Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By The Ugly Kings, Kozmik Artifactz Records 2018.
The Ugly Kings is a hard rock band that hail from Melbourne and Darkness is My Home is their debut release, via German Label Kozmik Artifactz.
Let me tell you it’s an impressive debut effort.
They really do play a great mix of solid blues and power rock, with tinges of heavy metal.
There are many influences in their sound including Black Sabbath and Airbourne, for whom they’ve already opened, as well as the Black Keys, Wolfmother, and even a bit of Beasts of Bourbon.
The Ugly Kings are Russel Clark on vocals, (Devil Electric) guitarist Christos Athanasias, Nicolas Dumont on bass, and Andy Alkemade on drums.
Darkness is My Home is crammed full of songs that display the eclectic nature of their songwriting.
It’s as if they’ve delved into my record collection and squeezed out the essence of why those records are important to me.
There’s the blues of The Doors and Led Zeppelin, the heaviness of Sabbath and the hard edge of Metallica but also the experimentation and subtlety of Jack White.
The intro to their fantastic cover of David Bowie’s Lazarus could be straight from a White Stripes album which then morphs into a wonderful tribute to the great Bowie himself.
These blokes really do know what they’re doing and the fact that they’ve impressed big name artists such as Airbourne’s main man, Joel O’Keefe, and the Rival Sons, Papa Roach, enough to ask the band to open their Melbourne shows for them speaks volumes about their ability.
The band have released a great video for the album’s first single, Promised Land. Check it out.
Darkness is My Home is available now on CD and digital release as well as three different vinyl versions.
Without a doubt one of the best first up efforts I’ve heard in a long time.
