New King’s X Record Coming in 2022

King’s X superfans, here we go: after 13+ years, at least one false start and a pandemic getting in the way, we will finally get a new album from the band in 2022.

Speaking to Talking Metal, bassist and vocalist Doug Pinnick explained that the album is completely finished and has been turned into the label. The only hold-up is the ongoing pandemic, which he had mentioned was a major concern last year as well, citing the desire to promote any new music with a proper (and safe) tour. He said:

 “It’s been mastered. It’s at the record company, and they’re starting the campaign. We’re taking it slow ’cause we’re trying to figure out with this whole COVID thing and all the things that are happening. We wanna put the record out without a lot of distractions and getting sick on the road or just all the controversy. We just wanna wait a little bit longer and do this right.”

Speaking on the direction of the new material and the writing process for the band’s first album since XV (2008), Pinnick elaborated:

“Every song is completely different than the other — mixed and sonically; everything. We took every song and tried to do like The Beatles ‘White’ album and just sit down with a song and go, ‘Let’s give it what it needs.’ I don’t have to have my Doug Pinnick gravelly tone if I need a Paul McCartney-type sound. Ty [Tabor], he would fix his guitars to make… ‘This is like a whatever song. Let’s make it what it is but still be King’s X.’

“So I think that it sounds like King’s X but hopefully everyone will feel that we took another step forward. The whole point is just to try to push forward [while] still looking back. There’s a lot of things on this record that are reminiscent of King’s X totally, but then there’s this new King’s X, I think.

“Sonically, we’re really excited because it’s a complete analog record except with Pro Tools. It was laid down with analog — everything — and it was mastered on analog tape and even EQed with analog tube EQs to saturate the tape to get compression instead of digits. So there’s no digits on this record. So when you hear it, it’s gonna take you back a little bit. It sounds like you put a real record on in the ’70s, sonically. It’s, like, things jump out at you, and then they don’t. It’s, like, you go, ‘Wow, the bass is huge, but I can hear everything else,’ ’cause you can put your hands in it, almost.

“[Producer and engineer] Michael Parnin just did an amazing job — a painstaking job — to get it to sound like a record that you can put on and play forever.”

On a possible release date, Pinnick offered:

“2022. That’s all we can really say at this point. Because we don’t wanna commit to something ’cause we just don’t know what’s going on. People have waited [laughs] so long. It’s terrible, but hopefully good things come to those who wait. ‘Cause we haven’t put a King’s X record out in 13 or 14 or 15 years — I lost count.”

Pinnick previously cited Meshuggah as a new influence for him:

“I had some pretty crazy songs, time-change-wise, ’cause I’ve been listening to a lot of Meshuggah and shit like that. It’s not King’s X, but that flavor comes in. Imagine John Bonham playing with Meshuggah… But Ty and Jerry are singing a lot too. I tell people, it’s like from [The Beatles’ classic song] ‘Penny Lane’ to the heaviest Meshuggah — it’s a blend of something in between there. And one song to another almost sounds different, almost to the point where they’re individual pieces themselves, like Pink Floyd used to do. We’ve got violins and other things in it. I’ve got some keyboards and all kinds of things to enhance things — piano. Nothing overboard, but just like [Jimi] Hendrix did and people like that — big things coming in and out that gives it that longevity, I would say. Things that you hear and go, ‘Oh, wow. That’s cool.’ That little thing over there. So it’s taken Michael a long time to mix it, ’cause he’s got a lot of tracks.”

Pinnick is currently promoting a recent release from his bluesy side project, Grinder Blues, as well as a new solo album, Joy Bomb, out October 15 via Rat Pak Records. You can listen to tracks from both of those below.