Kings County “All That I Want” (single)

At the foundation of every quaking moment in the new single from Kings County, “All That I Want,” is a bass that seems to be at war with the other elements in the band if for no other reason than to shake us as hard as the stadium-rocking drums do. “All That I Want” is a heavy dose of hard rock adrenaline served up from a rookie crew of riff-addicted musicians ready to introduce a little bit of melodic noise into the fold for a new generation of fans to appreciate, and though its sound is indebted to a genre that many had deemed past its prime in the 2010s, it couldn’t sound much more alive with passion and energy even if the band had wanted it to.

URL: https://www.kingscountyofficial.com/

Aesthetically, I think this single is as much a metal track as it is a rock track in some respects. The guitars have a heaviness that can’t be found among mainstream groups, but the structure of the composition is much more fluid than one would hear in a modern day metal number. I get the impression that making a big impact with volume alone isn’t a major priority for Kings County; there’s far too much of a melodic bend to their music, and even at its most extreme and virtuosic, their sound is never weighed down with a lot of pomp and frills that a lot of acts in their position would depend on when making a song as powerful as “All That I Want” is.

The master mix here is very meticulously constructed, much like everything on Kings County’s debut album is, and compared to the relatively streamlined style of play that their major label counterparts have been toying with lately, their production design is a lot more intricate. Attention to detail is important no matter what genre of music a group is trying to make, and for this band, I feel like their sound is all the more reliant on each player’s commanding presence connecting at the same time. They must have spent some serious time in the studio perfecting this track, and if they didn’t, their chemistry could well be some of the strongest in the southeastern US underground at the moment (at least among rock acts).

APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/kings-county/1474035319

Rockers who have been hungry for a classic sound flanked with modern sonic exoticisms can’t go wrong in acquiring their own copy of the Kings County single “All That I Want” this month, and if it’s just a glimpse into what this group can accomplish when there’s nothing to get in their way creatively, it’s going to be a really prosperous decade for their brand. Rock music could definitely use more testosterone these days, and in Kings County’s first official studio album (and especially this leadoff single), we’re exposed to the kind of melodic machismo that has been mostly absent from the dial in the last ten years or so. This is just the beginning of their journey, but I’m looking forward to seeing where their creativity takes them from here.

Nicole Killian