Toys That Kill

Toys That Kill came together in 2001 and staged their debut show right after singer/guitarist Todd Congelliere and singer/guitarist Sean Cole closed out their previous project F.Y.P with a final performance the day before. New members drummer Denis Fleps and bassist Casey Ferrara completed the lineup, while Cole—who had covered both drums and bass in F.Y.P—took lead vocals on a handful of tracks and channeled his Slayer-and-Napalm Death schooling into occasional hesher-tinged guitar riffs. The songs stepped back from elementary-school trauma subjects yet remained fiercely immature and proud, and the band also reached for a degree of musicianship that most Recess Records acts tended to view as neither attainable nor especially valuable. Debut full-length The Citizen Abortion stayed close to the F.Y.P template except for Cole’s more metal-leaning contributions. Early 2004 brought the Flys EP on Asian Man Records.