
Tony’s #4: Belephegor, Shining and Origin at the Gramercy Theater
Tony’s #4: Belephegor, Shining and Origin at the Gramercy Theater
Editor’s Note: In the wacky world of publishing, some stories don’t see the light of day. Whether they sit on the backburner until they become irrelevant, positions change hands or they just plain get cut, it’s just one of those things. Today, one of those unpublished articles will finally get its due as we traverse the archives of “The Vault.”
When Superjoint (formerly known as Superjoint Ritual) got booked only 40 minutes from me I was pretty curious. I’ve been a fan of Phil Anselmo’s work for many years and while I don’t like Superjoint as much as Down, Pantera, Viking Crown or Necrophagia; I do find Superjoint to be a fun project and way better then The Illegals. When I got to the venue I bought a ticket off of Kurt from Blast Furnace (the show’s local opener). After talking to a bunch of fellow metalheads at the door, they finally opened up and the show began.
Blast Furnace
First band on was Middletowns own Blast Furnace, who play really heavy old school death metal. Being from the area, I’d seen them play several times before and they are always a fun watch. Blast Furnace is definitely a band from middle to upper New York worth checking out.
Fulgora
Next up was one of several Housecore Records artists (including the headliner) Fulgoria. As mentioned in my Maryland Deathfest 2015 article, this band plays some sort of sludgy death metal. Album-wise I’m not a huge fan of the band but just like MDF they performed well.
Child Bite
Around this time the show started getting crowded. Because of this,the venue opened up the balcony. Child Bite plays some kind of weird post-hardcore. The set was mostly boring except when they covered “My War,” my favorite Black Flag song.
King Parrot
I have always heard hype about this band. Even at the show my friends Cheyenne, Mercedes and Ray all talked about how excited they were to see them and how over-the-top they are. Throughout the whole set vocalist Matt “Youngy” Young was wearing nothing but pants that were too big for him and shoes. This caused his ass to be seen during the whole set (not making this up). He would also spray the audience with water over and over. King Parrot played a mix of thrash, sludge and grindcore with vocals that were just high pitched squawks. These guys were the second best band of the night (the first seems obvious).
Superjoint
It was finally time to see the main act of the night. Superjoint’s sound is a little hard to describe. They play very short thrashy songs with sludgy riffs. This is mainly because Anselmo hates the use of subgenres – something he mentioned at the show. I was stoaked when he praised Blast Furnace and laughed when he bashed MetalSucks.
Superjoints energy was intense. They had a great set playing classics like “Fuck Your Enemy,””Dress like a Target” and “Ozena.” They also randomly covered “My Sharona” by The Knack. Sadly no Pantera songs were played but seeing Superjoint was good enough on its own… so good it made a random guy shit his pants (seriously).
It’s time to grind with King Parrot’s maniac frontman Matt “Youngy” Young. Young chats about Game of Thrones, road life, past jobs and a whole lot more.
When one finds a band that sells a t-shirt bearing the words “I’m not here to fuck spiders,” it’s safe to say they have no idea what they’re in for.
That band is King Parrot; a destructive grindcore act from the hardcore pubs of southern Australia who is bestowing their sophomore album entitled “Dead Set” on Pantera and Down’s legendary front man Phil Anselmo’s (who also produced the release) Housecore Records.
The album kicks off with “Anthem of the Advanced Sinner.” If you’re familiar with King Parrot’s music the difference in production is night and day compared to their first album “Bite Your Head Off.” The clarity of each individual member is striking and it goes to show what a difference a larger budget and ample amounts of time can make.
“Dead Set” progresses deeper into darkness with “Need No Saviour,” “Hell Comes Your Way” and “Like a Rat,” boasting speed and relentless grind with true precision and technicality. The plunge then goes further with “Tomorrow Turns to Blood” and “Home is Where the Gutter is” when the grind becomes blackened and sludgy. The songs slowly start to accumulate grooves in all the right places, twisting King Parrot into form.
“Sick in the Head” and “Punisher” shake things up a bit by starting with thrash laden riffs before taking some groove oriented turns at Albuquerque. One of the best things about King Parrot is that their music is all over the place, never sticking to the same formula twice. We could be looking at the first “progressive grindcore” band – if ever there could be such a thing.
Although every musician has bolstered their repertoire on Dead Set, no one has improved more than vocalist Matt “Youngy” Young. Youngy’s voice has gotten significantly higher (which he attributes to quitting cigarettes) and more ferocious at that. Whereas Youngy sonically was a bit more like Steve “Zetro” Souza (Exodus) on “Bite Your Head Off,” he’s much more in the vein of Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates, Lock Up) on “Dead Set.”
The final two songs “Reject” and the title track combine everything that King Parrot have done so far on “Dead Set” and then crank it up a few notches for good measure. The title track not only revolves around a blackened breakdown, but it also clocks in at six minutes and 49 seconds; the longest song King Parrot has ever recorded to date.
King Parrot continues to be unpredictable with “Dead Set” and have clearly gone a long way from playing locally to tens of people. With the added experience from the success of “Bite Your Head Off,” the band has musically matured for the better and it shows on every crevice of “Dead Set”.
After all, they’re not here to fuck spiders.