IN ROCK’S DARKEST HOUR, WHO WILL STAND AGAINST THE AXIS OF EMO?

 
Samwell – Vocals

Possessed of a 666 decibel voice, Samwell is heavy metal’s champion superhero. He had a pacemaker implanted—just so he could set it to 11. “Purveyors of feckless twee-rock be warned: I will totally smite you with my two horned anvil, strip you of your fathers’ cardigans, and burn Dio’s name into the lenses of your oversized nerd glasses.”

Zigabot – Bass

The only escaped clone of Dr. Funkenstein, Zigabot rumbles the junk in yo trunk with the elephantine bass tones booming from his 69 inch woofer. He takes parties to new levels with his roof raising bionic afro, and hypnotizes ladies with his solid diamond platform shoes. “People, I will turn this mother out, as I have turned out all your mothers.” 

Doc Thompson – Vocals

Spitting hot lead and smokin’ vocal melodies, Doc Thompson is music’s gangster avenger, punishing crimes against rock. No fake angst or blatant example of bogus bed-head goes unanswered by his Tommy gun, ‘Wendy O.’ “I aim to put a bullet through any album with more than 50% songs about girlfriends.”

Mötherfökker (AKA Möfö) – Guitar

A vigilante from a post-apocalyptic future ruled by a cyborg Justin Bieber, Möfö has traveled back in time to battle the insidious forces of Radio Disney. “Die Zukunft der drecksack Justin Bieber und Mickey Maüss Klub ist invertiert. Dröhnen Schwein!” (Editor’s note: Möfö speaks only Future German. No translation is possible as this language has yet to exist.)

Shille-Lee – Drums

Hitting the skins with a pair of nunchucks, Shille-Lee is Earth’s foremost (well, only) master of Irish Kung-Fu, which consists mostly of drinking Guinness and meditation. He would contribute a quote but A) he doesn’t speak, and B) even if he could, he’s too busy playing drum solos upside the heads of wave after wave of attacking ninjas.

Legendary “gonzo journalist” Hunter S. Thompson made up his own adjective to describe the ultimate of something: “It was the king hell of all parties!” No doubt, the late great author of “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” would feel the same sense of visceral energy if he’d had the chance to check out King Hell!, the furious and funky, intensely tongue-in-cheek, indie powerhouse named after his turn of phrase.

Get a taste of King Hell’s comic-book-come-to-life stage show in the video for the track “Brooklyn“, shot at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. View the video here!

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King Hell!’s Blog Provides A Peek Into The Band’s Wild World
Featuring ‘The King Hell Report’ Video Clips—A Weekly Whiskey-Fueled Rant By Co-Lead Singer Doc Thompson With
900,000+ Views Online

Brooklyn’s very own King Hell!, the ‘Epic Defenders of Metal and Funk,’ plan to tear up their home turf of Brooklyn on Thursday, June 17 at 10 p.m., with a performance at hotspot Public Assembly showcasing at “Hipsterwrectomy.” King Hell’s dueling vocals of Samwell and Doc Thompson, joined by guitarist Mötherfökker (aka Möfö), drummer Shille-Lee, and bassist Zigabot, will bring their theatrical stage personas and raw energy performance to fans and newcomers.

The rockers then pack up their act and head across the Brooklyn Bridge to perform at Manhattan’s Highline Ballroom for the “Gotham Rocks Showcase” on Thursday, July 29. The band will give another intense performance of tracks off their well received full-length debut album Rhythm and Bruise.

Fans looking for a deeper connection with King Hell! must check out the band’s blog at www.kinghellmetal.com. A representation of their outrageous performances and loud personalities, this hilarious blog takes you inside the daily musings of the guys and features Doc Thompson’s video blogs called the King Hell Report. With over 900,000 views, The King Hell Report is “a weekly whiskey-fueled rant” from the band’s co-lead singer.

Legendary “gonzo journalist” Hunter S. Thompson made up his own adjective to describe the ultimate of something: “It was the king hell of all parties!” No doubt, the late great author of “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” would feel the same sense of visceral energy if he’d had the chance to check out King Hell!, the furious and funky, intensely tongue-in-cheek, indie powerhouse named after his turn of phrase.

EVENT RECAP

June 17
Hipsterwrectomy
at Public Assembly
70 North 6th St.
Brooklyn, NY
8 p.m.
$8
21+

July 29
“Gotham Rocks Showcase”
at Highline Ballroom
431 West 16th Street
New York, NY
7 p.m.
$12
All ages

NYC’S MEGA THEATRICAL FUNK-METAL BAND
KING HELL TAKES THEIR STAGE MAYHEM TO AUSTIN
TO PERFORM AT SXSW FOR THE SENNHEISER’S
SPEAKEASY ROOFTOP EVENT ON MARCH 18 
AND THE OFFICIAL SXSW MUSIC STIMULUS
PARTY ON MARCH 19

***

King Hell Also Performs On Their Home Turf
For ‘Gotham Rocks’ Showcase On March 13,
And Comes In At #1 On Washington State University’s
KZUU FM’s Loud Rock Segment 

The ‘Epic Defenders of Metal and Funk’, King Hell, go to battle at this year’s South By South West (SXSW) music convention, performing at two events.

On Thursday, March 18, King Hell performs at Sennheiser’s Speakeasy Rooftop Party, located at 412D Congress Ave. in downtown Austin, in front of many industry leading VIPS and music supervisors. Attendees can RSVP for this event at speakeasy@luckmedia.com.

The band then rocks out at the official SXSW Music Stimulus Party at the Parish, located at 214-C East 6^th Street, on Friday, March 19 from Noon – 5 p.m, with a free Mexican buffet and complementary cocktails. To RSVP for this event, email stimulus@luckmedia.com.

The weekend before, King Hell’s dueling vocals of Samwell and Doc Thompson, guitarist Möfö, bassist Zigabot, and drummer Shille-Lee, can be experienced at New York City’s, Gotham Rocks showcase on Saturday, March 13, at the hip downtown venue The Delancey. King Hell will be opening for headliners Seventh Void, featuring guitarist Kenny Hickey and drummer Johnny Kelly, both of the platinum selling rock group Type O Negative.

King Hell also takes the top spot at #1 on Washington State University’s KZUU 90.7 FM’s “Loud Rock” charts this week with their track “Brooklyn”, off their highly anticipated album Rhythm & Bruise. The segment airs at 10 p.m. PST on http://kzuu.wsu.edu. Fans can keep the momentum alive and request King Hell by calling 509-335-2207.

Legendary “gonzo journalist” Hunter S. Thompson made up his own adjective to describe the ultimate of something: “It was the king hell of all parties!” No doubt, the late great author of “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” would feel the same sense of visceral energy if he’d had the chance to check out King Hell!, the furious and funky, intensely tongue-in-cheek, indie powerhouse named after his turn of phrase.

EVENT RECAP

March 13 
Gotham Rocks Showcase
at The Delancey
168 Delancey Street
New York, NY
11:20 p.m.
Ticket Pricing TBD
21+

Line Up:
8 p.m. Bound By Substance
8:50 p.m. Effects Of Eden
9:40 p.m. Kore Rozzik
10:30 p.m. The Deadlyz
11:20 p.m. King Hell
12:10 p.m. Seventh Void

March 18
Sennheiser’s SXSW Speakeasy Roof Top Party
at The Speakeasy
412D Congress Ave.
Austin, TX
Time TBD
No Cover
21+
Please RSVP to speakeasy@luckmedia.com, no later than March 16 

March 19
Official SXSW Music Stimulus Party
at The Parish
214-C East 6th Street
Austin, Texas
Time TBD
No Cover
21+
Please RSVP to stimulus@luckmedia.com, no later than March 17

EXPLOSIVE, MEGA-THEATRICAL NEW YORK INDIE
ROCKERS MIX THE POWER OF METALLICA,
THE PARLIAMENT GROOVE, AND A TONGUE IN CHEEK
“CARNIVAL” VIBE ON THEIR FREEWHEELING
FULL LENGTH DEBUT ‘RHYTHM & BRUISE’

***

The ‘Epic Defenders Of Metal and Funk’ Throw Off The
Chains Of ‘Mopey, Uptight’ Rock And Create Five
Unique Stage Personas That Have Shared Bills With Reunited
Schlock Rockers Green Jelly And Horror Punk Legends The Misfits

Legendary “gonzo journalist” Hunter S. Thompson made up his own adjective anytime he tried to describe the ultimate of something: “It was the king hell of all parties.” “This bastard was a serious, king hell crazy.” No doubt, the late great author of Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas would feel the same sense of visceral energy if he’d had the chance to check out King Hell, the furious and funky, intensely tongue in cheek New York based indie powerhouse named after his turn of phrase.

Drawing soul and inspiration from Metallica, Parliament-Funkadelic, as well as Art Neville’s New Orleans blues-funk band The Meters, King Hell blazes into 2010 with their popular as ever theatrical stage carnival and a highly anticipated debut album, aptly titled Rhythm & Bruise—the follow-up to their popular self-titled 2007 EP.

King Hell are anchored by the dueling vocals of Samwell and Doc Thompson. Along with guitarist Mötherfökker (aka Möfö), they first bonded over a mutual love of Black Sabbath and Metallica, and started jamming in high school in Cambridge, MA years ago. “We were originally called Longinus“, says Samwell, “but everyone thought that was a venereal disease—which is very metal, but not in a good way.”

Eventually moving to New York and renaming themselves King Hell—“which sounded commanding instead of contagious,” says Doc—the band has come a long way from their first gig at The Continental in NYC two and a half years ago. Fans find it hard to believe that back then, Doc wore a business suit and, with an admittedly “half baked” presentation, they took themselves way too seriously. Quickly figuring out that audiences were hungry for a real alternative to mopey, navel gazing bands whining about old girlfriends, the group—rounded out by death metal bassist Zigabot and drummer Shille-Lee, a refugee from the 80s hardcore outfit The Abused—went campy and got in touch with their inner Freddie Mercury and Gene Simmons.

“People long for bands like Queen and KISS because they were larger than life,” says Samwell. “Plugging into that was liberating. At some point, rock got really self-conscious. We’re confident enough in the quality of our music to embrace carnival. We’re like Cirque du Soleil, minus the elegance and trapeze, which we’re barred from using. So, more like Berserk du Soleil.” Drawing on their love of comics, a unique concept for a rogue team of rock avengers emerged. “It started under control, but by our second show, Doc was in a zoot suit waving a Tommy gun and I found myself standing on a horned anvil in Batman’s pants.”

With their stage show taking on a life of its own, King Hell began playing across NYC, New England, and the Tri-State area, and eventually scored a full calendar of gigs that included sharing a bill with reunited schlock rockers Green Jelly, and opening for horror legends The Misfits at their 30^th anniversary show in front of 2,000 people. Already this year, King Hell gave their first performance at NYC’s Gramercy Theatre, and will be hitting the road for Harrisburg, PA to play the 2010 Millennium Music Conference. In April they will appear at the Jerkus Circus in Worchester, MA, awarded “Best of 2009” by The Boston Phoenix, which calls it “a fantasyland for connoisseurs of real-deal performance art”. And to keep their local base satisfied they have upcoming performances in NYC at The Delancey and the Gotham Rocks Showcase at Crash Mansion.

Over time, five distinct characters have emerged for the band members. Samwell is the heavy metal hero, protector of Earth’s most extensive Judas Priest album vault. Doc Thompson is the gangster avenger punishing crimes against rock; he keeps that persona when he makes his racy “King Hell Reports” on YouTube, with 300,000+ views (and twice the complaints). Möfö is the vigilante from a post apocalyptic future ruled by an evil cyborg Justin Timberlake. Zigabot is the escaped clone of Dr. Funkenstein armed with a bionic afro, while Shille-Lee is the master of Irish Kung Fu, which consists primarily of Guinness and meditation.

Zigabot explains: “Our characters are just superhuman exaggerations of ourselves. They give people permission to dance and sing along with our often bugged out lyrics, because no matter how goofy they act they can always point to us and say, ‘Now those guys look ridiculous.’”       

A clever, larger than life quality blasts through from the get go on Rhythm & Bruise, highlighted by an infectious cover of Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like The Wolf,” a track Doc calls “a piece of the familiar, and our attempt to put some humor back into metal. They’re the least metal band on the planet, and the irony is part of the fun. It usually goes over great, depending on the percentage of Slayer shirts in the audience.” Musically, however, their determination to capture the broad spirit of their new material led them to work with engineer and co-producer Sal Mormando, whose diverse resume includes hard rock bands like Clutch and a Grammy nominated project by Latin jazz percussionist Raphael Cruz.

“We didn’t want every song to sound the same,” says Samwell, “and we don’t like the synthetic production value on most hard rock records today. Sal got that and managed to capture how we sound live. Also, at no point during the recording process did he lose patience and shoot us, which was a big plus.”

Perhaps Möfö sums it up best when he explains, “Die Zukunft ist invertiert und bald auch der Disco-Beats der drecksack Justin Timberlake wird brennen. Dröhnen Schwein!” Möfö speaks only in his native tongue of Future German. Unfortunately, no translation is possible as this language has yet to exist.

To maximize the “live” vibe that is King Hell’s bread and butter, they took a recording route usually reserved for jazz artists and actually sang, jammed and played their instruments in the studio at the same time—with Samwell and Doc facing each other in their respective vocal booths—at Kaleidoscope Sound in New Jersey. Their vocal interplay on Rhythm & Bruise is tuned up several notches from the way they worked together on the King Hell EP. “We busted ass on harmonies,” says Samwell, “and when we weren’t singing together we created a better dynamic with me stretching my voice higher and Doc dipping down into Barry White territory. I got to live out my Ian Gillan fantasies, and Doc got to live out his fantasies with women.”

Musically, the 13 tracks perfectly embody King Hell’s mission to fuse metal and funk into something fresh, gleefully unrecognizable and hard to pigeonhole. The chugging, ultra percussive “Oblivion” is a cool reimagining of contemporary Swedish heavy metal, while “Mr. Fancy Pants” is pure classic rock meets edgy funk. The hard driving opener “Brooklyn” is lyrically an autobiographical romp through their fascinating musical experiences, from the time the three founders were kids playing in their Boston area basement to their stint playing as another band in Chicago and the emergence of their current incarnation in Brooklyn. “Bad Mofo” is an intense rocker with an uplifting message designed to inspire musicians to follow their own road and make the best music they can no matter what critical obstacles get in their way. “A Bastard Like Me” is an overtly rhythmic, muscular and brutal song that tells a cartoonish, noirish tale, a la “Sin City”. 

The members of King Hell can’t decide just where and when they added funk to their early love of metal. It might have been through a jazz bassist they once played with who smoked a lot of weed and loved to play The Meters for everyone. Or maybe it was through Doc, who scammed his way into being a DJ at Tufts University, and through that discovered a trove of obscure blues and funk from the 70s. 

Either way, as Samwell says, “Metal became an addiction. Then we discovered Funkadelic’s album Maggot Brain, Sly and The Family Stone, and that whole world of theatrical funk. Funk was a revelation. Experiencing groove for the first time blew our exceedingly white minds. We were excited to fuse both influences, and funk and metal dovetailed perfectly. If you’re banging your head while shaking your ass, it’s doubly devastating. When we added Zigabot and Shille-Lee, they were the perfect complement and the chemistry was complete. They could groove like pimps, but when we wanted to step on the gas, they were capable of going absolutely ape shit.”

Doc adds, “At the end of one of our shows, if Samwell and I haven’t sweated out half our body weight and aren’t struggling not to pass out, we haven’t done our job—and that’s to get audiences so engaged and excited that they forget their troubles, cut loose, and have an absolute blast. King Hell is here to tear the roof off the joint, burn the house down, then flee the scene in our heavily armored clown car.”