Death of Kings’ Kneel Before None Is the 2017 Gem I Missed Like an Idiot

As a guy who writes about metal semi-professionally, I get a ton of promos from metal bands and labels from all over the globe. And as much as I try to listen closely to all of them, sometimes a great one falls through the cracks. This stings to discover later, but never more than right after End of Year list season, when you realize a band who might have charted high on your Top 15 didn’t get the praise and promotion they deserved.

Such is the case with Atlanta thrash band Death of Kings, whose 2017 release Kneel Before None graced my speakers for the first time this week (honestly, I only discovered them by Facebooking drummer Amos Rifkin’s other band Spewtilator). From start to finish, Kneel is a goddamn motherfucking pleasure to listen to, a charging and chugging avalanche of riffs that manages to incorporate just enough influences from both classic metal and extreme metal to feel simultaneously nostalgic and modern. I was sold on this album by the end of the first song, but thankfully the band is tireless in its talent, and every song thereafter bears the same rabid energy and infectious drive.

So, to Death of Kings, my bad. You would’ve easily ranked high on my EOY list. And to our readers, do yourself a solid and listen to Kneel Before None below. The band has just released the album on vinyl, and their merch has some of the coolest barbarian art I’ve ever seen on it (I am considering getting the cover of the Regicidal demo tattooed on me somwhere), so go buy a bunch of their shit at their Bandcamp.