London five-piece To Kill A King have announced details of their self-titled new album, to be released 2 March 2015 on Xtra Mile Recordings. You can preorder the album direct from Xtra Mile's webshop on physical and digital formats, from Banquet Records for something you can hold, via Amazon for all formats, and either Google Play or iTunes for a download copy. All digital pre-orders include 2 instant grats - Love Is Not Control and Oh My Love.
The follow up to their 2013 debut Cannibals With Cutlery, To Kill A King was recorded in The Distillery studio in Wiltshire with producer Mark Crew (Bastille, Rag n Bone Man). You can listen to lead single 'Love Is Not Control' below.
Tracklisting:
- Compare Scars
- Love is not Control
- Oh My Love
- Friends
- The Chancer
- School Yard Rumours
- Good Times (A Rake's Progress)
- Musicians like Gamblers like Drunks like Me
- Grace at a Party
- World Of Joy (A List of Things To Do)
- Today
The band will embark on a UK tour in March following the new album’s release, including their biggest headline show to date at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 14th March. You can find all dates and ticket links for the tour on our gigs calendar.
To Kill A King is the sound of a band hitting the peak of their powers. It’s the sort of record that could only be made now, an album where stadium-sized choruses, artful dynamism and sonic experimentalism slide seamlessly together. It’s also an album with a message – make now count. Says frontman Ralph Pelleymounter, “Compared to our last album, there has been a definite effort on this one to be more optimistic and more life-affirming.”
Pelleymounter and his bandmates – Grant McNeil (electric guitar), Ben Jackson (synth and keys), Josh Platman (bass) and Josh Taffel (drums) – are on the cusp of a big breakthrough and they have made a record fit to kick the door down. It will place the quintet firmly in the lineage of British guitar bands, such as Foals, The Maccabees, and Bombay Bicycle Club, who make imaginative, driving indie-rock. Like those groups, To Kill A King make music with no straitjacket on, a heady blend of youthful exuberance and spirited independence.
To Kill A King’s striking cover art features drummer Josh’s father Warren Taffel, who is pictured playing chess with his younger self. The original photo of the younger Warren was taken in the mid-‘50s, when Warren was 24, the same age as Josh is now,.
Aside from recording the new album, To Kill A King spent much of 2014 on the road. A headline UK tour culminated in a sold-out London date at Koko, and they also completed their first headline European Tour. They toured the USA as support to Bastille, performed at SXSW, and supported Xtra Mile label mate Frank Turner in Arizona.