Aussies make their return
Innovative, explosive Australian hard rockers King Of The North are set to release their superlative sophomore album ‘Get Out Of Your World’ on Rodeostar / SPV, on August 5th as a digipak CD, limited edition 180 gram vinyl LP (including CD), and download. ‘Get Out Of Your World’ is an intense, passionate and much more diverse collection of hard hitting and catchy concoctions than on King Of The North’s acclaimed debut 2014 offering, ‘Sound Of The Underground’. Singer / guitarist Andrew Higgs states that “While on our predecessor album, everything was full throttle and very loud throughout, ‘Get Out Of Your World’ is more diverse and features a much wider range of styles.
The 12 mesmerizing, multi-layered, riff – driven, hook laden, groove oriented songs contained on ‘Get Out Of Your World’ sound like the work of a traditional five-piece band; in reality, it is the product of a two-piece rock powerhouse like no other. Using a unique, self-developed, innovatory three-from-one guitar pedal, Higgs triples the input signal and playing options of his guitar, creating the bass, lead and rhythm sounds all at the same time and all live, even in the studio. By adding drums, played on this album by either Danny Leo or Lucius Borich, it rounds off the complete, outstanding sound.
‘Get Out Of Your World’ impresses with its extensive selection of influences, ranging from classic 70’s hard rock through blues, punk and prog, to stoner metal. “We’re a riff rock band”, notes Andrew, continuing “the guitar riffs define each song, its lyrics, its atmosphere. Every time I develop a riff, I immediately have the vocals and the story in my head. For me that’s a natural process that takes place automatically and simultaneously.”
Monumental track ‘The Mountain’ is a case in point; Higgs: “I feel that riff is huge, as big as a mountain, practically a mountain of a riff. The lyrics are also influenced by this sentiment. It’s about an allegory, namely that the path to success is always a little like climbing a mountain and that you occasionally tend to forget how far you’ve already come.” Similarly, the spiritedly aggressive riff on ‘Burn’ reflects the song’s angry, frustrated lyrics “about the feeling of being so pissed off that you just want to reduce everything around you to ash, in a therapeutic sense” (Higgs). Likewise, the Fast paced ‘Ride Like You Are Free’, inspired by Andrew’s love of skateboarding and snowboarding, which could soon become a classic motorcycling anthem.
‘Get Out Of Your World’ closes with an inspired, gritty, urgent, hard driving cover of ‘Manic Depression’ by Higgs’s guitar idol Jimi Hendrix. Another of Higgs’s idols, The Mark Of Cain singer John Scott, contributed vocals on the middle part of ‘The Mountain’; “John is both my hero and friend, and also a fan of King Of The North. His commanding, military narrative voice suits this number perfectly.” For the recording of ‘Burn’ he asked renowned Australian drummer Lucius Borich for his assistance: “In order to bring out the track’s progressive flair as perfectly as possible, I consciously enlisted the support of an experienced prog rock drummer, for the odd-timing sections and double kick work.”
The cover artwork for ‘Get Out Of Your World’ which was perfectly produced by Peter ‘Reggie’ Bowman, (Southern Sons, Tommy Emanuel), was designed by Mark Van De Beek of Keepsake Design, whose graphic creations for acts such as Soundgarden, Slipknot, Mastodon and Machine Head are legendary.
TOURDATES:
07 Oct 16 DE Gaildorf, Carty
