King Hiss, 31 March 2023

As if Belgium hadn’t already been subjected to enough loud bursts, earthshattering blasts and drastic landscaping, the four gentlemen in King Hiss found it necessary to add a new, defeaning chapter to the Belgian rock and metal repertoire. 2011 will forever be remembered as the year that gave birth to the King of voracious riffs, vicious fangs and roaring screams.

All four members of this newfound royal family had already earned their colours within different other projects, each of them bringing fresh elements to the table and contributing to the unique blend of music the outfit offers. Singer Jan Coudron’s vocal range is nothing short of stunning and he grabs every opportunity to exorcise his multitude of demons. Joost ‘Josh Fury’ Noyelle (guitars), produces a seemingly never-ending string of riff tornadoes, while rhythm section Dominiek ‘Visioene’ Hoet (bass) and Jason Bernard (drums) lay down grooves that are tighter than a clam with a lockjaw.

Like most blended families, it didn’t take too long for King Hiss to produce new offspring. Since their first demo (2012) and their EP ‘Snakeskin’ (2013), they torpedoed 2 full-length albums into the world within a 2-year span: ‘Sadlands’ (2014) and Mastosaurus (2016), with an acoustic intermezzo - appropriately titled ‘Acoustic Sessions’ - released on Record Store Day in 2015. You certainly can’t pin a lack of creativity or productivity on this band.

Their tight workethic brought them to all kinds of stages. From big to small, from well-known clubs to shady bars and from DIY festivals to internationally renowned ones. And just like the villain of the He-Man comics who bears the same name, they managed to gather hordes of loyal disciples along the way. Thanks to their ever-passionate and energetic live-shows, where aggression and melody - under the pretext of ‘opposites attract’ - find each other in the purest of ways.

For their latest creation, Earthquaker (set to release November 1st 2019), the band chose to walk a different path entirely. For their previous records, they worked with huge names in the industry such as Dave Collins (Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden, Black Sabbath, …), The Machine (Fall Out Boy, Lamb Of God, Clutch, …), Paul Logus (Anthrax, Steel Panther, …) and Ace Zec (Diablo Blvd., Spoil Engine, Customs, …). But what they were witnessing was a surge of Belgian bands that were releasing topnotch albums that sounded just as good as their internationally produced counterparts. Being no stranger to the DIY approach - King Hiss are still an unsigned band - they decided to enlist youngster Brent Vanneste (STAKE, Raveyards) as their producer. They soon discovered that he was the right man to lead them to, and beyond, new frontiers. His sheer talent, passion and creativity was exactly what the band needed to fuel the fire once again. The mixing and mastering were entrusted to multi-talent Stef Exelmans. This joint effort resulted in an audible chemistry that even Mendeljev wouldn’t have been able to classify.

Earthquaker tells the story of modern man, and if we were to believe King Hiss, humanity is in pretty bad shape. There’s a lot of bullshit being passed around and there’s less and less nuance. In this tale, the protagonist loses all his bearings in an overload of stimuli, feeds his thoughts on the delusion of social media and limps on a thin line between manipulation, stereotyping and polarization. He grins his teeth and speeds through his existence believing that he can shatter through the granite wall that is his own faith. Will he be able to conquer the storm or is he standing at the dawn of his own demise? King Hiss is festively beating the drums in a dark, debauched parade as we all slowly walk towards our impending doom.