Album Review – Ugly Produce by King Parrot (Agonia)

Australian grindcore unit, King Parrot, have released their latest album called Ugly Produce. Ugly Produce is the Melbourne born bands third full length release and comes via Agonia, in the UK. It follows their debut release, 2012’s Bite Your Head Off and 2015’s Dead Set.

Heavy and thrashy grindcore is the order of the day for King Parrot but all with a humorous twist and comedy tinged videos and lyrics. They are to be taken seriously though – underneath the humour the band are actually playing very quick, heavy and complex metal with huge riffs and resonating drum rhythms.

King Parrot are Matthew Young on vocals and Wayne Slattery on the bass guitar. Ari White and Andrew Livingstone-Squires are on the guitars and Todd Hansen is on the drums.

King Parrot have been on a real upward curve since forming and most of that has come off the back of relentless touring. These guys seem to love being on the road, almost using the studio just to quickly create a bit more material so they can get back out there again. This hard work and effort has seen them already out supporting the likes of Thy Art Is Murder, Obituary and Carcass. They have also appeared at a load of prominent festivals like Australia’s Soundwave and the Jakarta International Music Festival. Such is the rise that even Phil Anselmo took notice and invited them in for an interview on his Housecore Records YouTube channel.

Produced by Jason Fuller, Ugly Produce isn’t a polished recording, instead keeping that grimy, dark and ugly sound popular in the genre. With ten tracks on it but just 27 minute sin length, you pretty much think you know what you are going to get. No nonsense, in your face aggression and you are mostly correct. In fact, three songs in and you may be completely blown away. Starting with Entrapment, then Piss Wreck and then Disgrace Yourself, all three are top quality tracks with Piss Wreck being a personal favourite.

Fast and firey with loads of bass and pounding drums, the riffs are thick and full of force. Entrapment has a stop/start style before Piss Wreck comes in with a thick, chugging sound and a more rhythmic and catchy chorus. The vocals sound like the love child of Slayer and Municipal Waste with hoarse but higher toned yells and shouts. Disgrace Yourself comes at you hard with a bass heavy riff that descends into a chaotic verse. Deeper and heavier sounding vocals come in a bit on this track as backing and there is a huge roar over fast, blasting drums at the end that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

They aren’t the only stand out tracks on the album though, as track 5, pleasantly called Ten Pounds of Shit in a Five Pound Bag, is another hard hitting, quality bit of music. The intro is furiously fast with stunning drumming and a complex riff. The vocals have a bit of groove to them and at last than 3 minutes long, this song really just kicks your ass, in a hurry. The riff slows down to a chunky rhythm near the end. It’s perfect for banging your head along to before it jumps back into the ass kicking again.

Aside from those 4, I struggled to really get into the rest. There are moments on other tracks, and there isn’t really anything wrong with them, but it feels a bit like everything the band had, creatively, went into the first part of the album. Everything afterwards sounds a little weaker. Die Before You Die has a pretty neat chorus but the verses aren’t especially memorable. Numb Skull has a really cool slowed down riff near the end but the song up to that doesn’t stand out like the first few did. Spookin The Animals, the album closer switches the pace up a bit. There is also a bit more use of the deeper vocals here and even a guitar solo of sorts which make the track stand out a bit more. I do actually like this one, it’s pretty cool without being mind altering.

Really the issue here is that Ugly Produce suffers a bit in it’s latter half because it’s first half is so damn good.

I love the work ethic and energy this band bring to the scene.  I love a lot of the tracks on Ugly Produce too. It just misses the mark overall as an album for me with a few tracks lacking the enthusiasm and identity of the better ones. Ugly Produce is by no means a bad album, it just isn’t memorable as a whole. 5 tracks of excellence and 4 or 5 forgettable ones make it well worth listening to though replays will probably be restricted to the first half of the album.

You can pick up Ugly Produce for yourself from Agonia Records. You can also pick up it, and more from the band, at the Amazon and Apple links below. Check out King Parrot on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for more info on them and their music. Be sure to give them a like or follow while you are there too.

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