It’s really strange being a nerdy kid in the hardcore scene. Occasionally, bands will come along that I just do not get. EARTH CRISIS and INTEGRITY leap to mind. Burly, blunt hardcore meant to pulverize with tough lyrics and a fighting demeanor, could describe any of the bands in the post-chugga chugga genre, but THE KILLER especially as well as the two bands previously mentioned. You can draw a clear line to their influence in THE KILLER, from EARTH CRISIS’ overwrought lyrical foundation (The cover art on Not All Who Are Lost… is a map of Pilgrim’s Progress, inexplicably) to INTEGRITY’s bleak lyrical outlook.

But, apparently, it’s been five years since their last record, which was not well received, but okay. It’s five years. Lots can change. That’s a huge amount of time in any genre. Marvel had an entire Civil War. Team Ico flipped the entire Playstation library on its head. A Wilhelm Scream released three genre-redefining records in that time.

Where does that leave THE KILLER?

Competent, but unimaginative. Proficient, but unsurprising.

Luke’s vocals aspire to pierce, but never really do more than hit with the force of a hammer. The band behind him makes my head bang, but never really move my feet. There is, I think, a generous mosh-part to song ratio, if that’s what you’re looking for. The breakdowns are heavy, yeah, but they don’t stand out to me. They’re not spastic. They’re not freakouts. They’re… there.

Lyrically, there’s not much to sink my teeth into. Luke runs the gamut of generic cliches about the nefarious qualities of the world weighing him down. You can do interesting things with the world weighing you down, lyrically, and MODERN LIFE IS WAR proved that, but Luke isn’t Jeffery Eaton. There’s glimmers of depth, such as in the end of “It’s Easy”, when the last words are “there was so much hope for you”, which raises the anti-addiction song to something more than another rehash (Let’s hear more about that community that put hope in this person!), but the song ends there. Following “It’s Easy” is “I Know That You Know” a song where the big takeaway message is “Don’t fuck with the last thing we have.” Great.

Ultimately, Not All Who Are Lost…Want To Be Found does not excite me. I don’t find myself going back to listen to it. It’s good while it’s on, but, and this could be my ignorance of the genre, I’m not grabbed by it. It’s blunt, but it lacks that colossal quality that “bearing down on the listener” that makes other bands that play this style stick out. I mean, I like RAISED FIST, but that band has something compelling about them. THE KILLER, not so much. There’s no surprises, at all, from THE KILLER.

Sincere, but bland. Reliable, but anonymous. Workman-like at best. It’s not that THE KILLER lacks bite, but the teeth aren’t sharp. Their reach exceeds their grasp, almost comically. Their heart is in the right place, but with the vehicle of Not All Who Are Lost…Want To Be Found, their heart is going nowhere fast.

- Organized Crime