KING & COUNTRY
Reading press materials, apparently, King & Country come from Bridgend which is ‘home’ to Bullet For My Valentine. I’m sorry, but what is so special about that? Oh, I see, it’s just an excuse to write ‘Bullet For My Valentine’. Now it all makes perfect sense...please! ‘Mountains’, the second EP from King & Country is also supposedly “jam-packed with killer tracks and sure to set the hotly-tipped quartet apart from the masses”. Well, four tracks, does not make any release ‘jam-packed’, none of the four are ‘killer’ and this lot, who sound a bit like McFly if they had gone to college for a couple of years, are as generic and samey as hundreds of other bands, who might or might not live in a town near to another more well known band. What makes King & Country different though is that they have actually got some airplay on Radio 1. This, of course, guarantees them some form of success for an audience who think Lady Gaga throwing the horns is ‘heavy’.
It’s pretty well played and the production is clear, but all four tracks sound much the same. I’ve done my usual bit of research and read a comment from someone who thinks this release sounds much more mature than their first EP. I dread to think what that sounded like then, considering some of the lyrics on this: “Woah Oh! Oh! Oh!” (repeat) for a chorus or, indeed, “No No No No, No You Won’t, No You Wo---nt!” Staggering stuff, which prompts me to think that whoever paid for their university education (where King & Country were formed) should demand a refund! They perform the sort of juvenile pop-rock that was doing the rounds ten years ago and only one step up from appealing to pre-teens; in other words; the readership of Kerrang. Strangely, the only thing I really like is the artwork (insert university joke here).
It’s pretty well played and the production is clear, but all four tracks sound much the same. I’ve done my usual bit of research and read a comment from someone who thinks this release sounds much more mature than their first EP. I dread to think what that sounded like then, considering some of the lyrics on this: “Woah Oh! Oh! Oh!” (repeat) for a chorus or, indeed, “No No No No, No You Won’t, No You Wo---nt!” Staggering stuff, which prompts me to think that whoever paid for their university education (where King & Country were formed) should demand a refund! They perform the sort of juvenile pop-rock that was doing the rounds ten years ago and only one step up from appealing to pre-teens; in other words; the readership of Kerrang. Strangely, the only thing I really like is the artwork (insert university joke here).
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Self-released
EP
MOUNTAINS
Review by Rick Tilley
RUNNING TIME:
13:51
RELEASE DATE:
6th May 2013
TRACK LISTING
1) One for the Weekend
2) Cherish What You Have
3) Not Alone
4) Soldiers
2) Cherish What You Have
3) Not Alone
4) Soldiers
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
UK
"They perform the sort of juvenile pop-rock that was doing the rounds ten years ago and only one step up from appealing to pre-teens; in other words; the readership of Kerrang."
