions, as well as the melodic, beautiful, dirty bass lines. The band is as Midwest as it gets, all attitude and confidence, with vocals that assert a dark stranglehold as soon as they are introduced. The band's upcoming Metric Midnight expands on what it did in the past-the dreary, carefully constructed guitars paint nightmares upon a devious canvas of doom. Certainly edgy, cutthroat and dogged, Crush Kill Destroy naturally recalls Shellac in both aggression and sharpness. Energetic and demanding, the band gets the job done. - ur chicago

Blending post-punk noise rock with post-hardcore, it's Fugazi on bad crystal meth and cigarettes. There's elements of math rock in there for the geeks to fawn over but there's never a lack of distortion or aggression... Crush Kill Destroy stokes the fire with rusted iron hoping to be improvisational enough to not fall into the sinking category of bands who just succumb to being noise rather than actual music. I for one am all ears. - smother.net

Crush Kill Destroy have obviously absorbed their fair share of influences-Sonic Youth and Slint spring immediately to mind-but approach them as signposts rather than blueprints to be scrupulously followed. On the new Metric Midnight, the Chicago band allow themselves to stretch out without ever venturing into unnecessary jazziness, and their willingness to embrace atonality gives the songs an edge lacking in much of the current post-rock camp. - the onion (milwaukee/madison ed)

If Can pioneered experimental rock, and Sonic Youth took it to new heights, then Crush Kill Destroy are taking it to new depths, pounding it into the ground as a pursuit of originality rather than punishment. The guitars aren't fucked with per se; it's more like the guitars are doing the fucking. Almost everything is played in a weird key, but the band confidently plows through the sharp turns and odd time sigs as if they were pumping out the easiest punk riffs ever. - now wave

Musically scheming is as complex as it is subtle, as if it has just written the soundtrack to a brilliant yet seedy plot that it would love to tell you about...Metric Midnight is an undeniably forceful venture, but rather than maneuvering violently through their songs with a sort of scorched earth philosophy, the band harnesses its aggression, letting it seep out like a slow but unpatchable leak. - on Milwaukee