Let’s set the scene: you are sitting on your couch doomscrolling through TikTok when all of a sudden from next to you you hear a voice. “Hey babe?” utters your loving partner. As you begin to respond you mentally prepare for what question may follow this. Based of their social feeds you assume the obvious, that you are about to be asked if you would still love them if they were a worm. Then the other foot drops, and by foot, I mean a long and convoluted question about if you would assist them in murder and hiding a body. You know, average Tuesday stuff.

Kukielle’s KILL4ME is a batshit insane request for a tribute to love in the form of murder or killing the one you love. I say this in the most endearing way possible, as underneath this intensely passionate premise is one of the best trap metal tracks I’ve heard this year (depending on how far you’re willing to stretch the bounds of that genre). As the second track off her second project PEROXIDE PRINCESS, KILL4ME comes in swinging with a wailing guitar riff before containing itself to a simple beat and gorgeous vocals exploring the bounds of love and it’s limits. “What is the price of love”? And for Kukielle it seems the price is particularly high.

This song showcases a lot of what I love about the current era of music we’re in, and how we’re no longer confined by preset genre norms. The pre-chorus to this song cuts away to the basics and a vocoder synth of all things, a choice that allows the synth chords to perfectly accent and emphasize the words being said building into our final question: Would you still love me if I was a worm kill for me. The chorus emphasizes this point with strong lead vocals backed with quieter scream vocals (something signature to anything metal adjacent) that are blended in such a way that makes them comparable to cuts off of Bring Me The Horizon’s project amo. Paired with strong guitar work and punchy drums the song manages to sound straight out of a big fancy LA professional studio (which is some of the highest praise I can give an independent artist). It’s quite honestly a gorgeous blend of styles, bringing that hard rock edge to a more pop-adjacent broader audience.

Kukielle was actually one of the first artists I wrote an article on in the initial false launch of AuraLink. I hadn’t simply planned a piece on at the time her latest single CUT OPEN MY FACE, I wrote an incredibly nerdy in depth article about that song and it’s approach to mixing with artificial tape (which likely means nothing to the average reader here, and reinforces that my mix engineering degree is useless).

I mention this because despite scrapping that article and our launch being delayed almost a whole year after writing that, I’ve been thinking about how best to share her music from then until now. Spotify’s algorithm gods had blessed me with top tier material from a niche genre from an artist with a criminally small following and I thought more people needed to know about it, which ultimately was the whole point of starting AuraLink to begin with. So with that said instead of some fancy ending tagline or ending on a joke I am simply going to very sincerely say I love this song, and I strongly urge you to check it out and follow Kukielle on whatever social media you use to rot your brain. You will not regret it.