Having just wrapped up their ‘Trash, Blast, Grind Tour’ with the legendary Philip H. Anselmo and The Illegal’s and Osaka metalcore band, Palm, metal royalty King Parrot are off again for a run of regional Victoria shows.
Heading to Sooki Lounge in Belgrave and Geelong’s own The Barwon Club on the weekend of the 31 May and 1 June 2019, and then to Karova Lounge in Ballarat and Pelly Bar in Frankston the weekend of 14 and 15 June 2019, the metal lads are keen to revisit some of their favourite venues with some great talent joining them. Old friends of the band, Frankenbok, Black Rheno and Mason are stepping up to the plate for what is set to be a raucous few shows.
“We usually try to do this kind of stuff once a year at least around regional Victoria. We play wherever we can! We just thought let’s get all of our mates together and play a bunch of shows around Victoria and see how it goes,” laughs vocalist, Matt Young. “We hope the fans will kind of latch onto it and have a great night with us. All of the bands bring something really different to the table so I think it’s going to be a great time!”
Different is right. From the unique rap-influenced aggressive vocals of Black Rheno singer, Ryan Miller, the beast mode of Frankenbok, the cleaner stylings of Mason and the true Aussie fuse of genre-bending stylings from the Parrots, newbies to the audience can expect a wild ride, particularly with their 2018 ARIA-nominated album, ‘Ugly Produce’ filling the set list.
“We’ll always be a band who sort of hasn’t limited ourselves in terms of what our influence is but we’re obviously quite an extreme band and I don’t think King Parrot ever really has too much intention to steer away from that. But we do take influence from punk rock and rock n roll stuff and stoner rock stuff, even proggy stuff, but then we’ve also got thrash metal, grind and death metal influence as well. I guess we’re just sort of happy that we’ve sort of found a sound that we own.”
“We’re a ridiculous band really [laughs]; to watch on stage and see the way that we perform is ridiculous. We’re a high energy band – in your face – but it’s also quite light-hearted and comedic in some elements so it’s a really fun thing to be a part of. We’re just grateful we’ve been able to create this thing that is its own beast that’s bigger than any one of us, and that the fans keep coming out to support us!”
While the show sounds extreme to match the nature of the band, the King Parrot Army (a name spawned from an ever-growing fan-made Facebook group) have recently been praised for their respectful behaviour at shows. A dedicated fan and now friend of the band, Mark Miljons-Rostoks, commended fellow punters for accommodating his medical and wheelchair access requirements in the pit.
“I think there is this strange kind of stereotype – well not strange because if you look at it from a visual aesthetic, you think ‘oh geez I’m not going to go to that because its rough and all these mean looking people are there and they’re all dressed in black and blah blah blah’ – but I think when you go there to a show like ours or any other metal show you find that the people are really friendly and they know each other from going to different shows and they look out for each other and I’m sure everyone likes to party and have a drink or whatever they do at these shows,” Young explains.
“But I think for the most part 95% of the audience is in really great spirits and they’re there for the music and it’s a great culture and I think especially with metal music, there’s not too many friendlier, happier cultures out there. I think the metal crowd has something to be proud of and we’re really glad to be a part of it.”
It seems they will be a big part of that scene for some time to come with a new album in the works and a hell of a lot of love for what they do.
“We’re working on new material at the moment and we’ve all got different ideas that we’re bringing to the table but I think we’ve decided on this next one that we’ll take our time with it and we want to get someone that is an amazing producer that can really help us shape the songs so we can step it up again,” says Young. “We don’t feel like there’s any point in doing the same thing over and over.”
Catch King Parrot at Sooki Lounge, Belgrave – May 31, The Barwon Club Hotel, Geelong – June 1, Karova Lounge, Ballarat – June 14 & Pelly Bar, Frankston – June 15.
Written by Tammy Walters
