Music Information Centre Norway says this about I Was A King:

I was a king is a band that demonstrates just how brilliant music can be made if one is a little easygoing about it. (…) Norwegian critics say of I was a king that they make the familiar motifs of indie rock appear anew, as epiphanies. Fifteen songs in 31 minutes says a lot about the album; it travels fast, like news of a gold rush (or an aural sugar rush as it were) and it will make you push the repeat button at once.

Read more here

I Was A King nailed Paste Magazine with their genuine hooks and truly gonzo guitar work:

I was fully expecting guys with food in their beards and rotting teeth who growled songs about nuclear warheads and Armageddon. What I got was fifteen short tunes high on the bubblegum content and the guitar distortion, a sort of psychedelic Archies.

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“It’s all you” is available for streaming at Stereogum’s Band To Watch-section.

The new self-titled album (…) features Serena-Maneesh’s Emil Nikolaisen on bass, drums and a co-production credit, alongside guest spots from Sufjan Stevens, Danielson and Ladybug Transistor, among others. But even without “star” contributions, the 15 tracks add up to pleasingly dense, tuneful, and ambitious batch of psychedelic power pop.

Read the article here

“Golden Years” is available for podcast at National Public Radio’s Second Stage.

The group’s self-titled album confidently weaves together shoe gaze, indie rock, and pop to create a product that can appeal to both the cynical and the cheerful.

Read the article here

“It’s all you” is available for streaming at Pitchfork’s New Music-section.

Those drums pound like Steve Drozd, Frode Strømstad’s androgynous vocals gravitate toward the upper register like Sophtware-era Jason Lytle, and the band bang out the song like they’re making up for the mistakes that might necessitate the past tense in their band name: “I saw you standing there but it was too late,” Strømstad sings. “The wall of silence was our first mistake.”

Read more here or here

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I Was A King received great reviews after their concert at Fisk og Vilt in Oslo as a part of the by:Larm-festival.

Read the reviews (Norwegian only) here:

Aftenposten :   NRK Lydverket :   Side2

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I Was A King’s “Norman Bleik” and “It’s all you” have just been released as a dual-track single available on 7″ vinyl and through iTunes. The 7″ single can be ordered from The Control Group.

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