Review Fix Exclusive: Kill Frenzy’s Ryan Wentzel Talks Origin in Music And More

Review Fix chats with Kill Frenzy’s Ryan Wentzel, who discusses the band’s origin, goals for the future, creative process and more.

Review Fix: How did you guys get together?

Ryan Wentzel: We met while we were playing on the local circuit in other bands.  We started playing shows together and then the bands we were in didn’t really work out so we started Kill Frenzy.  

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Wentzel: It involves a lot of weed and whiskey!  Our process is actually very cool, we are all on the same page musically which is great.  In most cases the songs originate from the guitar riffs that are put together by Guthrie.  We then get into a jam space and collectively construct the songs.  In other instances we will come with stuff on the spot, usually while warming up.  You’re like that’s pretty cool and then boom you’re putting together a new song. 

Carl, who is the vocalist, also comes up with really cool guitar pieces.  He just can’t construct a whole song so he gives them over to Guthrie to work with and that usually works pretty well. 

Review Fix: What do you think makes this band special?

Wentzel: We wouldn’t say we are special but we try our best to stay authentic and do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing.  We try to stay away from the “norms”.  There’s a lot of generic shit out there these days and we try our best not to follow any generic way of doing things.  We also like to push a lot of buttons, where most are too afraid to say things how they are.  I guess that kind of makes us a bit special because our roots are grounded and we don’t circum to social trends and agree just because everyone else does. 

Review Fix: How would you describe your style?

Wentzel: It’s difficult to say.  We have a lot of diversity and variation in our songs, coming from a wide range of musical influences. Our stuff doesn’t really make sense musically, if you had to put it on paper. But it makes sense.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this album?

Wentzel: We just want it to be heard far and wide!

Review Fix: What’s the standout song? Is there a story behind it?

Wentzel: It would probably be “No God’s Have Mercy”.  It’s the title track and the first song we ever wrote as Kill Frenzy. When we put the song together, it was one of those moments where we kinda knew this all just felt right as a band and this was what we were all looking for musically. 

Review Fix: What’s next?

Wentzel: Next for us is getting our new stuff together.  We have a lot of material that’s been sitting around a while. We are also very excited to get back into the live swing of things, after all the COVID shit is over, with the possibility of a US tour in 2021 on the cards.