Release Date: October 04th 2024. Record Label: Self Released. Format: CD/DD
Be Good - Track Listing:
1.Loan Shark Business Park 04:52
2.Space Bastard 03:26
3.How the Wheel Rolls 05:28
4.In His Cups 04:01
5.Designed for Big Movement 05:40
6.Wah Boot 04:06
7.Born with a Beard 04:26
8.Castaway 05:09
9.Lungs of Doom 05:54
10.Be Good, Get Good or Give Up 04:41
Review
Be Good is the debut album from Stoner Rockers Kraken Waker who come from my hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne and who I’ve seen a few times live where they always put on a great show. Kraken Waker play a similar style of music to bands such as Red Fang, Clutch, Planet Of Zeus with a bit of Black Label Society and Alice In Chains thrown in for great measure.
The band do add a heavy dose of Groove Metal which gives the album a more melodic and heavy metallic sound which comes right into play on the excellent opening track Loan Shark Business Park. The sound is quite modern with Kraken Waker playing an aggressive style of Stoner Rock/Metal which becomes more Groove oriented within the heavier sections of the track. The vocals are superb throughout which immediately draws you into Kraken Waker’s deeply satirical world which is thanks to the clever lyrics they’ve written for this track which is one of the albums main strengths. This shows how the band have a great sense of humour to match the hard-rocking grooves that appear on the majority of the album.
Be Good is built upon a foundation of EPIC RIFFS with Kraken Waker playing a wide range of different riff-centric styles with even a FUNK sound appearing on the second track Space Bastard. A song that’s very straight to the point but one that has a classic CLUTCH sensibility running through its DNA. There’s a great sense of NOSTALGIA within this track which fuses different eras of the Hard Rock and Stoner Rock scenes which shows how the band have great timing and creativity which only becomes more apparent as the album progresses.
Third track How The Wheel Turns takes a more Heavy Metal stand with a subtle Psych Rock swagger which becomes more Sludge Rock and Grunge based with Kraken Waker switching genres that allows the track to become slightly heavier and melodic. The instrumental jams are a breath of fresh air especially if you’re a fan of Classic Hard Rock. However, Kraken Waker shows some Progressive melodies that have a slight Mastodon sound to them. This is one of the standout tracks on the album and showcases what the band does so well.
You can classify Be Good as ALL KILLER AND NO FILLER with the band have written a collection of outstanding tracks with the band even adding THIN LIZZY classic sounds into their music with the outlandish fourth track In His Cups being the prime example of this. The track alone will speak volumes to fans of CLUTCH but performed with a determined gritty attitude of Kraken Waker’s own creative making.
The second half of Be Good only becomes stronger and even more outlandish with Kraken Waker delivering more subtle slabs of aggressive and muscular STONER ROCK that’s packed with plenty of attitude especially on tracks such as Designed For A Big Movement, Wah Boot and Lungs Of Doom being the other standout tracks from the album.
There’s a bit of everything for everyone to enjoy on the whole album as Kraken Waker delves into so many different musical genres that you never know what you’re going to get. This allows Be Good to be quite a different and exciting style of Stoner Rock than you initially expect with Kraken Waker always delivering the goods through every individual track.
My advice - Add this to your collection now. As this is a superbly entertaining album which should hopefully allow Kraken Waker to build a cool reputation within the Stoner Rock community.
Words by Steve Howe
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