Soft Kill has a legacy of crossing the boundaries across musical genres and revitalizing concert spaces with their creative synthesis. Onstage, they bring their post-punk and experimental rock style to metal, touring and collaborating with bands like Skeletonwitch and Portrayal of Guilt. Tobias Grave, the band's founder and lead singer/songwriter, says in his interview with Randal Wark on Montreal Rocks that, "When I talk about this genre of music, and a lot of the bands that are influential [...] so much of it feels very meaningless." To Grave, deep meaning is what makes brilliant songs. For Soft Kill, the message isn't just an appendage to the music -- it's the whole purpose. Many of their songs focus on mental health, suicide and addiction, as well as the pain and isolation that comes with them. Perhaps because their songs are so personal and message-driven, their music and videos have a cinematic quality that serves the story being told.

Soft Kill has been spearheaded by Grave over the years, but other members have changed over time. Early on, band members included Shiloe Alia, Justin Gradin and Mattey Hunter. Together, they worked on Soft Kill's 2011 debut album, An Open Door. After the album was published, Soft Kill went quiet until 2014. With their revival, the new band members included Conrad Vollmer on the guitar, Owen Glendower on bass and keyboard, and Maxamillion Avila on drums.

Live in concert, Soft Kill shines with their deep vocals and bass lines. Their shows are infused with a danceable energy and deep, cleansing emotion. Watching them perform onstage has a quality and unbridled catharsis that records just can't reproduce.

Soft Kill Live in Concert

Soft Kill is a post punk/alternative band based in Portland, Oregon. The band originally was formed by Tobias Grave in San Diego under the name Blessure Grave, before switching to Soft Kill. In 2011, the band took a break while Grave struggled with health issues, before starting back up again in 2014.

The band's reincarnated name, Soft Kill, is a reference to a divide and conquer war tactic. For Grave, tackling addiction -- a personal battle he is intimately familiar with -- required dividing and conquering. It wasn't possible for him to overcome everything at once, especially not while focusing his attention on music or family life. A critical part of his recovery came when he checked himself into rehab on his own terms, setting aside other fights.

The band's musical influences range from Tom Petty to U2, the Replacements, Joy Division, The Cure, The Chameleons, Metallica, and The Psychedelic Furs. Their albums include 2011's An Open Door, 2015's Heresy, 2016's Choke, 2018's Savior, and 2020's Dead Kids R.I.P. City.