Kings Destroy Premiere “Dead Before” Lyric Video
A couple weeks ago, New York’s Kings Destroy offered up a French-language version of the track “Dead Before,” taken from their latest album, 2019’s Fantasma Nera (review here), on Svart Records. It’s a fair enough track for them to try something new with, since the song itself was a turn from the hard-crunch norm they’ve established throughout the band’s decade-plus tenure. Steve Murphy speaks French, and the song’s mellow verses are suited to the translation, so sure, “Éveiller” it is — though even my took-it-in-high-school-level knowledge of the language is enough to notice that the new title ends in ‘-er’ so it’s most likely a verb infinitive. Sure enough, “Éveiller” is “to awaken.” A bit more fluid than “Mort Avant,” I’ll grant.
But having recently unveiled that in a lyric video, they would seem to be well within their rights to follow-up with a companion piece for “Dead Before” proper, and that’s where we’re at today. If you haven’t already turned yourself on to Fantasma Nera, it’s the best work Kings Destroy have done. Honestly. I’ve written a lot about them over the last 11 years, and while we’re being sincere, I have sentimental attachment to all four of their records, but speaking as objectively as I can about them, there really isn’t a level on which they didn’t outdo themselves in those tracks, save maybe for raw impact, which they made up for in the complexity and the depth of the material. And they were still plenty heavy.
I don’t know what the future holds for these guys. Bassist Aaron Bumpus has relocated to the West Coast. Murphy is here and there between NYC and Ireland. Drummer Rob Sefcik, like a lot of New Yorkers, left the city to avoid the plague. Guitarists Carl Porcaro and Chris Skowronski are still there, and I know from talking to the latter that there’s been new stuff in the works, but golly, rehearsing would seem to have become complicated. Logistics’ll bite you. Of course, this is the future, so home recording, trading files, blah blah. Kings Destroy have never struck me as that kind of outfit — they’ve always been a band-in-a-room kind of band, if that makes any sense — but one certainly knows from past experience, including this song, that they don’t shy away either from a challenge or from trying new ways of working.
Enjoy the video and be ready to have the hook on repeat in your head for the rest of however long:
Kings Destroy, “Dead Before” lyric video premiere
Carl Porcaro on “Dead Before”:
This song represents a number of firsts for Kings Destroy. It’s the first time we explored this type of sound, and the first time lyrics for one of our songs were written by someone who isn’t in the band. Dead Before’s lyrics were written by Anthony Drago, who I play with in the bands in Killing Time, Breakdown and Gordita Beach. Éveiller (aka Dead Before) also happens to be the first time one of our songs was sung in a language other than English. Our singer Steve learned French as a kid, having grown up with exchange students that his family took in from France, and something about this song inspired him. After we recorded it, he decided to translate the lyrics and cut an alternate version in his second language. When I sent Drago the lyric video for the French version he was a bit shocked and confused, so we ran a second one with the original version of the song, sung in English. This one’s for you Drago, and we hope everyone else digs it too.
Fantasma Nera is out now on Svart Records: https://svartrecords.com/?s=kings+destroy
Buy the record, “Fantasma Nera”: https://kingsdestroy.bandcamp.com/
Check out our webstore: https://kings-destroy-webshop.myshopify.com/
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kingsdestroy_band/
Kings Destroy is Aaron Bumpus (bass), Stephen Murphy (vocals), Carl Porcaro (guitar), Rob Sefcik (drums) and Chris Skowronski (guitar).
