Teddy Killerz are back on the prowl as the blood-thirsty trio rushes back over to Bassrush with their sophomore EP, ‘Slayer,’ a three-track onslaught of flesh-shredding dubstep.
Grigory Cherekaev, Anton Mashevsky and Oleg Cholovskii have been living comfortably at the top of the food chain within the Eastern European block, as the savage sleuth of producers continue to maul their way through the drum & bass circuit with the killer instinct of an apex predator. For the better part of the last decade, the triple-pronged project known as Teddy Killerz has specialized in dancefloor destroyers of the neurofunk variety. They recently dragged the D&B schoolyard through the dirt when they dropped their brainy-meets-brawny ‘Nerd Starter Pack’ on Bassrush at the tail-end of 2020. The trio is now answering the call of the wild on their follow-up effort, ‘Slayer,’ a cold-blooded rampage through womps so dangerous that no amount of survival skills gives you a fighting chance to slip passed these cuts without a near-death story to tell.
“Fallen Angel” is magnanimous at first glance, hiding its true colors behind an effervescent melodic intro built around sparkling chords and high-pitched vocalizations. The decoy ploy can only go on for so long, though, until the master of deception is ready to rear its malevolent head. The angelic energy quickly starts to metamorphize into something far more sinister after the beaming build, plummeting from the heavens to unleash its wrath onto the world. A lake of fire starts to consume the space with guttural bottom-end flickering beneath growling stabs and soul-piercing switch-ups of ungodly origins. There’s a brief moment of respite when the melodies try to overcome the evil, but the dark side fights back with a tenacious call-and-response that reigns supreme.
On the titular offering, there’s an unsettling greeting of grim presented right from the jump. “Slayer” kicks off with restrained drums following the lead of a prominent clap, waiting for a seething crescendo to push the track’s maniacal antagonist beyond the threshold. A harrowing voice lurches just outside of plain sight, stalking its victim until it’s time to inflict pain. As soon as the threatening voice feels like its breath is hitting the back of your neck, the tormenting comes crashing down with utter agony through sharp-edge shrieks and screechy gashes of bass aimed straight at the jugular.
The finishing move arrives via the closing cut, “Happening,” the final blow meant to seal your fate. Ominous padlines and galvanizing riffs signal to the impending doom, leaving less than a moment’s notice to seek sanctuary while ill-mannered ragga chants warn of the catastrophic hex placed over your head. Billowing snare hits usher in pure destruction that roll in like the plague. It’s nothing but chaos and calamity thereafter, with grotesque slabs of lower frequencies grinding through gruesome arrangements backed by nefarious vocal groans. Brief as it may be, a dreary bridge drifts through like a fog of death, only to give way to a more brutal incarnation of the life-stealing force felt from before.
As its name would suggest, the ‘Slayer’ EP is not for the faint of heart. And if you’re one of the lucky few who make it out of this god forsaken bloodbath unscathed, spread the word to the other survivors that Teddy Killerz are just as deadly in the dubstep department as we’ve witnessed them to be on the drum & bass tip.
