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.Â
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!Â
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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