Doc Thompson, co-vocalist Samwell, and guitarist Motherfokker began playing as teenagers in Cambridge MA, sharing a strong affinity for metal and early funk. “Initially, we bonded over Black Sabbath and Metallica,” relates Samwell. “Metal became an addiction. Then we discovered Funkadelic’s album Maggot Brain and The Meters. Funk was a revelation. Experiencing groove for the first time blew our exceedingly white minds.” Excited to fuse both influences, the three found that funk and metal dovetailed perfectly. “If you’re banging your head and shaking your ass, it’s doubly devastating.”

Relocating to New York, the members formed King Hell. “We were originally called Longinus, but everyone thought that was a venereal disease, which is metal but not in a good way.” To complete the band, new drummer Shille-Lee and bassist Zigabot were brought on board. While both were well versed in funk, they also brought to King Hell experience with different genres. Shille-Lee drummed for seminal ‘80s hardcore outfit The Abused, and Zigabot had played in death metal bands. “They were the perfect compliment. They could groove like demons, but when we wanted to step on the gas they were capable of going absolutely ape shit.”

Another significant addition to King Hell was the element of an electric, theatrical stage show. “People long for bands like Queen and Kiss because they were larger than life. Plugging into that was liberating. At some point rock got really self-conscious. We’re confident enough in the quality of our music to embrace carnival.” Drawing on their love of comics, a concept for a rogue team of rock avengers emerged. “It started under control, but by our second show Doc was in a zoot suit waving a Tommy gun and I found myself standing on a horned anvil in Batman’s pants.”

After releasing their debut EP in 2007 on Seventh Level Records, the band began building a strong following throughout New York, quickly branching out to play shows across New England and the Tri-State area. A year and a half of steady gigging culminated in shared bills with reunited schlock rockers Green Jelly and an opening spot on horror punk legends The Misfits 30th anniversary show in front 2,000 people. Playing with costumed bands became something of a theme. “If you look goofy, we’ve probably played with you.”

Towards the end of 2008, the band hunkered down to begin work on their first full-length recording, Rhythm & Bruise, a 13 song maximum effort due out in August of this year. “We pushed ourselves to write songs that spanned everything we could do—then we reached beyond that and cooked up stuff we didn’t know we had in us. Plus we packed each song as densely as superhumanly possible with hooks. There are no throwaways.”

To capture the broad spirit of the new material, the band signed on with engineer and co-producer Sal Marmondo whose diverse resume spanned work with hard rock bands like Clutch to a Grammy nominated CD by jazz artist Raphael Cruz. “We didn’t want every song to sound the same, and we don’t like the synthetic production value on most hard rock records today. Sal got that, and managed to capture how we sound live. Also, at no point in during the recording process did he shoot us, which was a big plus.”

King Hell will broaden their reach to play shows across the country throughout the next year in support of Rhythm & Bruise. Look for them in a club near you soon, and possibly under your bed.