At first I was none too sure about reviewing a King Parrot album. The band’s music seemed, at first glance, to be so inextricably linked to the absurdly entertaining videos that are paired with them that any attempt to review the music in isolation would be redundant. However, for all its mind-numbing brutality, a more careful observation of tracks such as ‘shit on the liver’ highlights a dark groove that underpins the swirling miasma of noise and even (whisper it) a subtle stab at melody that keeps the music memorable without sacrificing the sonic devastation that is the band’s primary stock in trade. ‘Ugly produce’ us the band’s third album, following on from 2015’s ‘Dead set’, and it dispatches its ten tracks with an expediency that would make even Slayer blink, the record clocking in at a relentless twenty-seven minutes in length. Any longer, and it’s fair to say that even a hardened grind fan might find themselves worn down by the band’s coruscating assault, and it seems King Parrot are keen to leave the listener with at least some semblance of their fraying sanity intact.
Opening with the frantic ‘entrapment’ sets the tone for the record admirably. Slatts’ bass remains a devilish stodge that adds low end weight to the white noise of Mr White and Squiz. Over it all, Matthew Young delivers his vocals from a dark place that suggests he’s trying to exorcise real, physical pain. It is Matthew who provides the band with a distinctive personality, his vocals recognisably unique where so many would opt for identikit grunting. Wasting no time the band leap straight into the hellish cauldron of hate that is ‘Piss wreck’, a track that veers between the sonic white out of the verse and a brutal chorus that, somewhat incongruously, you can imagine the audience screaming along to at live shows. ‘Disgrace yourself’ (the band’s motto?) sounds like someone threw Bon Scott-era AC/DC into a cement mixer with Slayer and left it running in the blazing mid-day sun. Gloriously unpleasant, it retains that scampish sense of fun that runs through the videos, and it’s quite possible that the more impressionable members of the band’s audience may take Matthew’s command to “disgrace yourself” as an irrevocable command and do just that. ‘All hail the grub’ sees the band once again pair a brilliantly addictive chorus to the most unhinged of sonic frenzies before the first half of the record reaches its punch drunk conclusion with ‘ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag’ (see video), a feedback strewn wrecking ball of a track that sounds like High on Fire played at hyper speed.
Kicking off the second half of the record, ‘scattered’ is two and half minutes of primal thrash noise delivered at breakneck speed only for ‘now it stokes frenzy’ to take things a step further into the realms of the ludicrous with its potent, blackened grind recalling the likes of Autopsy. It’s back to speaker-wrecking thrash with the insanely addictive ‘numb skull’, three minutes of fret-board wrecking metal built around Todd Hansen’s stunning performance on the drums. Steadfastly refusing to even contemplate slowing the pace, ‘die before you die’ would undoubtedly be threatening if you could unpick a single word from the lyrical smear Matthew unleashes before ‘spookin’ the animals’ emerges from the sound of nervous farmyard creatures with buzzsaw guitars and Matthew offers up one last diatribe, his strangled yelp giving way to a deathly roar that makes for gloriously uneasy listening. Quite what he plans to do to the animals remains open to debate, but it’s quite likely that at least a few chickens were internally marinated during the process of recording the album.
There’s no real, rational way to score a King Parrot album and it’s hard to imagine anyone having mixed feeling about the music – simply, you either love it or hate it. Musically the band are tight and proficient and they have perfected a strain of thrash-infused grind that has more personality than most and so, with that in mind, the album receives either a 1 or a 10 depending upon your perspective! If you are indeed a grind fan, talk tight with yourself and buy this album… you wouldn’t want to ruin a good day, now would you? 10 (and / or 1 – but if that’s the case, go listen to Celine Dion or something)
King Parrot live:
(with Decapitated, Thy Disease and Venom Prison*)
Mon 16.10.2017 – Berlin @ Musik & Freiden, GER
Tue 17 Oct 2017 – Hamburg @ Logo, GER
Wed 18 Oct 2017 – Cologne @ MTC, GER
Thu 19 Oct 2017 – Karlsruhe @ Die Stadtmitte, GER
Fri 20 Oct 2017 – Dresden @ Chemiefabrik, DE
Sat 21 Oct 2017 – Prague @ Futurum, CZ
Mon 23 Oct 2017 – Vienna @ Szene, AT
Tue 24 Oct 2017 – Munich @ Backstage, GER
Wed 25 Oct 2017 – Geneva @ L’Usine, CH
Thu 26 Oct 2017 – Zurich @ Club Complex, CH
Fri 27 Oct 2017 – Milan @ Legend, IT
Sat 28 Oct 2017 – Bologna @ Zona Roveri, IT
Mon 30 Oct 2017 – Barcelona @ Salamandra, ES
Tue 31 Oct 2017 – Murcia @ Garaje Beat Club, ES
Wed 01 Nov 2017 – Madrid @ Sala Caracol, ES
Fri 03 Nov 2017 – Niort @ L’Alternateur, FR
Sat 04 Nov 2017 – St Germain En Laye @ La Clef, FR
Sun 05 Nov 2017 – Haarlem @ Patronaat, NL
Mon 06 Nov 2017 – Sint-Niklaas @ De Casino, BEL
Wed 08 Nov 2017 – Norwich @ Waterfront, UK
Thu 09 Nov 2017 – Nottingham @ Rescue Rooms, UK
Fri 10 Nov 2017 – Bristol @ Thekla, UK
Sat 11 Nov 2017 – Birmingham @ Academy 2, UK
Sun 12 Nov 2017 – Portsmouth @ Wedgewood Rooms, UK
Mon 13 Nov 2017 – Stoke @ Sugarmill, UK
Tue 14 Nov 2017 – Glasgow @ Classic Grand, UK
Wed 15 Nov 2017 – Leeds @ Key Club, UK
Thu 16 Nov 2017 – Manchester @ Academy 3, UK
Fri 17 Nov 2017 – London @ Underworld, UK
*Venom Prison – UK dates only.
