King Bastard Stream It Came From the Void in Full; Album out Friday
Stony Brook, New York’s King Bastard release their debut full-length, It Came From the Void (review here), this Friday, Jan. 14. It’s an all-over-the-place kind of affair, the four-piece laying claim to swaths of stylistic ground with an encouraging confidence and maybe just a hint or two of we’re-doing-this-because-we’re-doing-it-and-screw-you arrogance. Bolstered by a Colin Marston co-engineering job with guitarist Mike Verni, the procession of tracks one into the next is too fluid and too purposeful in its weirdness not to be progressive, though it’s hardly prog for its own sake. From its samples and intricate deviations from the stylistic norm, King Bastard‘s first LP plays out across 45 minutes that makes short work of its ambitions toward individualism, harnessing familiar elements in jumbled fashion like they’re about to say the alphabet sideways. How does that even happen? Hell if I know.
Laced with harsh sax and low distortion, “Psychosis (in a Vacuum)” is jarring and noisy after the more subdued “Kelper-452b” and the suitably wide-ranging opener “From Hell to Horizon,” and the outward 
motion continues through the initial roll of “Bury the Survivors/Ashes to Ashes,” which unfurls its doom into an astral jazz that seem to melt the brain until it oozes into the ensuing wah of “Black Hole Viscera,” the band save their most engrossing hypnotic expanse for “Succumb to the Void,” which takes its earlier grunge first to a prog-metal onslaught and then at last to a long drone — the titular void, presumably — that gets topped by an out-of-body sample and filled out with a brief stretch of acoustic guitar before ending.
Some records try to take you on a journey. Others go and challenge you to keep up. I guess King Bastard are somewhere in between on their debut album, and where they might go from here I wouldn’t even hazard speculation. What’s most notable about it — aside from the basic “it’s very heavy” blah blah — is that just because the listener has no idea what’s coming next doesn’t necessarily mean the band aren’t working from a plan. They know, and that fact makes their potential all the more palpable, as well as the ease with which they shift through varying modes of expression and arrangement, instrumental or not, structured or open, whatever it may be. I think It Came From the Void is going to go over heads and under radars in some ways because (1:) it’s way-gone and (2:) its way more individualized than the album’s title or the name of the band would lead one to believe, but the brazen nature in which they capture such a scope isn’t to be understated or overlooked. They might be onto something.
It Came From the Void is streaming in full below. Please enjoy.
Debut album ‘It Came From The Void’ out January 14th on CD and digital (S/R) – Preorder here: https://kingbastardtheband.bandcamp.com/
Following nearly three years of anticipation, we present our debut album ‘It Came From the Void.’ A mixture of infectious jams and gratuitous effects to craft soundscapes reminiscent of a 70’s space horror. Each track invokes a synesthetic experience, a scene from an auditory short film.
All music written by King Bastard
All lyrics by Isabel Guido
Violin performed by Dylan Hutchins
Viola performed by Andrew Weiss
Produced by King Bastard
Engineered by Colin Marston and Mike Verni
Mixed and Mastered by Colin Marston
Artwork: Intuitive Designs
Recorded in Menegroth Studio in Queens, NY as well as Mike’s basement, Andrew’s garage, and Reed’s closet
King Bastard is…
Mike Verni: Guitar
Isabel Guido: Synth, Saxophone, and Vocals
Arthur Erb: Bass
Matt Ryan: Drums and Auxiliary Percussion
