Can a mix of grind, punk and thrash ever be melded into a serious record? King Parrot’s Bite Your Head Off seems to answer with a resounding no! Placing an inverted crown in their logo and the potential Darkthrone reference with Blaze in the Northern Suburbs makes the evil in this album more B-movie than Beelzebub. With only one song touching the three-minute mark on this album, the guys have done a great job crafting each song into a short sharp onslaught. Almost as soon as you get into the groove of a song you are immediately hurled into the next, with eleven songs crammed into a mere twenty minutes in true grind style.
The themes may be fun but don’t let that fool you into thinking the music is anything but a cacophony of torment. Spitting out savage sections which are quickly interrupted by more groove-based riffs, particularly title track ‘Bite Your Head Off’ which will do just as the name promises. Youngy’s punk style vocals are cut through the music, energetic and harsh breaking the lyrics with the occasional pained cries. The guys round off the album with the final track ‘Sandy’, a heartwarming thank you from the band that would have even the likes of Charles Bronson crying for his mother. The most impressive part of this record is the fact this is their debut album. Its ceaseless brutality will do much more than just rip your head off… from start to finish it tears you limb from limb
9/10
Caitlin Smith