Album Review: King Parrot - 'Ugly Produce'

There is a certain level of discomfort and disgust aroused by King Parrot’s music. But beyond the shrill viciousness of their sound, the band represents an authentic grit only found in a now relatively dormant Australian extreme metal scene (seemingly made up of the same handful of bands doing the rounds). Yet in a short seven years, King Parrot have ascended to the ranks of like-minded legendary Australian acts such as Blood Duster and Mindsnare, with a stomach-churning vulgarity that sits in staunch opposition to the uniform sterility of the contemporary heavy music elite. On their third studio album, fittingly titled 'Ugly Produce, the Parrot's embrace their misfit reputation once more with their trademark precociousness and unyielding hostility.

'Ugly Produce', like the past King Parrot albums, was not written with the intention of changing your life for the better. When you listen to a King Parrot record, the expectations are not so much of unlocking some mystifying aural epiphany as they are of finding the ideal soundtrack for smashing a cheap pint glass over your best mate’s head and throwing up in your neighbour’s wheelie bin late at night. The band is infamous for walking the line between sub-genres, balancing the deranged hyperactivity of grindcore with a distinctively obnoxious hardcore punk attitude. It’s this concoction of gruesome hysteria and uncouth belligerence that has allowed King Parrot to gouge an indelible scar into the very fabric of Australian heavy music.

On 'Ugly Produce', the band eschews all that is artificial in modern metal. There are no triggered drum samples, digital guitar tones or multi-layered vocal effects. Instead, raging buzzsaw guitar picking and the crash and rattle of cymbals preface the assault of Matthew Young’s shrieking vocals on album opener 'Entrapment'; a song that swiftly erupts into chaotic blast beats before mutating into a delightfully over-stimulating onslaught of thrash mania.

As for Youngy, the crazed vocalist leans heavily on Australian colloquialisms with song titles like 'Piss Wreck', 'All Hail The Grub' and 'Numb Skull', which all compliment a very specific and disturbingly uncomfortable sense of humour that's become synonymous with King Parrot through their extravagantly crass music videos. But these phrases serve a greater purpose in the music itself - they also act as catchlines repeated throughout the songs to be chanted along to by the audience. Although the band are only just noew embarking on their national tour for this new record, it's already evident which songs will be crowd favourites.

Lead single 'Ten Pounds of Shit in a Five Pound Bag' is the standout title wedged directly in the middle of the track listing, tearing the record apart with maniacal wrath. It is undisputedly Youngy’s most impressive vocal performance, as he growls through the verses with a culminating intensity that splits open into an ear-splitting squawk in the song’s hooks. Whereas guitarists Ari White, Andrew Livingstone-Squires and bassist Wayne Slattery, as per usual, maintain an exhausting pace as they riff across a frenzy of blast beats provided by drummer Todd Hansen across this song and the record at large.

'Ugly Produce' lands firmly within its expectations as a follow up to 2015’s 'Dead Set' and 2012’s 'Bite Your Head Off'. Although it may not demonstrate any sense of maturity on King Parrot’s end, familiar listeners should know not to expect this from them. King Parrot are masters of their lewd, scathing and unnerving craft. They exist to shock you, to creep you out, and to make your skin crawl - all with their tongues planted firmly through their collective cheeks. Nobody can replicate the uncanny feeling that King Parrot has spawned, and 'Ugly Produce' is another adamant justification of this band’s cult status.

1. Entrapment
2. Piss Wreck
3. Disgrace Yourself
4. All Hail the Grub
5. Ten Pounds of Shit in a Five Pound Bag
6. Scattered
7. Now It Stokes Frenzy
8. Numb Skull
9. Die Before You Die
10. Spookin' the Animals

'Ugly Produce' is out now via EVP Recordings.