KING NUN have returned with their new single BLACK TREE. You can watch the video below!
The track comes alongside news of the band’s highly anticipated debut album, MASS, which will be released on 4 October by the iconic Dirty Hit. The record sees a fresh sonic approach from the West London four-piece and BLACK TREE is the perfect indicator of the band’s innovation for this release. Taking influence from the likes of NIN and Nick Cave, the single is King Nun’s darkest effort to date, revealing the blacker aspects of the human psyche whilst unleashing a sound as vital as ever.
Speaking about the track, and MASS as a whole, front man Theo Polyzoides says:
“Black Tree is a hard run through something bleak, and I think it had to be done. The album is really autobiographical; it’s full of songs about becoming, songs about reminiscing, songs about making an album. It’s a tribute to teenage angst, to naivety, to memories both melancholic and despairingly sad – to the need to step up to the plate.”
MORE INFO ON MASS
Dressed up in cultish imagery, complex lyricism and a mutating, tradition-be-damned approach to rock music’s typical sonic palette, King Nun’s long-awaited debut album is a coming-of-age record like few others.
From the title of the LP itself – a multi-faceted reference to that coming-of-age as an almost cultish ceremony – to the warped melodies that drive tracks like LOW FLYING DANDELION and the heavenly-sounding closer (and ode to long-forgotten German folk singer Sibylle Baier) A GIANT CAME DOWN, MASS refuses to remain in one sonic space. The result is a record which eschews conventional rock structures and sounds in favour of something more ambitious and boundary-pushing, whilst never losing sight of King Nun’s brilliance as a live guitar band.
A record centred around both personal exorcisms and more universal lived experiences, King Nun’s debut is a lofty accomplishment from a group no longer content to simply kick up the dirt at their feet. MASS is, without doubt, a record which finds King Nun stepping up to the plate. A confident, charismatic and complex debut LP, it proves the quartet are embracing their self-appointed role as one of rock music’s last great innovators.
MASCARA RUNS
CHINESE MEDICINE
TRANSFORMER
COWBOY
I SAW BLUE
BLACK TREE
LOW FLYING DANDELION
SHARING A HEAD WITH SETH
INTRAVENOUS
BUG
A GIANT CAME DOWN
The album announcement comes in the wake of a huge summer for King Nun: a recent support slot to Foo Fighters; a wealth of raucous performances at festivals throughout the country; and a tour of the USA with Reignwolf in August. September will see the band play their own headline shows in the USA alongside a support slot with Black Flag; whilst October sees them return for a UK and EU tour with The Struts; with November bringing a full EU tour with The Sherlocks. Full dates as follows:
SEPTEMBER
Mon 02 PORTLAND, OR Bu Bar [Headline]
Tue 03 SEATTLE, WA Crocodile [Headline]
Thu 05 CHICO, CA Senator Theatre [with Black Flag]
Sat 07 SAN FRANCISCO, CA Independent [Headline]
Sun 08 LOS ANGELES, CA The Echo [Headline]
OCTOBER
Fri 11 MANCHESTER Academy [with The Struts]
Sat 12 EDINBURGH Liquid Rooms [with The Struts]
Sun 13 SHEFFIELD Leadmill [with The Struts]
Tue 15 NORWICH UEA [with The Struts]
Wed 16 LONDON Kentish Town Forum [with The Struts]
Thu 17 CARDIFF Great Hall [with The Struts]
Sat 19 LEICESTER O2 Academy [with The Struts]
Sun 20 BOURNEMOUTH O2 Academy [with The Struts]
Tue 22 TILBURG O13 [with The Struts]
Wed 23 ANTWERP Zappa [with The Struts]
Thu 24 PARIS Trianon [with The Struts]
Fri 25 COLOGNE Burgerhaus Stollwerck [with The Struts]
Sun 27 BERLIN Columbiatheater [with The Struts]
Mon 28 MUNICH Technikum [with The Struts]
Tue 29 MILAN Fabrique [with The Struts]
NOVEMBER
Thu 14 ANTWERP Kavka [with The Sherlocks]
Fri 15 COLOGNE Heliosstrasse 37 [with The Sherlocks]
Sat 16 MUNICH Folks Club [with The Sherlocks]
Sun 17 ZURICH Exil [with The Sherlocks]
Tue 19 VIENNA Chelsea [with The Sherlocks]
Wed 20 PRAGUE Café V Lese [with The Sherlocks]
Thu 21 BERLIN Cassiopeia [with The Sherlocks]
Fri 22 HAMBURG Molotow [with The Sherlocks]
Sat 23 AMSTERDAM Bitterzoet [with The Sherlocks]
Mon 25 PARIS Supersonic [with The Sherlocks]