Formed in the summer of 2010, Alphakill were founded by Justin Stear(guitar/vocals), Derrick Kroll(drums), and Jon Warren(guitar/backing vocals), on the premise of creating something heavy and fast. The three began writing for what would become their debut album – “Unmitigated Disaster.” The riffs were fast, the solos blazing, and the drums were bombastic. At the time there was no bassist and no vocalist. After trying out a few musicians it was decided that Justin could and would double his
duties, and thus Alphakill had it’s frontman. The band then found Jesse Skoleski was willing to commit himself to complete the foursome that is Alphakill.
The band began playing several shows in 2011 as well as a show in Saskatoon alongside fellow thrashers, Untimely Demise.
Production of the first album began in Derrick’s basement in September of 2011. With Jon Warren at the helm and the rest of the band chipping in, drums were done in Alphakill’s jam space with the rest of the recording done in Jon’s basement. By early February 2012, “Unmitigated Disaster” was recorded. Jon then spent the next couple of months editing and mixing the album, after which it was sent off to Sonic Train Studios in Sweden for Andy LaRocque (King Diamond) to master.
June 23/2012 marked the official release of “Unmitigated Disaster.” The album turned many heads with it’s technical and occasionally proggy thrash sound.
Alphakill eventually had to part ways with Jesse at the end of the year, and found Jon Anderson to fill his place in January of 2013. A few more local shows were played while the band started writing new material.
Alphakill began recording drums for the album in Jon Warren’s basement project studio in the summer of 2014, initially, for the sake of hearing how the demo songs sounded with recorded drums. Happy with the sound, the band decided to commence recording of the full album. Derrick would spend a couple hours a week recording drums on his lunch hour from work. In some cases, drum parts were written in the studio.
It was then time for Jon Anderson to record the bass parts. After one session, he disappeared and didn’t come back. After a couple months, Jon Warren and Justin decided to record the bass parts themselves with Justin recording bass on the songs he wrote, and Jon recording bass on songs he contributed.
There were many hurdles for the band to overcome during the recording process including personal medical issues and loss of loved ones for multiple members. The band had decided to take a hiatus during this process and the recording was tabled for a while.
The recording was eventually finished in 2017 with Jon Warren handling the Mixing and Mastering. It was decided that there would be a Gofundme fundraiser to cover the cost of CD production. They were eventually able to raise about half the production costs in pre-orders and decided to front the rest themselves. Nyco Rudolf, who illustrated the first album was hired to create the artwork for the second one, based off a sketch Jon created.
Alphakill decided to reform in 2018 with Jordan Gosselin (of Dyrewolf, Justin and Derrick’s other band) and will play their first show in 4 years to support Dyrewolf at their CD release show on Dec 1st, 2018.
“Degrees of Manipulation” is 10 songs spanning 52 minutes of intricate, progressive thrash metal which showcases how the band has matured in both writing and recording. The album is now available for sale and an official CD release show is pending.
Read our review here.
