By Mary Chang on Wednesday, 8th November 2017 at 6:00 pm
To Kill a King have some exciting news for us! The London group have announced details of their third album. ‘The Spiritual Dark Age’ is due out on the 12th of January 2018 on These Are My Bones via AWAL and Republic Of Music and is the follow-up to their 2015 self-titled sophomore album. The LP is described by frontman Ralph Pelleymounter like this: “;The Spiritual Dark Age’ is the last three years of my life painstakingly distilled into 40 minutes of music”. Hmm, this could be a heart-wrencher, couldn’t it?
They’ve recently released the promo video for the album’s title track. True to its name, the promo video for the title track starts in…yes, a temple. But don’t worry, the song isn’t a dirge. Action quickly moves from the temple to follow a monk’s journey from forsaking his calling to return to normal life. Things start pretty peachy but as you know, there’s the word ‘dark’ in the title of the song, so… I won’t spoil it for you, watch the video for ‘The Spiritual Dark Age’ below. To catch up on our past coverage here on TGTF on To Kill a King, follow this link.
By Mary Chang on Wednesday, 10th May 2017 at 6:00 pm
It’s a big week for group To Kill a King. Starting tomorrow, the London five-piece are set to begin a series of three shows in the capital, all at different locations. As previewed back here in February, To Kill a King perform at Borderline in Soho tomorrow night (supported by Josh Savage), Oslo in Hackney Friday night (supported by Eliza Shaddad) and Omeara in central London (supported by Fours).
They’ve also released a new song and video to preview upcoming third album. Single ‘The Good Old Days’, which is available now, follows ‘The Problem of Evil’ a few months ago. To call the promo ‘unconventional’ is putting it mildly. I have to admit that while I’m writing this up Tuesday night, I am pretty rattled by what is going on politically here in America, so I’m going to leave this here and let you make up your mind yourself! Watch the video for ‘The Good Old Days’ below. To Kill a King’s third album, whose name we still don’t know at the moment, is expected to be released this autumn. To catch up on our previous coverage of the Londoners here on TGTF, go here.
By Carrie Clancy on Saturday, 18th February 2017 at 9:00 am
Five-piece rock band To Kill a King have just announced a series of three live shows in London this May, just ahead of festival season. They also recently unveiled a dramatic new track titled ‘The Problem Of Evil’, which is set to appear on their upcoming third LP, due out later this year. You can check out the promo video for ‘The Problem of Evil’, starring Ruby Bentall, at the bottom of this page. Keyboard player Ben Jackson spoke of the newly announced shows in the context of recording the band’s forthcoming album:
For the last year we’ve been locked in small windowless rooms with nothing but each other for company. So as you can imagine we are super excited to announce these May shows. It’s been too long since we played in London, the venues are all nice intimate rooms with great sound and playing three dates means that we can do three different setlists. We’ll be unleashing our new tunes as well as playing the old favourites and we can’t fucking wait.
The first show of To Kill a King’s “London tour” will take place at Soho’s Borderline, which is currently closed for refurbishment but scheduled to reopen next month. Hackney’s Oslo will host the second show of the sequence, and the final show will be held at Omeara, a new central London venue opened late last year by Mumford and Sons‘ Ben Lovett.
Tickets for the following gigs are available now. TGTF’s past coverage of To Kill a King, including a review of their 2015 self-titled album, is right back this way.
Thursday 11th May 2017 – London Borderline
Friday 12th May 2017 – London Oslo
Saturday 13th May 2017 – London Omeara
By Carrie Clancy on Monday, 2nd March 2015 at 12:00 pm
To Kill a King are a band who believe in taking advantage of an opportune moment. At the end of 2014, after a full year of touring and with the release of their EP ‘Exit Pursued by a Bear’, the London-based group found themselves at bit of a crossroads. They begin 2015 with a new LP, the self-titled ‘To Kill a King’ that, while not a debut album, marks a new beginning for the band in more ways than one.
The band initially self-released their real debut album, 2013’s ‘Cannibals With Cutlery’, but their subsequent signing with Xtra Mile Recordings allowed both a full re-release of that album and expanded touring opportunities that spread their music to a much wider audience. As frontman Ralph Pelleymounter says in the press release for ‘To Kill a King’, the band wrote the new album with a bright future in mind. “On reflection, the first album does sound like a debut. This (new album) is the band coming into its stride.” And these are songs sound designed to be played on a bigger stage.
Their ambitions might have been thwarted by the recent departure of bass player Josh Platman, who announced on the 10th of February that he was leaving the band for personal reasons. But seemingly undaunted, the remaining members of To Kill A King (Pelleymounter, Grant McNeill on electric guitar, Ben Jackson on synth and keys and Josh Taffel on drums) have filled Platman’s slot with bassist Peter Hakola and forged ahead with the album release as well as their scheduled March headline dates in Europe and the UK. (Find a full listing of live shows on the band’s Web site.)
With a firmly established “carpe diem” mentality, the band have managed to avoid the curse of the sophomore album with ‘To Kill a King’, continuing their evolution away from the seminal folk rock sound that led to their early association with Communion Records. The songs on this album are dynamically expansive but dramatically concise, bursting at the seams with compelling choruses and striking instrumental bridges. The 11 tracks play through at a remarkably fast pace, smoothly shifting gears between anthemic refrains and quieter moments without ever losing their sense of forward momentum.
Opening track ‘Compare Scars’ moves quickly from a sparse and introspective introduction to the driving pulse and power chords of the chorus “I know it’s hard when they’re calling your name / but keep your head straight, keep your head straight”. Similarly, the LP’s lead single ‘Love Is Not Control’ belies its own title with an anxiously quick tempo and tense, repeated lyrical clips.
Pelleymounter’s expressive baritone is highlighted on standout track ‘Oh My Love’, which I described previously in my review of the ‘Exit, Pursued by a Bear’ EP. He demonstrates a solid falsetto in ‘The Chancer’ (streaming below), where the relentless intensity of the album backs off for a brief moment with the distantly echoed chorus “and the beat goes on my friends / life’s endless drum”. The bass groove and guitar riff of ‘Grace at a Party’ ratchet up the drama again as Pelleymounter sings about unexpectedly running into an ex-lover.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/_xwKin_mNt8[/youtube]
Penultimate track ‘World of Joy (A List of Things to Do)’ and brief final clip ‘Today’ brought a surprised smile to my face with their disarmingly buoyant instrumental arrangements and light-hearted lyrics. Focusing once again on the theme of living in the present moment, To Kill a King have here, and on the album as a whole, fully realized their intention “to be more optimistic and more life-affirming”. The bold intensity and clear musicality of ‘To Kill A King’ should give them even more reason to feel optimistic about their progress as a band and the direction they’ve chosen to take.
8.5/10
‘To Kill A King’ is out today on Xtra Mile Recordings. Just after the release, the band will begin a run of live dates in the UK.
By Mary Chang on Tuesday, 13th January 2015 at 6:00 pm
What’s up with all these boxing themed videos lately? To Kill a King‘s newest promo is for ‘Love is Not Control’, which appears as track #2 on their second and self-titled album out the 2nd of March 2015 on Xtra Mile Recordings. In the song, the guitar rhythm is engaging, singer Ralph Pelleymounter’s voice has never sounded better in his rapid fire delivery. Not really sure what the deal is with the boxing ring and the fighting but…there you have it. Watch it below.
By Mary Chang on Monday, 15th December 2014 at 6:00 pm
London-based band To Kill a King have a unique and elegant lyric video for ‘Love is Coal’. The solemn track appears the band’s latest EP ‘Exit, Pursued by a Bear’, released this autumn.
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