King Potenaz Premiere “Dancing Plague” Video; Goat Rider Out Now
Fasano, Italy-based heavy rockers King Potenaz released their debut album, Goat Rider (review here), this past Spring through countryman imprint Argonauta Records. Business over, right? April was like 13 years ago. Who cares about records more than five minutes after they’re released anyway? On to the next thing.
Meanwhile, Giuseppe, Francesco and Pierro aka PRNX (I don’t know how you pronounce that, but if I’d been named after Prince, that’s how I’d spell it) take the nine-minute “Dancing Plague” for a full lap around from a quiet wakeup in the low end through more rockin’ post-Kyuss desert crunch — and they didn’t skip the crunch, as many others might — with snarling, echoing vocals almost guttural in the verses like Celtic Frost. I haven’t seen the lyrics, but THC and LSD both get namedropped in a single line, the hook is “She is my dancing plague,” and they back it with those red sun blues until about five minutes into the video when they shift into a jam.
That inward transition is awfully smooth for basically using the tactic of ‘now we’re doing this’ to make it happen. But a band confident enough — and with a good enough drummer — can be in a jam 10 seconds after finishing a chorus and still get cheers from the crowd. King Potenaz at their most immersive on Goat Rider retain the album’s lack of pretense — they friggin’ called it Goat Rider; nobody’s out here trying to be Very Serious ArtistsTM. These are riffers, reveling. And it’s the transition back out of the jam to the central riff — if ever there’s a moment not to screw up, that’s it — that absolutely makes it. They handle it with no more ceremony than they had going in, and clearly there’s no need for any.
And throughout whether it’s the quiet, the loud, the quiet or the loud, King Potenaz ask nothing more of the listener or viewer than to semi-consciously follow along, while making it both easy and enjoyable to do so. The video is basically a performance clip with the members superimposed on backgrounds of what look like architectural tourist attractions of Italy’s boot. It might be kind of an artsy send-up with the black and white, the atmospheric shots, etc., but in the lack of fancy tricks, it’s true to the band’s traditionalist ethos,and like the song itself it’s a reminder that when you strip everything else out, it’s still about the joy of communal creativity and playing with friends. That’s the vibe I get, anyhow. You can see for yourself and decide, I know.
Hope you dig it, in any case, and thanks for dedicating a few minutes of your day to doing so.
King Potenaz, “Dancing Plague” video premiere
The song is taken from their album GOAT RIDER, released April 28th, 2023 via ARGONAUTA Records: http://www.argonautarecords.com/shop/
Born out of a series of jam sessions in 2019 in Fasano (Italy), KING POTENAZ began to write their own music by drawing heavily on the work of doom/stoner bands like Sleep, Electric Wizard, Kyuss, Monster Magnet and, of course, Black Sabbath.
After a change on drums, the lineup solidifies into the current power trio formed by Giuseppe (guitar and vocals), Francesco (bass guitar) and Piero (drums and synths).
Longtime friends and musicians, they are active in the local heavy/underground scene since the 90s: Giuseppe and Francesco initiated several black/doom/drone projects such as Helvete, Moriendoom and Rius de la Mort, whereas Piero played drums in punk/hardcore bands No Exit and Erpice and produced two electronic solo albums as PRNX.
King Potenaz:
Giuseppe guitar/vocals
Francesco bass
PRNX drums/synth
(Photo above by Studio Figure)
King Potenaz, Goat Rider (2023)
Argonauta Records on Instagram
Tags: Argonauta Records, Fasano, Goat Rider, Italy, King Potenaz, King Potenaz Goat Rider
