King Kraken – MCLXXX
King Kraken – MCLXXX
Self-Released
Release Date: 27/01/23
Running Time: 46:11
Review by Dark Juan
9/10
Hello. Guess who’s back after depressingly few shenanigans over the now past festive period? I am Dark Juan, and now I have finally re-joined the 21st Century by reconnecting myself to the Information Superhighway and having moved from Dark Juan Terrace to the more conducive surroundings of Crow Cottage I can finally bring your attention to this new years’ crop of head-mashing extreme music.
I hope that you all receive all the blessings you wished for in 2023, and a shitload more that you didn’t know you wanted. I’m having a beer or two while I listen to the Welsh groovesters who have called themselves King Kraken. “MCLXXX” is their debut full length release and if you know your UK Metal scene you will have seen or heard them somewhere. You know, like a lingering fart that some dirty bastard has dropped with a sound not unlike felt being ripped and fucked off giggling while you chew on what they have left behind.
I’m not saying that King Kraken are like the smell of shit. It was a poor analogy, OK? I was saying that King Kraken are omnipresent. Because they are…
Lest I need a JCB to dig myself an even bigger hole, I’m going to delicately leave that statement behind me and describe some music for a change. King Kraken employ the power of groove like few other bands do and their tunes are absolutely banging, butty bach!
Album opener ‘Devil’s Night’ doesn’t fuck about with any subtlety. It’s straight into some high-octane heavy fucking metal where special mention must be given to the extraordinary throat of Mark Donoghue, whose edgy, gravelly vocals are just sheer class, reminding this mildly cranially traumatised reviewer of a slightly more melodic Neil Fallon – in fact, the whole band operate in the same musical stratum as Clutch, with the melody of Black Stone Cherry, the complexity of Mastodon and the groove power of Pantera chucked in there to create a brew that’s intoxicating as well as powerful.
The band don’t let up at all – ‘Man Made Monster’ is a briskly tempo’d straight ahead rocker with a chorus designed to have a bunch of sweaty, hairy bastards and bitches howling it back at the band, yet there’s a slightly jarring but fucking brilliant pair of solos in the middle of the song (one almost trad metal twin guitar shenanigans and one bluesy and groovy), ‘Bastard Liar’ takes no prisoners whatsoever and ‘Walls Of Jericho’ references Dio-era Black Sabbath rather splendidly, but with added roaring from the agile, adaptable throat of Donoghue.
The performance of the whole band sounds eye-bulgingly committed and more than a little bit scary in intensity – the whole record has a kind of slightly deranged, spit-flecked quality that screams that King Kraken are a cracking (see what I did there?) bunch of lads to go out on the lash with but piss them off and you’ll be retrieving your head from a different county than where you found your legs. The record is slickly produced, but slightly lacking in bottom end. Speaking as a man who likes big butts and cannot lie, Dark Juan feels that cranking up that fucking bass would allow King Kraken to knock Dark Juan’s untalented arse clear into the next room, although the playing of Karl Meyer is faultless. The guitar work on this album is second to none as well – Pete Rose hammers home a solid rhythm backdrop to the incendiary and inventive soloing of lead guitarist Adam Healey, whose playing encompasses everything from the Blues to modern Metal to give him a very unique style, which is perfectly translated to the record. Drummer Richard Mears puts in a hard-as-nails performance on the drums, although he is poorly served by the mix of the record as it has rendered his bass drum about as resonant as a fart in a vacuum, and his snare is haphazardly and unexpectedly mobile around the mix. However, we must remember that I am listening to a debut recording and there are going to be some points which ain’t fucking perfect. This will be taken into account when the record gets its score from The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System shortly.
Ignoring the slightly dodgy production, there’s virtually nothing to dislike about this record. Enthusiastic and worryingly intense performances from the whole band, highly original soloing and arrangement of the music, a vocalist who’s a fucking PEACH (yeah, I do mean hairy and squishy. What’cha gonna do about it?) of a frontman and so much groove that Pantera have downed tools and fucked off home from their tour because they can’t compare to this bunch of Wales-based sheep botherers. Can’t say fairer than that, can you?
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System would like to remind you that it still exists after a few weeks away due to moving houses and shit like that. It would be privileged to award King Kraken 9/10 for a debut record that’s that full of promise, Fry’s Turkish Delight wants its catchphrase back… A mark was deducted for not having a big enough bottom end and a slightly dodgy production. Otherwise, a fucking brilliant record and a hell of a way to open the 2023 account. Good lads. Da iawn.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Devils Night
02. Bastard Liar
03. Green Terror
04. Veins
05. Haddonfield ’78
06. Man Made Monster
07. Walls of Jericho
08. Proctors Ledge
09. Chaos Engine
10. Castle of Bone
LINE-UP:
Mark Donoghue – Vocals
Pete Rose – Rhythm guitar
Karl Meyer – Bass
Adam Healey – Lead guitar
Richard Mears – Drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.