March of The Gods
Artist: King Kraken
Genre: Alternative, Metal, Rock
Release Date: 18 April 2025
Hotly anticipated as part of the recently announced Bloodstock Winter lineup, as well as being alumni from last year’s festival, King Kraken have unleashed their latest offering of ferocious riffs upon the rock community. The new album, March of the Gods, is to be dropped on April 18th. Here’s what we thought:
The album starts with ‘Scream’ and gets things off to an abrupt start, with some catchy riff work. The tone of the guitar throughout the entire song is very satisfying. As an opener, it feels like a throwback to the 2000s, with Mark Donoghue having a bit of an American twang to his vocals. It’s a nice slow start with some flashy soloing in the middle and a strong, shouty finish. As far as sound goes, ‘El Giganto’ feels like the best track to follow ‘Scream’, but it is quite similar. That said, it’s a bit of a shift going from a more abstract song to something as direct and specific as ‘El Giganto’. This track does a great job of showing how tight Richard Lee Mears is on drums. Every moment and pause, however brief, you can hear his work on the kit. ‘Berserker’ is where all points in the previous two songs come together. It’s very groovy, a little heavier, and has a gravelly vocal performance. It’s also a great case for how a strong bass line can carry a song, as the mix on ‘Berserker’ shows off bassist Karl Meyer more. It feels like the most complete track of the first three, and one you could easily know as “a King Kraken song.”
In the middle of the album, the songs take on more of a chugging style and have shorter, simpler lyrics. Tracks 4 and 5 are great examples of this, and they must be amazing live. They almost make you headbang without thinking. The title track, ‘March of the Gods’, has a stellar solo in the middle. While ‘Hero’ is one of the slowest tracks on the record but boasts some equally great guitar work. For pacing, these two tracks go together really well. It felt like they stood out for their differences when listening to the album right through. Adapting either one for the live stage would be easy, based on the energy in the studio version alone. ‘Vigilante’ has some big shoes to fill as the start of the second half of the album, especially after a ballad like ‘Hero’. March of the Gods feels like an album of two halves, and ‘Vigilante’ arguably does a better job of kicking off the second half than ‘Scream’ does for the whole record.
At various points in March of the Gods, King Kraken seem to flirt with a groovy hard rock vibe. With ‘Preacher’, the album takes a turn toward classic rock. There are gang vocals on alternating lines, plus some catchy, revving, and then duelling guitar parts. Pete Rose and Adam Healey on guitars are a talented pair. As March of the Gods draws to a close, King Kraken look to end on a strong note. While not the most imaginative title, ‘Magnum Opus’ is a sleeper hit on the album. It’s hard not to hear a Drowning Pool-style guitar tone at the start. Donoghue sounds a bit like Wales’ answer to Ryan McCombs, but Kraken’s signature groove soon takes over.
Following this, ‘Chainsaw Saviour’, the album’s lead single, and ‘Under the Sun’ see us off. ‘Chainsaw’ is one of their strongest offerings. It’s lyrically abstract again, and with the kind of flash they bring here, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the final track. But there’s one more. ‘Under the Sun’ has that “last gunslinger” vibe. Kraken have a feel for old school rock, and this feels like the song a group would victoriously rock out to to finish a night. It’s a very strong way to end the album, with a wailing guitar note being the last few seconds of March of the Gods!