A Killer's Confession

A war rages inside of a vigilante’s head.
Brought to the brink by a fallen society, he decides to even the score. In essence, he becomes “The
Boogeyman to the Bad Guys.” The most unspeakable and abhorrent abusers fall prey to this anti-hero. In
between dispensing the final words these parasites will ever hear, he looks inward and addresses his own
conscience. Complex feelings flood his internal dialogue.
Are his actions right? Are they wrong? Will he still be worthy of redemption?
Ready to face fate like a man, he doesn’t stop…
Now, this story could easily be ripped from the synopsis of a NETFLIX psychological thriller series. Instead, A
Killer’s Confession tells it out loud on their fourth full-length offering and MNRK Music Group debut LP,
Victim 1. Fronted by vocalist and mastermind Waylon Reavis, the band plunges past the point of no return,
offering a captivating album of melodic hard rock dosed with fits of pummeling metal and insidious industrial.
“A year ago, I was like, ‘What if we have a character who is fed up with the world?’,” recalls Waylon. “In his
heart, he knows what’s going on isn’t right, so he does something about it. On each song, he addresses a
sin—whether in himself or against some horrible person. The conversations are either in his head or with the
victim. You think, ‘If I was a guy who had the ability to find these people, how would I react?’ He’s got to do
this, yet it’s destroying him since he’s truly a kind spirit. He has no regrets though.”
A near-decade journey led to this point. After three seminal albums with Mushroomhead, Waylon retreated
from music, only for it to draw him back in 2016. He resurfaced at the helm of A Killer’s Confession, delivering
three cult favorite albums—Unbroken [2017], The Indifference of Good Men [2019], and Remember [2021].
Along the way, the band tallied tens of millions of streams in addition to collaborating with everyone from
Brian “Head” Welch of Korn and Love And Death to Chad Gray of Mudvayne and HELLYEAH. Joined by bassist
JP Cross, guitarist James Skritch, and duo drums Will Spodnik and Kegan King, they also captivated crowds on
tour.
During 2022, Waylon experienced an epiphany.
“I had never thought about following a concept like this before,” he goes on. “However, I decided to focus,
live up to the name, and be A Killer’s Confession.”
He hit the studio with collaborators and producers Dusty Boles [Make Me Famous] and Evan Mckeever [Nine
Shrines]. Shocking this vision to life, he emerged with the ten-track equivalent of “falling down a YouTube
rabbit hole of unsolved mysteries.”
The single “Greed” revolves around a menacing keyboard loop and a head-nodding guitar stomp. This
whirlwind bleeds into a melodically magnetic chorus, “You take and you take but it’s never enough to satisfy
all your greed.”
“‘Greed’ is one of the Seven deadly sins,” he notes. “I’m not talking to any victim. It’s more of a warning.
Social media is all-encompassing. People get greedy and flex for attention. Other than the band, I try to stay
off social media as much as I can. Everyone flaunts what they have, and followers or ‘friends’ base their lives

on this rat race. Don’t let it get a hold of you. You can’t take any of these material things with you. Personally,
I won’t let it be the death of me.”
On “Martyr,” a slick drumbeat seethes beneath a maelstrom of guitar as Waylon proclaims, “I’d rather be a
martyr for the innocent.”
“The killer is saying, ‘I’m not ashamed of the blood on my hands, and I’ll be a voice for the innocent’,” he
affirms. “He’ll endure the punishment so everybody can be safe.”
Then, there’s “Voices” featuring Aaron Nordstrom of Gemini Syndrome. The maddeningly catchy groove
tosses and turns as Waylon and Aaron ignite an arresting back-and-forth. “Aaron plays one part of the killer’s
brain, and I play the other,” Waylon says. “It’s a Jekyll and Hyde conversation. I’m the good side, and he’s the
other side pushing me.”
Elsewhere, he assumes the vigilante’s voice on “Purpose.” He stares down a pedophile as he promises, “And
I’m not afraid to make a killshot.” During the finale “Wasteland,” danceable electronics stick to a turbulent
sidewinder riff. It tempers a distinct bounce with a bludgeoning crescendo.
“After all is said and done, it could be the wasteland of the killer’s mind or the wasteland of the world that’s
left,” he reveals. “If you take on this burden, you’re left in a wasteland. He won’t take the easy way out
though. Even though he’s beaten down, he’s still going.”
In the end, A Killer’s Confession tells a story you won’t be able to turn away from.
“A Killer’s Confession is all of us,” he leaves off. “It’s not just the band. It’s the people who listen, dive in, and
learn from it. It’s each and every one of us deep inside. We all have killed off something in our lives. I hope
you find some solace in the record. We don’t have to be so divided. We’re more alike than we think we are.”