Review Fix Exclusive: The King Must Die’s Mike Sloat Talks Future And More

Review Fix chats with The King Must Die’s Mike Sloat, who discusses how the band got together as well as their goals following their successful first album.

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Mike Sloat: Scott (bass) and I have known each other since grammar school and have played together off and on since we were 15. Corky (drums), Doggie (vocals) and Kent (guitar) have known each other just as long and played together off and on throughout the years as well. When Scott and I were asking around about drummers, Corky’s name came up a few times, so we jammed and it was great! After that, he had mentioned Doggie as a vocalist. We tried a few other people, but it just wasn’t right. So Doggie came in and NAILED it. Kent was still in a band at the time, but they ended up breaking up which freed him up to come over to us. It’s been this same line up since 2011.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Sloat: Usually, I write and record demos of songs, send them to everyone, they learn the parts, then we hash it out in practice. Once we know the basics of each song, we experiment with structures, intros, endings, etc. and feel out what works the best for each song. Doggie writes all the lyrics and usually has them down by the time we even play it for the first time! He’s an amazing lyricist and super fast at it. Corky is great with figuring out what each “Hook” should be for the song, if there isn’t an obvious one already in place.

Review Fix: What do you think makes this band special?

Sloat: We all are rooted in metal, having grown up in the bay area thrash scene, but we all have very different tastes, styles and influences. I would say our influences range from Slayer to the Allman Brothers, Jazz, classical…I think you can really hear it in some of our songs, and it keeps it interesting.

Review Fix: How would you describe your style?

Sloat: We’re a modern bay-area-thrash band; definitely rooted in bay area thrash, but with a modern spin on most of our songs.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this album?

Sloat: Our first album did much more than we expected, so we’re really working on getting our new album out even wider. We’ve already released one music video and one lyric video; next we’ll be releasing a second video, possibly a third, and at least one more lyric video. 

Review Fix: What’s the standout song? Is there a story behind it?

Sloat: Our first video was for “IN BLOOD”, which was our first down-tuned song (drop D). We usually write in standard tuning, but the way the main riff ended up sounding, it just need to be in D. This is a mid-tempo song, which we don’t have many of, but has some nice fast riffs in the middle during the solos, then really picks up to a classic thrash tempo at the end. You can watch the video for the story behind it! 

Review Fix: What’s next?

Sloat: We are playing gigs around the bay area right now, then a short break over the summer, and hopefully venturing out of our home area a little more this fall. One more music video coming up, possibly two, and more lyric videos.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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