Interview No Kings Allowed

No Kings Allowed discuss their evolution, masked identity, Dethroned Reimagined, live experiences, songwriting growth, and the exciting new chapter ahead for the band.

1. No Kings Allowed combines deathcore heaviness, metalcore hooks and cinematic atmosphere. How would you describe the band’s musical identity today, and what do you think makes your sound stand out?

We have never really wanted to lock ourselves into one specific corner of metal. Deathcore is probably at the foundation because we love the weight, the breakdowns and the aggression, but there is also a lot of metalcore in the melodies and choruses, and increasingly more groove and cinematic elements around that.

What probably defines NKA most today is contrast. We can go from something extremely heavy into a big clean chorus, then into an atmospheric section or straight back into chaos. Having two vocalists gives us a lot of freedom there as well.

We are not trying to reinvent heavy music with every song. We just want all of those different influences to sound like they belong to the same band. If somebody hears a song and recognizes it as No Kings Allowed before they see the name, that is ultimately what we want.

2. The band has a very distinctive visual identity, with each member performing behind a different colored mask. What does the masked concept represent for No Kings Allowed, and how does it contribute to the live experience?

The masks definitely create mystery and give us a very recognizable visual identity, but the idea behind them is actually quite simple. No Kings Allowed means that nobody stands above anybody else.

Every member has a different color and identity, but nobody is supposed to be the king or the main character. We are six people building the same thing, and we want the audience to feel like they are part of that as well.

Live, the masks allow us to create our own little world. You immediately know who everyone is by color, and combined with the lights, risers, movement and the two vocalists it makes the show feel like more than six guys playing songs on a stage. At the same time, we do not want the masks to become a gimmick. If you remove them, the music and the live performance still have to work.

3. Your latest release, Dethroned Reimagined, revisits songs from the band’s earlier period rather than simply remastering them. What made you decide that these songs needed to be completely re-recorded and reimagined?

The biggest reason was that we never stopped playing these songs.

The original Dethroned came from a very different period of the band.

NKA was much closer to a studio project at that point, and the current line-up had not fully formed yet. Then we started rehearsing, playing shows and discovering what actually worked in front of an audience.

Yarno joined and clean vocals became part of songs that originally did not have them. Guitar parts changed. Solos changed. Certain sections became heavier or more dynamic. Eventually we were playing versions onstage that were noticeably different from what people heard when they went home and played the original record.

At that point a remaster would not have solved anything. The problem was not simply the sound quality. The performances and arrangements themselves had evolved. So we wanted the recordings to finally catch up with the band.

4. The biography describes how the songs evolved through years of rehearsals and live performances, with new vocal parts, guitar arrangements and solos developing over time. How different do these songs feel to you now compared with the original versions of Dethroned?

The DNA is still completely recognisable, and that was important to us. We did not want to rewrite our own history just because we are better musicians and producers now.

But emotionally they feel very different.

The original versions sound like the beginning of No Kings Allowed.

The new versions sound like an actual band that has lived with those songs, played them in different rooms and learned where they breathe and where they need to hit harder.

There is also just more confidence in them now. Back then we were writing what we thought NKA could become. Now we know much more clearly what NKA is.

That is why we like the idea that both versions can exist. The original Dethroned documents where we started. Dethroned Reimagined documents what happened to those songs once they met the full band, the stage and the audience.

5. Yarno Lammens’ arrival brought clean vocals further into the band’s arrangements. How did his addition change the songwriting process and the balance between harsh vocals, clean melodies and aggressive instrumentation?

It gave us another tool, but more importantly it changed the way we think about dynamics.

Before that, a lot of the aggression had to come from constantly pushing forward. Once Yarno became part of the band we realized that melody can actually make the heavy sections feel heavier. If you give somebody a chorus they can sing with you and then completely destroy that atmosphere ten seconds later, the contrast becomes much more powerful.

We also do not want to fall into the predictable formula where every song has screaming verses and then automatically a clean chorus.

Sometimes Yarno sings, sometimes he screams, sometimes Jorgi completely takes over and sometimes the two voices work against or on top of each other.

Now the vocal possibilities are part of the arrangement from much earlier in the writing process rather than something we add when the instrumental is already finished.

6. Dethroned Reimagined keeps the core compositions intact while rebuilding the guitars, production, solos, arrangements and vocals. Was there a particular song on the EP that changed the most during this process, and why?

Definitely Dethroned itself.

That song probably went through the biggest transformation while still keeping the original composition intact. We improved and rebuilt the drums and overall production, added synth layers, ambience and string sections, and wrote a completely new guitar solo.

The second half of the song also became much bigger. The chorus has far more impact now, and we expanded the outro with distant, far-away ambient vocals and gang vocals. Those elements gave the ending a scale and atmosphere that simply were not there on the original recording.

It is probably the clearest example of what Dethroned Reimagined was supposed to be. We did not want to rewrite the song or turn it into something unrecognizable. We wanted to take everything we had learned from producing, rehearsing and performing over the years and finally create the version of Dethroned that we felt the song had grown into.

7. The songs from Dethroned have remained important parts of your live set. How has playing these tracks live for years influenced the way you approached their new studio versions?

A lot.

When you write something in a studio, you can convince yourself that a part works because it sounds good through your monitors. Playing it in front of people gives you a completely different answer.

After enough shows, you start feeling where people move, where they sing, where a build-up needs another few seconds and where something is getting in the way rather than helping the song.

We tried to bring that knowledge back into the studio. Instead of asking, “How can we modernize this old recording?”, the question became, “What is the version of this song that we actually play and believe in now?”

In that sense, the audience indirectly helped shape Dethroned Reimagined. These songs stayed in the set because people kept responding to them. That is also why we felt they deserved another recording.

8. Your current lineup has developed through releases such as A New Era and Dark Reign, leading to a heavier and more dynamic sound. Looking back, what do you think has been the biggest musical change in No Kings Allowed since the original Dethroned?

Probably that we stopped thinking only in terms of riffs and started thinking much more in terms of complete songs.

We still love a disgusting breakdown or a huge guitar riff, obviously, but heaviness alone does not automatically make something memorable. Over time we became much more interested in dynamics, hooks, vocal contrast, atmosphere and making sure every part has a reason to exist.

Dark Reign was an important step in that development because the production became heavier, but the songwriting also became broader. We were much more comfortable allowing melody, layered vocals and atmosphere to sit next to really aggressive sections.

The biggest difference is probably that NKA now feels like a band with its own language rather than a collection of influences we love.

9. Dethroned Reimagined is described as a one-time project, while the band is now focused on writing entirely new material. What can you tell us about the musical direction you are exploring for the next chapter of No Kings Allowed?

We are definitely looking forward rather than backwards now.

Dethroned Reimagined was a great way to close that chapter of the band, but the new material is where our full focus is.

We do not want to give away too much yet, because we think it is more exciting to let people hear where No Kings Allowed is heading for themselves.

What we can say is that everything we have learned over the last few years is coming together in these songs, and it feels like a very natural next step for the band.

And luckily, people will not have to wait very long to hear what that means.

10. Finally, after performing across the Netherlands, Belgium and neighboring countries, what has been the most memorable moment of your journey so far, and what would you like listeners to understand about No Kings Allowed as you move forward?

It is difficult to pick just one moment, because some of the most memorable ones were not necessarily the happiest.

One that will probably always stay with us was being robbed in Italy. At the time it was a massive blow, both financially and emotionally. What we did not expect was how quickly people came together to support us. Through crowdfunding we managed to raise an incredible amount of money in a very short time. Seeing that level of support when we were at such a low point meant a lot to us and showed us that there was already a real community surrounding this band.

There have also been difficult moments within the band itself. At one point, while we were together in the Ardennes, we were probably at one of our lowest points as a group. There were frustrations, disagreements and some difficult conversations. It took time to work through that, but eventually we did, and in hindsight coming out of that period made the band stronger.

That makes the great moments feel even better. Some of our first shows this year, like Gullegem Metal Fest, were genuinely fantastic experiences. Seeing familiar faces returning to shows, having such a loyal group of people supporting us, and even discovering that someone had gotten a No Kings Allowed tattoo are things we never take for granted.

And the exciting part is that it still feels like we are only getting started. There are already a lot of great things on the calendar, and even plans taking shape for 2027 and 2028 that we cannot talk about yet.

So hopefully the most memorable No Kings Allowed moment has not happened yet.

No Kings Allowed – No Kings Allowed official band website.