KING BASTARD — It Came From the Void (review)

KING BASTARD — It Came From the Void album cover

Album · 2022 · Stoner Metal

3.5/5 · 2022-03-10
siLLy puPPy

With a regal yet amusing band appellation, the New York City based KING BASTARD has arrived to claim the throne of the world of psychedelic filth with its introduction to the world in the form of IT CAME FROM THE VOID. With a propensity to channel post-Black Sabbath styled guitar jams enshrouded by layers of psychedelic effects, this stoner metal band has sworn off the cheap weed and seems to have taken a trip to Peru for a bonafide ayahuasca freakout instead. Graced with a trippy and hilariously cool album cover art of a lysergic astronaut of death as your host, it’s almost like a long lost episode of “Tales From The Crypt” has emerged in musical form.

This psychoactive brew of ceremonial spiritual medicine and crushing doom metal unfolds the perfect recipe for those who can’t decide whether to listen to Kyuss or Pink Floyd and in one swoop KING BASTARD solves your dilemma by providing the perfect mashup of both! This band is a four-piece and features Mike Verni (guitar), Isabel Guido (synthesizer, saxophone, vocals), Arthur Erb (bass) and Matt Ryan (drums, percussion). IT CAME FROM THE VOID is like a 21st century soundtrack to the “Twilight Zone” with six tripped out lysergic passages through the world of neo-psychedelia and stoner metal. While modern stoner rock / metal bands can prove to dish out too much of a good buzz, IT CAME FROM THE VOID clocks out around the 46 minute mark making the perfect escape from reality.

Given its limited musical vision, stoner metal is not a genre i gravitate towards with glee but rather trepidation since the stylistic approach is painfully simple and more often derivative of a gazillion bands that preceded and followed by another gazillion who are yet to come. In that regard KING BASTARD does indeed tick off the stoner metal essentials, namely thick brooding guitar and bass grooves downtuned and teased out into classic heavy psych blues based chord progressions. Accompanied by a lazy drummer that accentuates the grooves, the basis of this stoner metal band is not unlike most others. The songwriting isn’t as clever as classic Kyuss and the intensity is not as effective as Electric Wizard however the members KING BASTARD have a few other tricks up their sleeves.

What makes IT CAME FROM A VOID work for me is the excellent collection of synthesizer sounds and soundtrack clips taken from myriad sci-fi films including the “Alien” flicks which also provide an inspiring music motif of drifting through space with monsters lurking in every corner. Psychedelic doom metal riffs chug along while gurgling, oscillating and full-spectrum sound effects slowly ooze in and out of audible range. Add to that some beautifully nasty guitar tones including some freaked out wah-wah pedals and carefully placed freak outs that confirm the ayahuasca is kicking in and you have the perfect recipe for a stoner metal album that puts the emphasis on the stoner part of the equation. There’s even a few jazzy moments with a stowaway saxophone on board. The production is perfect on this one.

True that KING BASTARD hasn’t reinvented the stoner metal wheel as many a band have successfully taken this journey into the vacuous expanses of space but these guys have reached the limits of the traditional bong fueled head trip and have gone for hardcore shit and IT CAME FROM THE VOID delivers all those mischievous interdimensional demons just waiting to be summoned for a rip roaring good time. This is the kind of music i have to be in the mood for and when i started this album i clearly wasn’t but after finding myself in a much mellower state of mind, this proved to be exactly what the doctor ordered. This is a wily BASTARD that may not yet deserve its keys to the kingdom as supreme stoner but has the confidence to make a good contender and well on its way to take stoner metal to galaxies far far away.