Kill The Unicorn - Prism album review

Bang on Kill The Unicorn’s debut album, Prism, and the first thing you will hear is the electronic 8-bit sound of a retro console game. Moments later, though, album opener Motoko Kusanagi veers sharply off on another tangent as juggernaut riffs crash in and frontman Pipo Thalmann lets out an iron-lunged roar. Those 10 seconds sum up these Swiss alchemists perfectly. Over the course of the entire 40 minutes and 11 tracks you never quite know what Kill The Unicorn are going to pull out of their playful bag of tricks next. The five-piece slam dissonant, multi-textured math brutality against jazzy interludes on Ode To Spot. Elsewhere you’ll find no-nonsense battering and bizarre spoken interludes are free to roam with synthetic sound effects. On F.U.C.K.U.P, the band explore dark, digital themes alongside vocal takes that sound like the inside of a cassette unravelling. It’s all over the place and while Prism can sometimes appear unfocused, there’s never a dull moment to be found.