Kill the Precedent: lazer metal

Barbed wire and razor coil line the fenced perimeter of Rio Linda’s House of Hits rehearsal studios, tiny spiked blades flickering in the 100-degree sun. Inside the warehouse, “Big Brother,” alias for local dance-metal act Kill the Precedent’s bass player, leads the way through a maze of corridors and numbered doors, which feels like a Motel 6 inside a Costco.

Or a movie version of a clandestine CIA prison. Or the “nicer suites” at Abu Ghraib, maybe. But there’s no waterboarding or stress-position torture in room No. 32: This is where KTP rehearses.

It’s understandable, though, that one might confuse the band with detainees: Inside, KTP drummer “Sgt. Pepper” sets up his kit—very normal—but guitarist “J-Mitch” has a black hood over his head and is cutting holes out for eyes, KTP’s vocalists, “Twig the Exfoliator” and “Ugly American,” looking on. “Hamburger,” KTP’s other guitarist, arrives. Almost everyone has brought beer—which they say is rare.

The band will deny it, but KTP is as close as you’ll get to a Sacramento supergroup. Mitch, Pepper and Twig are members of Red Tape. Some of the guys also used to be in Diseptikons, Shots Fired and Hysterisis Loop. Brother is also electronica artist Tha Fruitbat. Twig is in punk band Hoods.

“Everyone comes from a different background, but we find a common ground, which is pretty cool,” ’Burger explains, but KTP’s sound is anything but common: It fuses dance beats, hardcore vocals, metal guitars and punk drums into an explosion that’s relentlessly loud as all hell and completely unique.

’Burger calls it “dance metal.” Twig agrees he’d dance to it.

The band kills the lights and practice officially begins. Video footage projects onto a wall and runs in sync with KTP’s songs. A clip of Mr. T. waving his finger matches up to one of Pepper’s fiery drum fills. North Korean military footage eerily complements raw industrial riffs and strident vocals.

Brother’s dance beats detonate from the room’s PA speakers. After a short intro, Pepper’s toms and crash cymbals unload, Mitch wielding metal riffs on his Gibson SG and ’Burger offering depth and texture with his ax stylings. Twig and Ugly take turns snarling into the mic, then bring it together, but always with a cool sense of melodic interplay.

Mitch compiled all the awesome video footage and matched it up with the band’s 34-minute set. He says it took forever—“countless hours, bro.”

And the nine-song set never bores. The sixth track is a faster, industrialized cover of the Smith’s “Death of a Disco Dancer,” but with raw, screeching lyrics instead of Morrissey’s famed crooning. The last song, which Twig wrote after reading parts of Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s 2005 book, Freakonomics, speaks to KTP’s anti-corporate aesthetic—though Twig insists they’re “not a political band.”

“[The Sac scene is just] the same old bands doing the same old shit. And we just want do something different,” he says.

The music ends. Beers crack and a few guys bolt outside for a ciggie break. ’Burger notes that KTP has been together for more than two years but will play only its second show this Saturday at Blue Lamp. Twig explains that all their songs are written remotely on computer and that everyone learns their parts before even showing up in a room together. Remarkable.

Because when the six guys do meet up, it’s a groundbreaking, lethal collaboration with teeth that’d rip through any barbed wire or razor coil—or Dick Cheney’s head.