KINDRED IN 550 WORDS

Photo by Reilly James

Wilmington’s new DIY all-star team, Kindred, is an unbridled, sonically towering group. Kindred may become the most potent sonic assault among Delaware DIY’s community of standout bands. Their first day in the sun was Sunday, March 20, the year of our lord 2022. Having uncapped the bottle on their sprawling post-hardcore riffage and scathing vocal rants, its fair to say the apple hasn't fallen far from the Impetus tree. Kindred is a product of the scene, a linear evolutionary leap. Looking at their lineup, you’d need to pour salt in your eyes to not see why. 

Diego Romero-Aros fronts Kindred, as charismatic and fork-in-an-outlet energetic as ever. Bandleader Romero-Aros’ last outfit; Impetus founders, scene progenitors, and Zine-slingers Merger fell into eternal slumber eons ago. Three years or so, to be approximate but not exact. Diego sings and moves like not a single day has passed, despite tireless efforts as the head honcho at Impetus Records. The freneticism from then is here and now, entirely ready to make people move.

Under Kindred’s hood is what appears to be a freaky friday-esque instrument switch. Death By Indie frontman Declan Poehler and Think Machine drummer Evan Kipp are on opposite instruments in Kindred. Here's the catch: this isn't a side project for either of these talented fellows in any way, shape, form, or function. Declan’s literally been drumming longer than there's been DIY in Wilmington, and Evan's been plucking strings since the early days of Think Machine. Evan's hands do gymnastics across the fretboard and his feet aren't far behind, bouncing around beside Diego. Opposite Evan on guitar, Declan is utterly ridiculous on drums. Declan fires on all cylinders, bathing the band's tunes in shimmering cymbals and electric fills. Its outright baffling, if not appalling, that they managed to hide such vast chops from the scene for so long. Conclusion: these two are both mighty comfortable and comfortably mighty on Guitar and Drums.

But we're overlooking something: there's one more behemoth in this pseudo-supergroup. One more familiar face stepping back into the limelight. If Kindred is a hurricane, Stephen Savage is the eye, straining to see that the chaotic contraption called Kindred is collected, protected and clear of collapse. Clouded by steaming sweat on Bass like a low-end teapot, never quite at a boil, Steven staves off losing a grip on the Kindred engine one second at a time. Breathlessly robust, Kindred couldn't ask for a better anchor.

From the click of drumsticks, Kindred is off to the races. Declan and Evan are chained to their cantankerous groove like cartoon characters roped to a rattling train track, with Steven pulling back the reins for dear life. The whole ensemble seems like it could easily slip from control, like some runaway bullet train, charging around the world at unknown speeds. A runaway train consigned to tear through the ground below and flatten everything in its path. That is the vehicle that this Kindred ensemble can offer their listeners a ride in. For now, we can only drop to our collective knees and beg the rock gods above that Kindred aren't long to bestow us with their melodious ravings across streaming, select basements across the Tri-State area, and a couple hundred discs of beautifully grooved Impetus Records wax.