Kerosene 454 Came By to Kill Me LP reissue

Here we have a reissue of KEROSENE 454’s 1996 sophomore LP Came By to Kill Me. Hailing from Washington, DC, this release was originally released on Dischord and Slowdime Records—the latter run in part by KEROSENE 454’s John Wall (also of CANYON), who formed the band with brother Jim Wall and Erik Denno. If these labels bring to mind classic DC post-hardcore, you’re not wrong, though KEROSENE 454 added in a bit of melodic hardcore (a sign of the mid-’90s, I suppose), while still keeping roots in the sounds that formed early Dischord bands. I hear pretty classic post-hardcore on “Injection”—fast little guitar riffs, dissonant and squabbling, drums keeping a syncopated beat, vocals spoken, shouted, spat, with a strong backbone of bass. “T Minus 100” offers up some of those melodic qualities, while the closer “Continued” has a slacker sound, and is tamer than the rest—possibly a foreshadowing of Wall’s slowcore career to come in CANYON. While I may prefer ’80s-era DC bands, I like this record, its lineage in the city’s history, and the fact that it’s getting a new day in the sun.

• Reviewer Willis Schenk
• Label BCore / Solid Brass
• Issue MRR #507 • August 2025