King in Yellow has always felt like a band out of time, even if putting a finger on what actual timeline they are fleeing from seems an impossible task.
Perhaps their gnarly take on Joy Division’s bleak soundscapes suggests an alternative version of the early post-punk scene. Maybe their intense grungery offers an insight into what the Seattle sound of the early nineties might have sounded like, had things been pushed even deeper underground instead of allowing the more commercial urges to take the reins. It could be that they are, instead of looking back to existing scenes, projecting their own “what ifs” and “why nots” into a sound yet to take hold, that they are sonic prophets offering portents of the sound of the future, or one possible sound, at least.
The reality is that all these elements seem to be present in their latest single, “Love Supreme,” a song composed of layers of angular and intense guitars, grinding, perpetual-motion rhythm sections, and lyrical deliveries that are barked right into the listener’s face.
But then this is a band that has always been hard to pin down. Sure, there are elements that sound familiar, but essentially, King in Yellow represents the belligerent attitude of not playing by everyone else’s rules —a non-conformist, wonderfully uncooperative, free-spirited, contrary yet constructive force that has always sat at the heart of rock and roll.
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