Killing The Dream
Fractures

Sacramento is not exactly the first city that comes to mind when planning a Californian trip. Sure, it’s the capital of the Golden State, but unless you're a fan of the Kings and basketball in general, it has little to offer. You can calmly sum it up with two adjectives: aseptic and stale.

In such a climate, in 2002, four guys led by Elijah Horner came together and created Killing The Dream. Active right from the start with EP’s and compilations, they debuted on Deathwish Inc. with “In Place, Apart”, an excellent work that hints at many potentials. Three years later, they reorganized, the line-up changed [Dj Rogers and Patrick Guild appeared on guitars], and at the starting blocks, there was a new full-length: Fractures.

The hardcore of Killing The Dream is genuine, spontaneous, and from the first listen, the passion and heart put into each composition can be sensed. It’s a venomous and exasperated rasp from Elijah Horner, as if there were no remedy anymore, or rather, the ultimate solution is to pour oneself into sharp vocal lines that can wound like sharp claws. Few moments to breathe. An apnea. The beat is pounding, and the adrenaline pulses incessantly in the veins. A vortex of "in your face" riffs interweaves with more eclectic solutions, and personal dramas with a certain underlying nihilism and an alienating rage surface vehemently. Unrestrained, in a storm where peace is represented by melodic concessions that open up to a nostalgic horizon dominated by torn emotions.

4 minutes and 23 seconds. That’s the duration of “Resolution”, the final track of “Fractures”, which encompasses the thought of Killing The Dream. It acts as a curtain, the same one that the Sacramento band will lower three years later, after the release of “Lucky Me” [2010]. The farewell is scheduled for July 2011 at the 924 Gilman Street, Berkeley, where they held the final show to bid a definitive farewell to the scene; all with a bitter tear for the fans losing one of the best acts in the modern hardcore scene. You can still go to Elk Grove, California, more precisely to Edward Harris Junior Middle School, which today is the only place where you can find Elijah shouting, naturally, towards some disrespectful student ignoring his history lesson.

“We walk in circles. We love in circles. We talk in circles. We live in circles. I can't live like this. I can't live like this. I can't keep living this.”