Bio

King Parrot is a five piece band from Melbourne, Australia. King Parrot specializes in in grind core, thrash metal and punk rock genre’s and have been operational since 2010. 

The band consists of Matthew Young on vocals, Ari White on guitar, Andrew Squires on guitar, Wayne Slattery on bass and Todd Hansen on drums. 

The five members of King Parrot are accomplished musicians on the Australian scene and have toured internationally since 2014, completing 18 tours overseas in North America, Europe and Asia. 

In 2011 King Parrot recorded and released their debut EP, “The Stench of Hardcore Pub Trash” in Australia through Impedance Records and Rocket distribution. The band began touring nationally and were building a strong following through their energetic and entertaining live show and relentless work ethic.

In 2012 the debut album “Bite Your Head Off“ was released in Australia through Impedance Records and Rocket Distribution before the band was signed internationally to Candlelight Records in the UK. This worldwide deal bought the band international recognition and the video’s for the songs, “Shit On the Liver”, “Dead End” and “Bozo” bought the band further attention as they continued to tour in Australia and in 2013 began supporting bands like Thy Art is Murder, Cattle Decapitation, and Psycroptic as well as becoming a headliner in their own right. The band did their first international tour to Indonesia and appeared at the Obscene Extreme Festival in Jakarta while also playing the Melbourne Soundwave Festival to an enthusiastic hometown crowd. 

They toured the US and Canada throughout 2014 as their fanbase and audience grew exponentially. Their own headlining tour along with extensive tours with the likes of Origin, Cattle Decapitation, Vatnett Viskar, Down, and Orange Goblin lead to them signing with US based Housecore Records for North America, Agonia Records for Europe and the UK, and EVP Recordings in Australia.

The second King Parrot record Dead Set was written and recorded in the US throughout 2014 as the band was touring and spending most of its time in the US. After completing their touring for the year December 2014, the band headed to Philip Anselmo’s Nodferatu’s Lair studios in Louisiana to record. Upon return the band landed a spot on the Soundwave tour in summer of 2015 and played large festival shows throughout Australia.  

The band proceeded to tour in Europe, the UK and then in North America with US act Weedeater, before returning to Australia to launch their new album in May 2015. 

During this North American tour vocalist Matthew Young became involved with popular US band Soulfly. Lead vocalist of Soulfly, Max Cavalera and Matthew collaborated and performed on a track together for the new Soulfly album “Archangel”. The song was entitled “Live Life Hard” and was recorded in Los Angeles with Grammy award winning producer Matt Hyde. “Archangel” was released late 2015 on Nuclear Blast Records and led to King Parrot being offered a support slot on the Soulfly 2016 European and UK tour. 

A full-scale national tour for the Dead Set album took place in Australia throughout May 2015 before the band returned to the US to tour alongside Housecore Records label mates Superjoint and Child Bite in July of 2015. 

The band completed further touring of Australia in 2015 establishing their now long running “Regional Rampage” series where they visit many regional towns off the beaten track. These regional shows further solidified King Parrot as one of Australia’s premiere extreme bands. In September and October of 2015 King Parrot joined Cattle Decapitation, Black Crown Initiate and Dark Sermon for an extensive North American tour for 6 weeks. The singles and videos for the songs “Like A Rat” and “Home is Where the Gutter Is” further propelled King Parrot into the spotlight and added to their catalogue of unique and entertaining videos in collaboration with producer Dan Farmer. Dead Set was nominated for an ARIA award in 2015. 

In January/February/March of 2016 King Parrot took off to Europe and the UK to tour alongside Soulfly for 6 weeks taking in a vast majority of the continent. Further Australian tours were completed in 2016 before the band then went on to North America again with Canadian act Voivod for an 8 week tour through the US and Canada and an appearance at Rockfest in Montebello, Quebec. Not long after returning the band joined Obituary, Exodus and Prong throughout September and October in Europe and the UK for another extensive tour of the region and also performed at Bang Your Head Festival in Luxembourg.

In early 2017 the band took part in an Australian tour alongside Psycroptic and Revocation called “Thrash Blast Grind”, and also ventured to New Zealand for the first time. They also played shows in regional areas before taking some time to finish writing and record for their forthcoming album that was released in September 2017, titled “Ugly Produce”. Upon release of the album the band toured to the US alongside Superjoint and Devildriver. They then headlined in Europe and Japan from September to November in succession before landing back in Australia in December to launch the album for their biggest headlining Australian shows to date.

2018 saw King Parrot play at Download Festival in Melbourne alongside bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit, before undertaking their most adventurous Regional Rampage tour yet. Alongside US punk band Child Bite the band played 24 shows along the East Coast of Australia from Melbourne to Cairns. 

The band then returned to the US alongside Philip H Anselmo and the Illegals for 20 shows and a performance at Berzerker Festival in Michigan and on return completed a string of Australian East Coast shows. Ugly Produce was nominated for an ARIA award and the band attended the awards ceremony for the second time. 

In March 2019 Philip H Anselmo and The Illegals and King Parrot toured Australia and played sold out shows throughout the entire country and was a great success. Another Regional Rampage tour took place in Victoria through May. Throughout the rest of 2019 King Parrot played shows in Australia alongside Psycroptic and US act Dark Angel as well as travelling the country and playing their own headlining shows including an appearance as headliner at The New Dead Festival in Adelaide alongside Fleshgod Apocalypse and Abramelin. 

In January 2020 King Parrot celebrated the 8th anniversary of the Bite Your Head Off album with a hometown Melbourne show and special vinyl release, and also toured Japan alongside Philip H Anselmo and The Illegals. On return the band travelled to Far North Queensland for shows in Cairns and Townsville. As Covid hit the world, the band was unable to perform live, but began working on the EP release “Holed Up in The Lair” which featured tracks previously recorded in the US and unreleased. An animated video for the single “Kick Up a Stink” was released in conjunction with the EP in 2020 and a limited run of 1000 vinyls were pressed worldwide. 

Shows were few and far between in 2021 until Killfest in Kilmore where King Parrot performed as headliner alongside many local bands. Later in the year plans were made for the band to celebrate their 10 year anniversary until Covid restrictions cancelled the majority of the tour with an exception for the Melbourne and Adelaide shows. 

Later that year the band were a headliner alongside Spiderbait and Clowns for Halloween Hysteria Festival in Brisbane and as January 2022 rolled around the band were able to reschedule the New South Wales leg of the 10th anniversary shows. A short 3 show east coast tour took place where the band played Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney in April before the 2022 edition of Regional Rampage saw the band play 9 shows throughout Australia in regional areas in May and June. The band were finally able to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Bite Your Head Off by playing the album in full in Melbourne as well as travelling to Western Australia, Tasmania and headlining Froth and Fury Festival in Adelaide. 

January 2023 saw the band tour the East Coast of Australia with US act Unearth and also completed a Queensland trip before touring Australia in July and August and visiting regional areas as well as a slew of sold out dates in the capital cities. 

In September 2023, King Parrot returned to the US and Canada for the first time since prior to Covid, and performed at their largest US shows to date alongside Pantera and Lamb of God. 5 shows on east coast of the US were performed with King Parrot receiving an excellent reception. The band also performed alongside old friends Weedeater for a week of shows, appeared at RPM festival and Full Terror Assault festival, as well as headlining West Coast dates with support from Filth is Eternal and Spirit in the Room. 

In 2024 the band toured Australia as part of Knotfest around Australia with Pantera, Lamb of God and Disturbed as well as a slew of their own regional dates. The band plan to finish off 2024 with a headlining tour of Australia with support coming from Weedeater, Astrodeath and Choof. 

King Parrot are currently working on a new album which will be scheduled for release in 2025 with further extensive touring planned in the US, Europe, UK, Asia and Australia.