How "A Bunch Of Bozos From Melbourne" Turned Into Global Touring Machines

Melbourne's King Parrot are an extreme band in every sense of the term. Their unique brand, and blend, of face-melting grindcore, thrash and extreme metal is not for the faint of heart, but has endeared itself to fans of this style of music across Australia and the world in the last six or seven years of this band's existence. And, given the nature of their sound, that rise up the musical pecking order has been somewhat surprising and no one has been more taken aback by their success than the band's crazy frontman Matt 'Youngy' Young.

"We're looking to release our third album some time in the second half of this year."

"When things start to pay off, and you get to play at some cool festivals, and go out on tour with some of your favourite bands... It's just incredible for a bunch of bozos from Melbourne like us!" He laughs uproariously, "I remember being in Romania, we were playing in Bucharest, and it was like, 'What the fuck are we doing here? How is our fucking band playing in Bucharest?' I just think, 'How the hell has playing in a grindcore band got us to this point?'"

The band's overseas adventures have seen them tour North America and Europe many times over, but have kept them off the road in their home market. However, this is about to change with the upcoming onslaught that is the Thrash, Blast & Grind national tour, which kicks off mid-February and features a stunning line-up of Aussie heavy music luminaries.

"It's an exciting one," Young enthuses, "we haven't been on the road with Psycroptic for a couple of years now. Geez, it's great to get out on tour in summer in Australia, so we thought, 'Bugger it, let's get out there and have a crack'. And we were lucky enough to get Revocation from the US on board, too — they're good buddies and an awesome band, and bring something different to the table as well. Then there's Whoretopsy, who are more the slammin' death-metal style and Black Rheno, who are a pretty new band but kicking massive goals and doing everything right. All in all, it's an exciting tour package to be part of."

Young has some great news for the band's hardcore fans who are coming to check out the tour, too. "At the moment, we're just demoing and preparing some new material, and we're going to showcase some of the new stuff on tour. It's been coming along great, so that's exciting."

Just as exciting is the fact that King Parrot fans won't have too long to wait to hear some brand new material from the band. "Yeah, we're looking to release our third album some time in the second half of this year," he states. "So we'll just get this tour done, get out there for some summer fun, and then go underground for a bit to get this album done. And then no doubt the touring cycle will kick off again, we'll be out on the road for ridiculous amounts of time again!"