Australia’s VICTORIA K will be releasing the sophomore album “Kore” this coming October via Rockshots Records to follow the highly praised 2020 debut album “Essentia“.
Offering up progressive symphonic sound, “Kore“ was specifically written to provide a full orchestral experience that drives people through a sonic journey of growth and grandeur.
“We wanted to take a new approach with this record and to grow our sound and bring something new to Victoria K. Incorporating sounds from our vocalist’s ethnic culture and heritage is something we are so extremely proud of! A concept album is something we really wanted to explore, and we are so excited to bring you this ancient story and create a sonic experience and journey for all our listeners. We cannot wait to share this new stage of Victoria K!”
“Kore” explores modern-day issues through the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (the story of Persephone). Victoria K conceptualized the idea for the album with her producer Lee Bradshaw and then spent many months researching and analyzing the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, even meeting with experts of the Homeric Hymns from Greece. The story was then broken up into its different parts where Victoria Knight wrote the lyrics and developed the melodies for each section of the tale, exploring the myth from a modern perspective.
The tracks were written specifically to encapsulate the various sections of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and tell the story chronologically through each song and the music grows in intensity throughout the record capturing the emotional state of Persephone and other characters as the story progresses.
The various instruments on “Kore” were then written by Victoria around the lyrics and further enhanced and developed through the production process. Lee Bradshaw then finalized the songs by writing orchestral scores for each song, which were recorded live in Europe, before the final mixing and mastering.
Today, Victoria K shares the first single “Persephone” to preview what’s to come from the album, adding in further detail: “This song came to us as different sections. For example, the riff was a separate idea, then the chorus and so on. We found that all these sections coincidently just fell together. The name ‘Persephone’ comes from the same person that the album does. Persephone is the name that ‘Kore’ took on when she became queen of Hades, meaning bringer of destruction. We wanted to then play with this idea in the music in this song, constantly switching from the softer melodic sections to the heavier aggressive sections. This is to portray the two minds that Persephone would be in. This song has come to be our favourite on the record, we feel like it encapsulates our sound and energy!“
Digital – https://bfan.link/persephone
Album Pre-order – https://bit.ly/VictoriaK_Kore
Recommended for fans of Lacuna Coil, Rammstein, Within Temptation, Spirit Box, and Delain, Victoria K‘s new album “Kore” is due out October 14, 2022 from Rockshots Records.
TRACKLISTING:
01 – Prologue
02 – Raptum
03 – Mothers’ Garden
04 – The Child
05 – Persephone
06 – A Divine Revelation
07 – Tower
08 – Blasphemia
09 – Pomegranate
10 – The Afterlife
11 – Epilogue
Melbourne’s Symphonic Metal singer/songwriter Victoria Knight (under the pseudonym Victoria K) on the 5th of May, 2019, released her brand new single “Lacuna” distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Warner Music Group (Australia), which was the first offering from her debut album Essentia.
As a result of being invited to support the Swiss Folk Metal giants Eluveitie Victoria K formed the current band who have adopted the name Victoria K. On the 18th of May, 2019, Victoria K played the main support for Eluveitie at their Melbourne show, and produced a performance that had the crowd chanting for an encore.
Victoria K signed to Rockshots Records (Italy) in early 2020 and released their debut album ‘Essentia’ on the 24th of April, 2020. Essentia has received global media attention and the band has been featured in Legacy Magazine (Germany) and Heavy Magazine (Australia) amongst many others.
Essentia debuted at #17 on the Australian iTunes Rock & Metal Charts with the four Music Videos (Lacuna, Forsaken, The Haunting and Matrix) receiving over 230,000 YouTube views.
Victoria K’s ‘Essentia’ won Album of the Year in the Femmetal Awards 2020 and was a finalist in the Best Band and Best Music Video categories and Victoria Knight was a finalist in the Best Operatic Vocals category.
Victoria was also nominated as ‘Best Vocalist’ in the Metalgoddesses.com awards named amongst the best vocalists of the genre including Floor Jansen, Elize Ryde, Fabienne Erni and Charlotte Wessels. Victoria K was also nominated in the metalgoddesses.com awards for Song of the Year (Matrix) and Album of the Year (Essentia).
Anders Sandvall of Metal-rules.com identified Essentia as “one of the strongest debut albums this year” placing the album at #2 on his Best Albums of 2020 and also cited Victoria K as the ‘Best New Band.’
Due to the global pandemic Victoria K was unable to tour so in June, 2020 they played a worldwide Live Stream Show from the studio via Rockshots Twitch Channel and have since released a DVD of the event.
In November 2021, Victoria K commenced their 9 show Australian Tour with shows in Melbourne, Wollongong, Newcastle, Sydney (sold out), Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Whyalla (sold out) and Broken Hill. Due to Covid the tour was run over three legs with the second in March 2022 and the third leg in April, 2022.
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