Philadelphia’s Vegan Straight-Edge Hardcore band Kingdom is everything I love about real hardcore: fast, loud, aggressive and completely unapologetic. Their music is a flavorful blend of old-school head-bobbing chug-chug and lighting fast raucousness. Amazing songs tinged with elements of both metal and punk rock; teeming with a brilliance not found in many of the perfunctory hardcore bands today. More people should know about this band; they’re too rad not to.
Recently, I reached out to Davin (lead vocalist) of Kingdom with a few questions. She responded in kind; this is what she had to say.
Who is Kingdom?
We’re a hardcore band from Philadelphia (and various other locations on the east coast) named after Philly’s infamous vegan Chinese restaurant- Kingdom Of Vegetarians (11th and Race St.- I highly recommend the walnut shrimp.)
When, where and how did Kingdom get its start?
We formed when Ben (our original drummer), Weezy (our original guitarist), and I screamed Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” at the top of our lungs in Richmond, Virginia from December 31, 2005 into January 1st 2006. A few months later we were all writing songs together in the spare room of my apartment in Philly (which sounded nothing like “Don’t Stop Believin’”, unfortunately.) We recorded a demo, booked a tour, found a bassist who learned our songs the week before we left, and in summer 2006 we hit the road.
Vegan. Straight-edge. These are two ideals that Kingdom carry on their sleeve; can you tell us more about this? Continue Reading…
