Dig Out the Switch

“Dazzling Killmen, we always felt alone,” Darin Gray, bassist for the cult-favorite early-’90s St. Louis-area post-hardcore band, once said, reflecting on their general sense of alienation from any kind of regional or national scene. Their debut album — originally released on the obscure French label Intellectual Convulsion and newly reissued in 2025 via Skin Graft — shows that in retrospect, that isolation may have been a creative asset. Through marathon practices and an eclectic array of influences ranging from the Minutemen to Captain Beefheart, the trio of guitarist-vocalist Nick Sakes, bassist Darin Gray and drummer Blake Fleming honed a bizarre yet entirely coherent sound that landed somewhere between explosive post-hardcore and labyrinthine prog. The band would reach peak compositional brilliance on 1994’s Face of Collapse, but standout tracks here — such as “Dig the Hole,” powered by Gray’s driving triplet bass line; “Torture,” with its whiplash accents and dizzying tempo shifts; elaborate instrumental “Here Comes Mr. Big Face”; and “Code Blue,” an epic album closer full of dynamic intrigue — demonstrate an already potent and fully formed aesthetic.