To Kill a King – Cannibals With Cutlery (2013)

A couple of years ago, I went to see Neil Young at British Summer Time, a series of one day festivals curated around one headliner. There were numerous good bands performing that day, such as The National, Phosphorescent, Caitlin Rose, Lucy Rose and Tom Odell. One of the performers was the alternative folk band To Kill a King. I did my research for the bands performing in advance and To Kill a King was among the artists I wanted to see. But then at the actual day, it became clear that it was virtually impossible to see any of the smaller bands performing in tents, because the tents were way too small for those artists. As a result, the queues were enormous and most of the people, including me, were left out. Later on, I found this album on a CD in a local record shop and it didn't cost much so I decided to buy it. This was only a few months ago, so I haven't yet really listened to this album much.



To Kill a King plays folky indie rock. Some of the songs are more folky and some of them actually are more heavily played on electric instruments. The band is part of the whole 2010's folk revival phenomenon. I was really happy when that started happening in the UK when I had just moved here, because I have been longing for more this type of music. Cannibals With Cutlery has some great sounds, but many of the songs leave a bit of room for improvement. There's nothing in particular wrong with any of the songs. They just don't impress me over other similar bands.

The album starts with a quiet piano ballad I Work Nights and You Work Days. this beautiful day starts out very simple, but when it grows enough, it becomes really beautiful. In that sense there are some similarities to Elbow. The following song Cold Skin is like from a rule book of how to make modern sounding folk rock. The song starts quiet and with acoustic guitars, but it explodes into rhythmic indie rock in the chorus. Funeral was the song that I was most familiar with when I went to the concert with hopes to see the band. It was on my playlist for the festival. This song has some great clear electric guitar sounds and catchy chorus melodies. Wolves is another song that doesn't sound much when it starts but that really turns out to be a great song once you reach the chorus. The title-track Cannibals With Cutlery is one of the few authentic folk songs on the album. It has some nice acoustic picking. Besides She Said is a great folky tune that reminds me of some Mumford & Sons songs. Gasp/The Reflex grows almost into a full-blast post-rock song with big guitar walls. Choices is a beautiful folk ballad with more acoustic subtlety. Rest of the album is more or less the same, so I'll stop here describing individual songs.

Apparently, To Kill a king has some great music videos. The music video for Funeral is a very cinematic experience. It starts with an old man pushing a young man around in a wheelchair at a British seaside town. The young and old man part ways and they both get into various experiences in the sea side town until the old man finds the wheelchair on the beach empty, at which point it becomes apparent that all the adventures were actually experienced by him, but he was just imagining himself as a young man in a wheelchair.

To Kill a King may not be the most exciting band out there, but I do like their music and with time, they could become great.

Listen to the album on Spotify.