Review by Dan Perks
Release date: 19 August 2014
King 810 has been kicking up a storm online for a while now with stories about arrests and beatings mixed with videos of festival violence and AK47s on stage. Hailing from the Flint, Michigan, the band has endured a hard upbringing. From unemployment and poverty to gun and knife crime, this influence has created an album of pure rage and anger.
Memoirs Of A Murdereropens with ‘Killem All’ a bold statement of defiance aimed at anyone who gets in the bands way. The lyrics ‘Killem All, Killem All, killem all, gun them down, hang their bodies in the hall’ paint a graphic picture of the kind of environments the band have endured. Throughout Memoirs Of A Murdererthe lyrical theme stays constant: guns, death, violence, prison and fighting to survive.
Instrumentally, the album flits between sombre spoken word pieces and dark ambient melodies to Slipknot-esque riffs and heavy grooves. There is a devastating simplicity to it. It’s heavy without frills and gimmicks. There is a moderate tempo for most of the album that allows the groove to constantly bombard the listener. Vocally David Gunn, sounds like a cross between Mark Hunter from Chimaira and Cory Taylor, the raw guttural sound of man so incensed by aggression he can do little else but let it out in a volcano of rage.
Gunn is clearly one of heavy metal’s angriest men. He is able to tap into personal experiences such as being shot and stabbed in a robbery to create a harrowing and authentic portrait of a life most of us could never begin to understand. Throughout tracks like ‘Boogeyman’ and ‘Anatomy’ you can feel the soul of a tormented man being laid in front of you. This torment and pain is beautifully arranged in ‘Devil Don’t Cry’, a four-minute ballad about how even the darkest men can find solace in something, it’s a heartfelt moment that is tucked away in the middle of a collection of bitter emotions.
Memoirs Of A Murderer is definitely set to build King 810 into one of the most popular bands of 2014. The authenticity and originality of King 810 will resonate with fans that can see through bullshit like it’s a clean window.
8 out of 10
Track listing:
- Killem All
- Best Nite Of My Life
- Murder Murder Murder
- Take It
- Fat Around The Heart
- Treading and Trodden
- Anatomy 1-2
- Eyes
- Desperate Lovers
- Boogeyman
- Devil Don’t Cry
- Anatomy 1-3
- Carve My Name
- War Outside
- Write About Us
- State Of Nature
