Like Countrymates Oath of Damnation, King plays a blistering form of melodic black/death metal but the influence here is pretty clear: Immortal, and certainly the Immortal offshoots I, and Abbath . Vocalist Tony Forde (Ex-Blood Duster) has an Abbath-like croak and rasp, and guitarist Dave Hill (Fuck Im Dead) has locked into some very classic later Immortal-like galloping riffs as well as some searing Epoch of Unlight sounding melodies.

And of course, drummer Dave Haley needs no introduction but he carries over his intense work from bands like Abremalin, The Amenta, Psycroptic, Ruins, and Werewolves into King’s furiously melodic assault. Bassist Tim Anderson from bludgeoning death metal/deathcore act The Red Shore is just icing on the cake.

This thing just fucking rips from start to finish. It has a perfect blend of searing, shredding, slicing black metal and epic melodies. The Immortal reference is clear right away with “Perception Ignited” and then the little jaunts in the next killer track “Volcano”,  “Once and for All” or “Crepescular” could very well be from the first Abbath album. But they can bring absolute fire as well on “Black Dimension” and well.. “Into the Fire”. But plenty of moments that do both such as standout “Death in the Cosmos” or closer “To The Stars”.

The fact this is delivered by guys responsible for killer grind albums like Cunt, Str8outtnorthcote, and Bring On the Dead, and tech death like Scepter of the Ancients is kinda mindblowing. It’s better than a lot of Scandinavian bands and artists that have doing it for years (yeah, it is better than a couple of recent Immortal/Abbath albums as well) and is one of Australia’s better black metal exports since Astriaal’s Renascent Misanthropy.

The heart of King‘s sound is firmly rooted in early Deicide, musically, vocally and thematically, so there are some Krisiun-isms here, but rather than simply blast you into oblivion with a vortex of blast beats, King throw in just enough other elements to keep you interested. Sure, the album is chock full of competent hyper speed blasts and dual demonic vocals, but throw in some rather insidious chants, choirs and ritualistic lurches and you get an album that delivers something more than you’d expect.

“Summon Shub Niggurath Ye Black” starts the album with one of those aforementioned chants, calling forth the goat with a thousand young with convincing occultism before “No Pray, No Mercy, Just Death (Unpromised Satan)” erupts from the speakers with a forceful presence and a varied ferocity despite the cringe inducing title.  Then “Kill the Posers Like Fucking Christians” further impresses with a real face ripper which nightlight drummer Balek is an obvious force along with the tri layered vocals of the other members. “When the Walls of Heaven Turn Black” initially starts as a pure blast fest before a mid song bridge takes a nice groovy NYDM lope (and tortured screams) and its these very slight injections and variations that make King a little more interesting amid the still vitriolic blasting. Moments like the last 3rd’s of “Emperor of Darkness”, “The Ruthless Attitude of Evil Sobervia”, end of “Satan’s Fabrica”,  and epic eight minute closer “What’s Satan’s Domain”  along with the overall sound of the production and the vocals just give King an aura of menace that’s pretty unnerving despite the problematic song titles. But then again, I doubt I could come up with many very good Colombian song titles if forced to do so.

In all a pretty damn solid release that has some character amid the Krisiun and Deicide influences resulting in a band not afraid to be a bit off kilter in the typically cookie cutter realms of blasting Satanic death metal.