King Parrot – Holed Up In The Lair Review

Do you guys remember touring? Back in the Days Before The Plague, that was when bands would travel around from town to town — and even from country to country, if they were lucky — playing their music to groups of (sometimes) larger than 10 people. Their shows were called “concerts,” and people would routinely experience them for fun. It seems so long ago…

A few incredibly long years back, the grind miscreants in King Parrot were on tour in the US when they took four days and popped into a studio called Nodferatu’s Lair in Louisiana for an off-the-cuff recording session. They didn’t actually have songs written, so they wrote and recorded a song a day on the spot, with the initial plan of re-working those new tracks later for their next album… and then the world stopped. Now, since there’s not much else to do, King Parrot is setting them free in the form of a limited-edition EP, appropriately titled Holed Up In The Lair.

If you’re familiar with this Aussie quintet’s manic thrash-grinding, then you pretty much know what you’re getting here. It’s more of the same, except rawer than before, given the nature of the recording sessions. King Parrot is still predominantly defined by their maniacal sense of speed-soaked half-blitzed fun, topped off with Matt “Youngy” Young’s chattering, shattered-larynx squeal.

Opening number “Banished, Flawed Then Docile” rips out of the gate with an alternating blast-and-rock swagger before settling into a driving midtempo steamroll that resolves back to the blasts. It’s Holed Up’s lead-off hitter for a reason. It sets the tone, comes out swinging, kicks you around pretty well before dumping you on the doorstep of “Blunder To Asunder,” where some of Holed Up’s catchiest thrash-indebted riffs lay. “Nor Is Yours” features guest lyrics and backing vocals from the owner of Nodferatu’s Lair, Philip H. Anselmo (Bill & Phil, ex-Viking Crown), and sports a riff anchored in near-AC/DC rawkishness to go with its overall punky flavor. And I’ll stop here, and just leave you guessing on the last song… (No, I won’t: It sounds like King Parrot. No surprises here. Just thrash-grind fun.)

At the end of the day, what did you expect? Holed Up In The Lair is King Parrot; it’s seven minutes long; it’s four demos-turned-masters of thrashing grinding mayhem, each of which would’ve fit snugly into the past few records, albeit maybe in a slightly more refined form. It’s the sound of some Aussies and some Lousianans taking four days to bash out some grindcore for the absolute hell of it all.

If you’ve been along for the ride with King Parrot so far, then you can surely dig that, and it’s highly likely that you’ll dig this.