Review: “Holed Up in the Lair” by King Parrot

The story goes that Australians King Parrot had four days off while on tour supporting “Ugly Produce” in the US back in 2017 and decided to make the most of it by heading to Nodferatus Lair in Louisiana with engineer Steve “Big Fella” Berrigan (Warbeast, Child Bite, Superjoint Ritual), to write and record an EP with the band sharing a room. Originally they had planned to re-working the material into an album but with the Global situation of 2020 decided instead to release the music as a 7″ vinyl entitled “Holed Up in the Lair“. So what happens when you lock five angry Australians in a basement for four days with an engineer?

What we have ended up with was four blistering tracks of thrashed out grinding punk rock fury that is completely King Parrot through and through and with a run time of less than 8 minutes, the length of a single track from any Progressive Metal outfit. Opening gambit “Banished, Flawed Then Docile” is the longest cut at 2 minutes and 24 seconds of adrenaline fueled debauched riffs, blistering double kick footwork from Todd “Toddy” Hansen and shrill vocals from Matthew “Youngy” Young. It sounds exactly as you would expect given the bands situation, a raw quality piece of fury that can’t be contained. “Blunder to Asunder” sounds like it belongs on “A Lethal Dose of American Hatred” by the aforementioned Superjoint Ritual as it roars along at high velocity with that classic venomous finger pointing vocal, a nasty cocktail of Hardcore Punk energy and Metal drive tones, fast and loose. “Nor Is Yours” sees the band joined by one of their best friends in Philip H Anselmo and his deeper bark during the chorus chant of the song title works in perfect contrast to Youngy’s shriller banshee vocal tones, complementing each other as any duel vocal attack should. The percussive sounds have more in common with Black Metal than anything else, the drum sound dominating like an artillery battery in a war zone. “Kick Up A Stink” saw King Parrot work with director Mike Foxall on a music video and the band come up smelling of roses on a song that is so blisteringly fast that they just hold onto their hats as they play. It’s wart’s and all and you can hear over multiple listens the most minute of mistakes but that’s what makes this record great as it has all the charm of a live session and all the fury of a punch in the face with a bag of nails. Oh and that fart at the end? Hilarious! [8/10]

Track listing

1. Banished, Flawed Then Docile
2. Blunder to Asunder
3. Nor is Yours (ft. Phil Anselmo of Pantera, Superjoint Ritual, Scour)
4. Kick Up A Stink

“Holed Up in the Lair” by King Parrot is out now via Agonia Records