CD REVIEW: PALACE OF THE KING – White Bird/Burn The Sky

Shane | 17 November 2015 | 1 Reply

CD REVIEW: PALACE OF THE KING – White Bird/Burn The Sky
Devil’s Music Records
12 June, 2015
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

The sheer self-confidence that leaps out of the speakers when you whack on Palace Of The King’s debut full length album is absolutely staggering. These guys sound like they’ve been at this game for decades and have a swag of releases under their belt.

Musically tight, lyrically interesting and, at times, esoteric, Palace Of The King have all the roll to match their hard rocking side, meaning the end result isn’t just head shaking bluster, but also groove and a psychedelic shimmy and shake here and there.

Take Your Medicine opens the show and what an opener: it’s full of funky swagger and face-slapping wow factor. Another Thing Coming and Burn My Bridges similarly go places unexpected for an Aussie rock band – there’s no hint of Accadacca sameness here at all.

White Bird (Bring Your Armies Against Me) has all the makings of an epic, building on a solid layered riff to reach a coruscating climax, while Leave Me Behind features trumpet and sax to great danceable effect.

Get Back Up (Burn the Sky) may be the trippiest number on this record, its harmonica all but leaking out of the speakers into a puddle. This is fuzzy blues rock at its finest.

Album closer If It Ain’t Broke is another danceable rocker, Leigh Madden & Matthew Harrison’s hefty stop-start riff and Sean Johnston’s addictive organ track underpinning Tim Henwood’s Rival Sons-esque vocals. This track – like the album as a whole – pulsates with a sexy, hip-thrusting urgency, and it’s obviously the start of something big for this Melbourne six-piece.

https://www.facebook.com/palaceofthekingmusic