King Company was formed in early 2014 when Drummer Mirka ”Leka”Rantanen (Raskasta Joulua, Warmen, ex-Thunderstone, ex-Kotipelto, etc) had already been thinking about forming a new hard rock / melodic metal band for a long time. He wanted to play with people with whom he had worked with before and whom he knew as both good musicians and friends. First, he contacted guitarist Antti Wirman (Warmen) who was the first to join. The singer Pasi Rantanen was in Mirka’s mind from the beginning, as they had played together in a couple of bands before (Thunderstone, Warmen). After keyboardist Jari Pailamo (Kiuas, Ponies To Kill), and bassist Time Schleifer (Enfarce) joined the band, this newly formed group was ready to start working.
In the autumn of 2014, they entered the famous Astia Studio to record their first 3 song demo. Shortly after this, Antti Wirman got a temporary gig as the touring guitarist of Children Of Bodom, which limited their rehearsal time, but still the band managed to write more and more material. Eventually, industry contacts led to a recording contract with Frontiers Music. This was the band’s dream come true and at last the debut album recordings could begin. In 2015, the band played successful gigs in Helsinki and Jyväskylä. The nearly sold out venue On The Rocks witnessed the band’s first live performance as they played a set full of songs from the upcoming album.
The debut album was recorded and mixed by Janne Wirman and Kal Kaercher and mastered in by Mika Jussila and One For The Road was released in 2016. The album got plenty of great reviews from all around the world as King Company was ranked #7 in the famous Japanese BURRN magazine in the Brightest Hope Category. In 2017, the band toured in Finland resulting but Pasi wound up having severe vocal chord problems and eventually could not sing at all. However, a tour in Spain was already booked. After a excruciating search for a replacement singer, King Company found the perfect candidate from YouTube, of all places. Italian-Argentinian Leonard F. Guillan took the job and proved himself a great live performer.
After the tour, it was time to have a serious discussion about the future of the band. Because the recordings of the second album had already begun, Pasi felt that he didn’t want to slow things down, not knowing when he could sing again. King Company decided to continue without Pasi and asked Leonard to join the band as a permanent singer. Leonard was stoked to join the band and the vocal recordings could begin. Pasi stuck around as a vocal producer and with his amazing help, the vocal recordings for the second album were completed in the spring of 2018.
The new album, Queen Of Hearts will be released in August 2018 and after that King Company will start touring again in support.
TRACKLISTING:
- Queen Of Hearts
- One Day Of Your Life
- Stars
- Living In A Hurricane
- Under The Spell
- Never Say Goodbye
- Learn To Fly
- Berlin
- King For Tonight
- Living The Dream
- Arrival
- Good Thing (Bonus Track, Digital)
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CUzybZ25Ek[/embedyt]
