Album Review: King Hit The Queen - 'Times Flies'

9 February 2015 | 3:05 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

An EP that's brewing with more apathy than Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

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If a band like The Amity Affliction can come from a regional town like Gympie, then it’s not much of a stretch to say that bands from all types of places around Australia can spring up and deliver the goods. Such is the case with the five young Toowoomba boys in the poorly named outfit, King Hit The Queen.

Their debut EP, 'Time Flies', was produced, mixed and mastered by Cory Judd, one of the strings men for Brisbane metallers and Richard Dawkins enthusiasts, A Night In Texas. It’s not an A-class job but it’s better than the bands first demos, so hey, progression and what not.

In a rather fitting manner, the EP flies by relatively quickly and it never over stays its welcome, meaning you can go through multiple listens without it all starting to grate. The songs all flow together well and despite an average mix, the band's songwriting is definitely up to scratch. With that being said, if you’re a fan of Perspectives or Carpathian (or both, as you should be), then you’ll feel so much at home with this EP that you’ll start hanging up pictures of you and your family around the house and will soon be relaxing back in a nice, comfy chair.

Song-wise, most of the EP is of great quality. Opener ‘Aspect St.’ doesn’t waste time with pleasantries and gets right to the chase. Throaty shouts, guitar chuggs, the essence of melody that makes bands like this stand out, and typical metalcore drumming make up the song, yet while it's not a bad song, it is severely over-shadowed by most of the following tracks. The next track, ‘Awake’ is arguably the best song out of the five. It was the band's first proper single (maybe even their first song) and it's melodic hardcore done right. It’s filled with apathy and angst and is delivered via tight, thunderous instrumentation (especially those drums; oh man, that drumming) and it is all very fluid in its delivery and the song's overall flow. No kinks in the works here folks.

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Hopeless’ is surprisingly unremarkable considering the quality of ‘Awake’, but in what becomes a slightly irritating rise and fall motion, everything picks back up with the overly melodic, but haunting ‘Leith Crescent’. It's the longest of the five and it has a pretty heavy vocal delivery (as in emotion, not its size or pitch) as the vocals are screamed in such a way that makes you think that the band members are all on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

Finally, the title track ushers in the end of the EP in a familiar fashion to 'Awake', and the band really takes their time with it. After a brief bridge section, the group all come in at once as the track starts to fade and it rides off into the sunset with its head held high. Or rather, hanging its head down low if the song's lyrics are anything to go by.

Raw, cathartic, and passionate melodic hardcore....and, you wanna know the best part?! It's free. King Hit The Queen, and don't let their god awful name fool you, are definitely onto something with their debut EP, 'Time Flies'.

1. Aspect St.

2. Awake

3. Hopeless

4. Leith Crescent

5. Time Flies