Kerosene 454...

Kerosene 454 is one of my favorite DC related bands and I’ve never really put up anything by them on the blog I realized. Originally formed in 1993, the band released 3 albums along with a few singles in their earlier stages. Those were collected, along with their first album Situation at Hand, on a compilation titled Race on Polyvinyl Records in 1997. Pretty good collection for anyone that doesn’t have those singles, some of the bands best material in my opinion was their earlier stuff. Situation at Hand, in particular, is an amazing album to this day. I honestly don’t know many other bands that wrote as catchy but yet powerful/heavy music as them during that time. The dual guitar force that was Erik Denno and Jim Wall, not only on that record but for the groups entire existence, made it incredibly easy to love the band.

As the group evolved, it became more and more fun to listen to drummer Darren Zentek become almost the centerpiece to the band. On their second album Came By to Kill Me, the band began to move towards that familiar DC Dischord post-hardcore sound opening up the chance to let him do his thing, and boy it shows. Their third and final album At Zero should be owned by anyone that is a fan of post-hardcore. It tied up some of the loose ends from Came By to Kill Me and contained better production along with some of the best songwriting the band ever did. A really really solid album that may fall under the radar these days unfortunately. Check out the tracks below. For the record, I chose to use tracks off of Race for fidelity purposes for the album Situation at Hand and the single posted.

Situation at Hand:
Kerosene 454 – Pointer Ridge [MP3]
Kerosene 454 – Dirt [MP3]

Came By to Kill Me:
Kerosene 454 – Injection [MP3]
Kerosene 454 – T-Minus 100 [MP3]

At Zero:
Kerosene 454 – Negatives [MP3]
Kerosene 454 – In For Even [MP3]

Blown Clean 7’’:
Kerosene 454 – With Age [MP3]

Most of Kerosene 454’s full-lengths are available over at Amazon used. If you dig the tunes then definitely make your way over there and pick up an album or two. After the band split up members went on to be in a number of different bands, notably Oswego which featured both Darren Zentek and Erik Denno, they released some great stuff as well worth checking out. Zentek can currently be found playing drums for Channels.