The second coming of King Zog
Perth doom metal band King Zog have announced two shows to celebrate the launch of their long-awaited second album, Second Dawn. The first show goes down at Milk Bar on Saturday, July 27, before the four-piece head down south for a gig at Prince of Wales Hotel, Bunbury, on Friday, August 9. BRAYDEN EDWARDS got the story behind the album from King Zog’s Dan Durack, and found out about a world of UFO desert death cults, mad monks, man-eating trees and more.
Congratulations on the release of your new album, Second Dawn! How long has this record been in the works for, and do you recall your initial inspiration for writing it?
Thank you! Second Dawn was recorded last year at Pink House Studio in Mt. Helena and took a while to mix because the producer (Derek Mattin) is based in Canada and is an in-demand fella. There was a bit of back and forth, finalising mellotron sounds, gongs, and the like.
After forming Zog with Vince Radice back in 2013, I left the band in 2019 to move to the UK with my wife, Sarah. I wrote the songs that appear on the album with the intention of forming another band once I returned to Perth. Once the restrictions were lifted, we moved back in 2021. Zog had folded in my absence (they’d intended to continue as a three-piece), but I talked Vince into starting the band up again, and then once we’d settled on a rhythm section, he quit!
He just wasn’t digging the stuff I’d written. It had felt a bit weird not having a collaborator on this set of songs, but Vince’s replacement, Connor, is an absolute gun—we’ve already worked up a heap of new riffs and ideas for the next album.
Did you have a specific theme in mind when you wrote Second Dawn? Are there any key ideas you feel flow through the record as a whole?
COVID in the UK was a shitful time, but we lived in a picturesque village in Surrey called Godalming. While Sarah worked in our upstairs office, I spent my days looking after our baby daughter and dreaming up riffs and lyrical ideas featuring elements like the mad monk Rasputin, a mythical man-eating tree in 19th-century Madagascar, wasted nights in Mt. Lawley from a long time ago, plus a few personal things.
There’s no central theme, but the album’s instrumental opener and final two songs allude to a fictional 1970s UFO desert death cult, Second Dawn, who follow a sinister woman named Aruna. The title track tells the story of a city drone who hears about the cult and joins, and then much wasteland horror ensues.
How has your sound evolved from your earlier releases? What artists inspired your sound, and has that changed over time?
I’m not sure how much our actual sound has evolved, but I think the overall feel and vibe of the band have. With the title track, I was really trying to tell a story, almost like a short film. It sounds wanky, but the sonic palette feels like it’s widened a bit. We have some synth, mellotron, and gongs appearing in places throughout the record.
In terms of influences, it’s the same hoary old names, really. Electric Wizard, Pentagram, and Black Sabbath—natch! But I came of age in the 90s, which means some of the so-called grunge bands are never far from my stereo. When we were in England, I was listening to a lot of cool old English stuff, including acid folk and psych. Mighty Baby, Wimple Winch, Pentangle. Maybe a bit of everything found its way into our thick stew.
And how did you go about capturing it on record?
We recorded the album at Pink House Studios up in the Perth Hills. Benny Ward did an amazing job of capturing our sounds. We would stop at a bottle shop in Midland and grab a selection of dark beers, head to the studio, set up some big vintage amps, and let rip. We had a great time up there. From there, Derek over on Vancouver Island took over and made the whole thing sound fantastic. We’re so happy with the finished result.
You’re launching Second Dawn with live shows in Perth and Bunbury soon. Have you changed up the live set to make room for the new songs?
We have. We’ll be playing a handful of our old songs, then playing the album in full.
Who else will be performing at the launches, and what can you tell us about them?
Witchcliff are playing both the Perth and Bunbury shows. Hailing from the South West, they are one of the gnarliest and heaviest bands in the country—nay, the hemisphere. Possibly beyond. Molten, thick riffage. For the Perth show on July 27, the bill also features Halo of Teeth, Filth Goddess, Bong Wraith, and Scientia.
Halo of Teeth are such a unique band (post-black metal). I have seen them twice, and they are terrifyingly great. We’ve shared the stage with Filth Goddess in the past, and they are a magical and mesmerising two-piece band. They build huge soundscapes with just guitar and harmonium. Bong Wraith are quite new on the scene, but they are a monstrously heavy four-piece band who have also recorded up at Pink House.
For the Bunbury show, along with Witchcliff, will be Hidden Feast, a three-piece feed of Sou’ West stoner doom and Meat Sleeper, another new behemoth of a band who recorded at Pink House who we can expect great things from.
