King Company was founded in early 2014. Their debut album “One For The Road” soon followed in 2016. Now the band is back with a new singer: Italian-Argentinian Leonard F. Guillan. Their new album “Queen Of Hearts” was released 10 August through Frontiers Music slr. Reason the more to celebrate the release of their sophomore album by having a show at Virgin Oil co. in Helsinki on 18 August 2018.
I arrive this time, to my surprise, in time for the support act of the night Silver Bullet. I realize during the show I know nothing of the band so quickly catch up and it seems like they have some established names in their lineup. I found out the band bases their lyrics on classic horror movies – I guess I should have seen that coming with a name like that. An intro track kicks off the show and soon two actors come on stage to perform a tiny horror movie sketch. I feel a bit awkward, as the audience that’s present, stays in the back and it seems like me and 4 other people are the only ones who dare to come in front. Nevertheless, this didn’t scare the band at all. After all, the audience in the back was engaged as well and it seemed like they enjoyed, while having a beer. All-in-all the and played some classic heavy metal tracks, with great orchestrations and a lot of energy, it was a tight show.
After a great support, King Company entered the stage. Before the concert, I had an interview with King Company. In the interview they told me about the energy of their new singer. When they told that he had an energetic stage presence, they kind of made an understatement out of it. Jumping, twirling, running, my vocabulary has not enough words to describe how active this singer was on stage. I am not sure if I have ever seen that much energy.
The sound in front of the stage unfortunately was not that great, so after a couple of songs, I had to move to the back, to be able to hear the voice that matches all this energy. From there on the sound was excellent.
The set in general sounded great. Wirman plays nifty guitar solos once in a while and often bad ass heavy riffs. Well, it’s no longer a secret that great musicianship runs in the family there.
The turnout for the night could have been better. There were many gigs happening around Helsinki, all of them niched in hard rock and heavy metal, so that explains to me why eventually the venue wasn’t packed. Nevertheless, the audience dared to come in front during King Company and they enjoyed the whole ride. The band played both older songs and new material. The audience was head banging and a variety of other people in front of me were moving their hips to the beats.
All-in-all I had a great time at the concert. The band had some kind of mesmerizing effect on me as I was really impressed by their energy. Perhaps you can see for yourself in the following live videos.
