Dennis Rader | 5ive Songs

1. Steven Wilson, “Raider II”

💿 Grace for Drowning • 🏷 Steven Wilson • 📅 2011 

“Your mouth is driving me into distraction, you talk too much… / A plague inside your home, I’m raider / Defiling all you own, raider /A cat among the crows, I’m raider /The butcher and his prose, I’m raider.”  BTK. Bind. Torture. Kill.  Wow. Dennis Rader was one of those ‘model citizen’ types, yet he was living a completely different life behind closed doors. Shame on him.

“A fist will make you understand intention
To raise alarm is underhand, so I cut off the phone
I bind you up with tape and catch some TV
It’s getting late, the shadows in the street are watching us.”

🎙 Steven Wilson tackles the infamous BTK Killer on 🎵 “Raider II,” which appears on his 2011 album, 💿 Grace for Drowning.

“Check for fibers in the gaps between the teeth, the floorboards
Check the fingerprints, go through the trash
Maybe I just wanted some attention
Compulsion seeks its own way in rejection of the light
Every story needs to have an ending
We might as well give up all this pretending and clear the air.”

2. Suffocation, “Bind Torture Kill”

💿 Suffocation • 🏷 Relapse • 📅 2006

“I’m damned to be disposed in perpetual fire / Dismantled youth forced and shaped my being / Deafening voices fuel my actions / And drive me to bind torture kill.” BTK. Bind. Torture. Kill.  Wow. 🎙 Suffocation are damn right about one thing – Dennis Rader certainly seems damned to be disposed in perpetual fire.  Rader’s arrogance caused him to be captured after evading it for years. Shame on him.

The New York death metal band serves up their own 🎵 “Bind Torture Kill.” It’s dark, but ask yourself, does this song really compare to the monster’s real-life actions?

“I bind to keep, Torture one to strengthen
And kill the weak who fail to meet the needs
Unstable diagnosis, detained to live a victim of myself
Predestined fate nurtures the act of sinning and drives me to
Bind torture kill.”

3. Suicide Commando, “Bind Torture Kill”

💿 Bind, Torture, Kill • 🏷 Metropolis • 📅 2006 

“Bind torture and kill.” 🎙 Suicide Commando soundtracks BTK with 🎵 “Bind Torture Kill” – fitting.   The Belgian electro-industrial act give “Bind Torture Kill” an incredibly foreboding sound, thanks to a dark, electronic sound palette.  That should be the case, right. Just imagine how the poor, innocent victims of Dennis Rader felt as he was imposing death on them.

“So pretty, so frail
I watch your body turning pale
So fragile, so weak
I didn’t want to be this creep
Soul stripper, soul ripper
I bind her legs, excruciate her
Start bleeding, stop breathing
I take your life, I am defeating.”

4. Church of Misery, “B.T.K. (Dennis Rader)”

💿 Thy Kingdom Scum • 🏷 Rise Above • 📅 2013

Sometimes, a song about a deranged individual doesn’t require lyrics.  It’s safe to say, Dennis Rader was deranged to the nth degree – understatement.  While 🎵 “B.T.K. (Dennis Rader)” by Japanese metal band 🎙 Church of Misery features audio clips of Raider, the band themselves don’t sing.

Church of Misery doesn’t need to offer up any lyrics because the music simply speaks for itself on this opener from their 2013 LP, 💿 Thy Kingdom Scum.  “B.T.K.” is energetic, intense AF, and incredibly unsettling.  This provides the perfect soundtrack to someone known for a serial killing method of bind, torture, and kill.  Jagged guitars, pummeling drums and some Raider clips craft a hellish aesthetic.

5. Exodus, “BTK”

💿 Blood in, Blood Out • 🏷 Nuclear Blast • 📅 2014

“Psycho / Serial Killer / Victim / BTK.” While 🎙 Church of Misery don’t pen any lyrics when sound tracking the monstrous Dennis Rader, fellow metal collective 🎙 Exodus don’t spare him. 🎵 “BTK,” from the thrash metal band’s 2014 album 💿 Blood in, Blood Out, commences with a lengthy intro, which sounds dark and ‘damned’ to the nth degree.  The guitars reek of stench, the bass line rhythmic and driving, while the drumming is athletic, characterized by tom runs and ample cymbal.

Of course, the vocals are something else, expressively capturing the despicable, deceptive person that Rader prove to be.  “Pillar of the community / Leader in the House of the Lord,” 🎙 Steve Souza sings, adding “Wichita giver of the Eucharist / While trolling for another reward.” True, and there’s even more, amplified by darkly poetic lyrics: “Psychotic hunter in orgasmic desire / Tighten the cord, watch the life expire.” Bind, torture, kill was Dennis’ jam… awful, awful, awful!  Exodus – well – they totally nail it right?