Oh, man! I just had a quick tour of King Giant‘s upcoming third album, Black Ocean Waves, and I gotta say that it hits the spot! It’s satisfying on so many levels, bringing heavy metal elements in the vein of NWOBHM, doom metal, straight-forward hard rock, big hooks, a rich sound, and, of course, kick-ass musicianship without the showiness. The album won’t be released until next week, but you should head on over to Invisible Oranges where it’s streaming in its entirety.
Black Ocean Waves will be released on June 30th, with CD/digital distribution through The Path Less Traveled, with a vinyl edition to follow later this summer. Pre-orders for the album are available here.
If you do wander over to Invisible Oranges, you’ll find a cool track-by-track guide provided by guitarist Todd Ingram, which we’ve also included just below.
“Mal de Mer”
We recorded an instrumental on our last album Dismal Hollow and felt inspired to include one on this album as well. “Mal de Mer” means seasickness in French. This track supports the nautical theme illustrated by the album’s artwork. Pleasing and tranquil chords along with interleaving melodies turn into soaring solos and dual guitar harmonies.
“The One That God Forgot To Save”
A brutal aggressive song about a hooker’s revenge complete with hard driving rhythms and a blistering solo.
“Requiem for a Drunkard”
A great groove rocker of an addict’s spiral into madness and despair.
“Red Skies”
This song was selected to be our first video release for Black Ocean Waves. A composition of epic scale details the murder of an entire whaling ship’s crew by its Captain.
“Trail of Thorns”
Our second video release from the album. A full-tilt, straight-ahead rocker chronicling a man with plenty of scores to settle. When we were cutting the backup vocals we had Kowalski on the console and J. Robbins yelling the background vocals into the microphones with us. It was a blast.
“Blood of the Lamb”
A hauntingly moody song that examines the timeless quest for redemption as experienced by a member of an Appalachian Pentecostal Holy Roller congregation. As we were tracking this song, Kowalski mentioned he thought the break at the 2:20 mark would be perfect for a Hammond organ part. J. Robbins fired up an old organ he had sitting in the big room. We gave him the chord progression and D.K. ran the console while J. played the keys. It turned out great!
“The Gentleman Carny”
This track should have been the theme song to American Horror Story’s last season. It kicks off with heavy doom, but continues on a musical journey to frame the story of a serial killer Carny.
“There Were Bells”
The concept for the song was based upon all of the friends we’ve lost in the past few years, many of which were due to suicide or addictions. It’s a different kind of song musically/stylistically for King Giant, but we felt it best captured what we’ve experienced and were feeling.
King Giant has booked several new gigs for the summer months with more intense touring coming together that will see the band exploring other regions of the East Coast and the South of the country. Stand by for tour updates following the release of Black Ocean Waves.
King Giant Live Dates:
8/21/2015 Metro Gallery – Baltimore, MD w/ Foghound, Midnight Ghost Train
8/22/2015 L&Bs – Dale City VA w/ Foghound, Midnight Ghost Train
Rock Hard \m/
