King is a blackened death metal band from Australia who recently released "Fury and Death" on Soulseller Records. Dave, the primary song writer and guitarist, took time to speak with Exquisite Death. 

King's new album "Fury and Death" recently came out. I sense inspiration coming from the 90's Scandinavian metal sound. Were you setting out to capture some of these sounds on the new album?  

Oh yeah! Some of my favorite music is from that era! I wouldn’t say we were setting out on capturing those sounds really, I think all the musical influences over the years come out in the writing process naturally and shape the sound. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel in KING, we’re playing music that we love to create and play and something that connects to our spirit in some way. We’re mainly writing for ourselves, first, and if other people enjoy it too and it connects to their spirit, then that's awesome and something special we can share with them. 

As a band that seems to have these old influences, what do you think it is about these older bands that still resonate with fans of extreme music today?

For me, a lot of those older bands like the 90’s Scandinavian bands, or even early 2000’s seemed so new and fresh at the time. It was a hotspot in time and also geographically, with this new and fresh sound emerging and creating something unique. As a fan it was like a scramble to find the next killer band and be blown away. I remember I worked at a record label warehouse and would read through all the “thanks lists” in booklets, and then go to track down any bands mentioned in there in hope of discovering a new gem! It seemed like a time of great inspiration. Similar to a decade earlier with the late 80’s death metal stuff, like Morbid Angel, Carcass, Bolt Thrower etc.  I have a very sentimental connection to those times and perhaps thats what resonates with lots of fans of extreme music. 

You are the band's guitarist and main song writer.  What is your approach to writing the music? 

I have to feel connected to the song, riff or idea, that's the main thing. I want to lose track of time, and forget about the outside world when creating music, I want to be on the journey within the song you know. I always feel I’m on the right path if I experience that during the creative process. I usually work best solo, at least to flesh out and arrange the songs to a demo stage. Beyond that,Tony’s lyrics and Dave Haley’s drum takes provide further inspiration and usually result in some changes and enhancements when I track the final guitar parts. Its quite a separated writing/recording process, each member doing their part solo in a way, I haven’t done it quite so separately in past bands but it works really well like that for King. 

I saw that you handled recording your guitars for "Fury and Death". How was the process different this time around recording yourself compared to your previous releases? How do you go about finding the perfect tone you are searching for? 

Ah yes, it had its good sides and bad sides.  I enjoyed being able to record the guitars in my own time, when I felt inspired, and take longer than I usually would,  without the time and money restrictions of a studio. But it was a challenge too, in that I missed the input of a good sound engineer/producer, with a good ear for top quality takes and the ability to be very direct about the takes/sounds/tones etc. I often found I kept doing more and more takes and getting way too focused on tiny little nuances that would be unnoticeable to anyone else, which slowed down the process a lot at times and became frustrating.  
For this album, I left a lot of the tone choice to our magician of a mixer Joe Haley. I have have limited recording skills, so I played to my strengths and only focused on tracking the best a clearest signal takes I could manage and sent the files to Joe at Crawlspace Productions in Tasmania, and let him re-amp the signals through anything he thought suitable. He is familar with King’s sound from working on the first two records, so I was totally comfortable handing that side of it over to him. 

The album artwork on "Fury and Death" is beautiful. Was this created specifically for the band's release? I feel it accompanied the music quite nicely. 

Thanks!  Yes it was created for the album by a fantastic Australian artist Mitchell Nolte. We sent him 4 songs with a rough mix and lyrics for inspiration, he quite quickly sketched out some ideas which were absolutely already on the right path and then fleshed them out into the final piece. We’re very happy with it. 

What do you think are important attributes of your lyrics that convey what King is all about? 

I think good story telling is a key factor,  a little bit of mystery, some cryptic elements too always help draw the listener in to King’s world.  King’s lyrics centre around concepts that have always been a part of humankind’s existence and philosophizing… such as the wonder of nature, the universe, our own mortality and the connections in between all those. 

I see you handled recording the vocals as well on this album. Is recording  another passion of yours beyond writing the music? It seems with this technology available to many artists now more people are handling this themselves. 

I do like recording to some degree, really only the basics and pre production demos and stuff. The current technology and gear available means it's pretty easy to get together a half decent set up at home. Handling some of the recording for the album gives us a little more freedom and control in some areas, but I definitely know my limit and keep it simple then hand it over to the professionals for the real work!  We’re also lucky enough to have some great people around us, who lend us their studios full of fantastic gear which definitely helps too. I don’t think I’ll make it a full time career though, I don’t have the patience to learn and get my skills up an acceptable standard, I’ll stick with writing the music. 

What do you think sets Australia apart from other scenes around the world? Minus the major acts from there I'm only aware of a few others. 

There’s always been a pretty solid underground metal/punk scene here, and our home city Melbourne, has always had a great live music scene, with heaps of venues supporting local musicians and bands. I’m not super familiar with details of other scenes around the world. I guess Australia over all has a smaller metal scene than many countries in Europe, but its a pretty close knit community here, with bands, venues and promoters helping each other out and supporting each other where possible…which are pretty good ingredients for a healthy scene. There’s always new bands emerging and some really great, international quality well established bands too. 

King is going on 10 years as a band. How has it evolved over the years? What is the most important thing you've learned as an artist during that time? 

I’d like to think we’ve progressed and matured in song writing and arranging, I think this can be heard when listening back through the back catalogue. As an artist personally, I’ve learned to be able to take a step back and take some planned time off when writing, to get perspective on the progress. I’ve found I always then come back to the songs with fresh ears and a strong sense of clarity on how to move forward. Overall I reckon this has equated to a better outcome. 


Australia is home to many dangerous creatures. How does someone stay safe with so many deadly things about? 

Haha, to be honest its nothing I’ve ever really considered although I’ve heard it mentioned before. I try to live life in harmony with all creatures on the planet, with equal parts curiosity and respect for each animals' purpose. Maybe this has saved me from certain death all these years!

Thanks for your time! 

www.facebook.com/oneworldoneking
​www.soulsellerrecords.com ​