Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
4.0 out of 5 stars
King Cannibal- Let the Night Roar LP Review (8/10), 10 Oct 2009
King Cannibal's debut album 'Let The Night Roar' is, by all accounts, a monster. You know it's kind. The slow, lumbering beast of your nightmares that you can run from, but you will never escape. The zombie that lurches and stalks you, and will get you in the end, no matter how hard you try. You know of this monster, but you've never heard it in an aural format - until now.
King Cannibal, aka Zilla, aka Dylan Richards, has been around on the scene for a few years now, peddling some well received mixtapes but never producing material of this calibre until the first 12 inch 'Aragami Style' was spawned back in 2007. A dastardly fusion of dancehall, dubstep and dark drum and bass rhythms; the track stormed dingy underground dancefloors and was championed by forward thinking pioneers like Amon Tobin and The Bug. Since that first awakening, the beast has grown ever-bigger, with a few more 12 inchers seeping into the public consciousness, and stirring up an anticipation amongst artists and fans alike. 'Let The Night Roar' is King Cannibal's Frankenstein, finally animated after years in the laboratory and sent growling into the night.
The 'Intro' which leads into first track 'Aragami Style' contains all of the whirrs and clunks you would hear in Jigsaw's dungeon of horrors and establishes to the listener that the following hour will not be a pleasant one. As the eerie ticking of a stopclock segues into Aragami Style's sinister opening, it is very clear that this is the calm before the imminent storm. A few more seconds of unease and the creature suddenly jolts to life in all it's gargantuan, smothering glory. The menacing bass and heavy, midpaced beats are not so much the sounds a rabid demon would imbue, more those of a stomping swamp thing. Awakening roars are replaced by hungry grunts when the onslaught of Aragami Style ends and the simmering tension of 'Murder Us' begins. Indeed, KC wants us to feel the darkness and evil through song titles like these, and malevolent bass throbs maintain an oppressive atmosphere. Rasping vocals from Jahcoozi bring a more human but no less moody edge to the proceedings. However these are not the strongest MC skills on display; next track 'Virgo' showcases rapid-fire French rhyming over a more straightforward dancehall instrumental, coming off like the evil twin that Buraka Som Sistema doesn't talk about; whilst on 'Dirt', Daddy Freddy spits a fury that embodies the violence King Cannibal set out to create.
The ogre continues it's swathe of destruction with machinegun drum fire and booming vocals on 'Colder Still', skittering percussion and bass bombs on 'The Untitled' and persistent rhythms on 'A Shining Force'. It almost seems invincible in it's relentless oppression. However, all beasts have a weakness, an achilles heel. For this one, it's the repetition of its favoured attack. Whilst the tracks vary in tempo to keep things fresh, the rattling drums and lurching bass are relied upon a bit too often which can make the cuts difficult to distinguish when listened to individually as opposed to in the running of the full work. Nevertheless, King Cannibal has cleverly ordered the tracks to ensure the best material bookends the work. Just when you thought you had the monster beaten, and it falls to the ground - leaving an uneasy, eerie mood displayed on 'Onwards Vultures' - it summons up one last burst of anger, one final sting of it's tail, on the previously released 'Flower Of Flesh And Blood'. Combining all the most effective elements of the previous 50-odd minutes, it displays its dominance with rumbling notes and a crushing dubstep beat. The final assault leaves us in no doubt that King Cannibal has come to conquer us. Mark these words, any dubstep/drum and bass aficionado that feels up to the challenge of taking this leviathan on (their headphones), will swiftly find themselves at it's mercy. (Kiron Mair)
For fans of: The Bug, Amon Tobin, Bar 9, Reso,
|
|
|
|
~ Various Artists
~ Mary Anne Hobbs
~ Chef and Ramadanman
~ Chris Clark
~ Faltydl
