“With the first album we were getting to know each other, with the second one we knew where we wanted to go” – interview with King Kraken

This five-piece band from South Wales has just emerged with a vengeance, unleashing a frenzy of riff-driven classic metal fury. With rumbling guitars, powerful vocals, and a quick rhythm section, King Kraken forges their own route while acknowledging the genre’s greats.”March of the Gods” was the band’s second studio album, and it was released on April 18, 2025, so we had to ask couple of questions about their new album and their rise to fame. Chaoszine spoke with the entire band, who is formed by vocalist Mark Donoghue, drummer Richard Lee Mears, bassist Karl Meyer, rhythm guitarist Pete Rose and lead guitarist Adam Healey right before the London show.

You’ve been making waves in the metal scene for quite some time now…How long has it been?

King Kraken: I guess seven years. We were hiding away for three years because of lockdown, which you know was difficult because we tried all different ways too come together as we all live all along Wales, like 100 miles away from literally five different countries.” Rich shared with us.

I can imagine that was challenging. 7 years is a good amount of time, how has your sound evolved since the beginning?

King Kraken: We trimmed a lot of things for this album and it’s more concise. Sound wise, I’d say, we’re not too distant, but just better songs. That’s what songwriting is really about, combining the same sort of styling music and all of that. We become more focused with the right things compared to the first album.” Karl elaborated.

You can definitely hear this focus on the album. Do you think it was due to how you grow as individuals within the band or there was actually some new inspiration, like band for examples?

King Kraken: I think, as you said, sort of growing up with with a new sound within the band and the way that we were writings.” Peter explained. “I think the first album we were getting to know each other, and to learn the type of songs that we wanted to actually write together.” Rich noted. “Second album, we knew what we were going to do, we wanted to hit the ground running and we did that and everything just fell into place. This time around we had more of a goal to achieve. With the first album, it was a little bit of like, we don’t know where this is gonna go, but with “March of The Gods”, we definitely knew where we want to go. And as we said, we‘ve been on the road for a while so we knew what we wanted to be with that, what sort of radio stations we wanted to push and all sort of things.” “To add on that, the challenge of the second album was sort of keeping the same sound of the first album but making it more accessible to a wider audience.” Mark contributed.

It was mentioned about being on the road and I noticed that you guys are touring only in UK for now. Are there any plans to cover places outside the UK in the near future?

King Kraken: It’s definitely something that we’ve talked about. It’s just getting the right people in the right places to be able to make it happen, really.” Rich passionately urged, “See the fjords before we die!” Mark made a light-hearted comment about it. “Brexit hasn’t helped with bands touring.” Peter added. “I think for us the biggest problem is just getting people in the right places and getting all the right promoters in certain areas. If you kind of travel to Europe you don’t want to be playing for 10 minutes right? You want to go for a reason.” Adam elaborated.

How is your fan base outside UK?

King Kraken: We’ve got people in the venue tonight that have come to see us from the Netherlands, and asked us to go and play there, which is amazing! And, yeah, we actually sell a lot of merch, outside UK, for example Australia and America. We’re big in Brazil apparently.” Mark explained.

Are there any particular tracks from this new album that you are excited to play live?

King Kraken: So every song from the new album is going to make an appearance tonight and some of the classics”. Karl explained. “I think some of our favourites tonight are going to be, “Chainsaw Saviour” “Scream” and “March of the Gods”.

In the past you’ve performed in Bloodstock and played with some big names. What’s been one of the most unforgettable shows you’ve played so far?

King Kraken: Uh, Bloodstock was incredible. And we’ve got Stonedead Festival coming up this year with over 5000 people, which is gonna be absolutely insane” Mark shared “..and to name few others Crowbar, Geoff Tate”. “But the biggest gig in terms of like, how much I enjoyed it, It’s probably been playing the album” Adam added “I mean we’ve played far bigger gigs but when you play it in front of a room where people are there for you, just came to see us, hit differently and it’s more intimate”.

The venue tonight will definitely give you the intimate feeling. Looking ahead, what’s next for King Kraken?

King Kraken: We’re already making plans. As soon as we wrap up the tour, we’re back in the rehearsals. We will be focusing on the set for Stonedead Festival after that, we’ve got two dates with Phil Campbell. Then we’ve got the first indoor festival of Bloodstock for the winter gathering in December. And then, I think it’s the year wrapped up. Next year, we will come back with bigger and better things, which we can’t really divulge yet.” Rich shared.

I guess we will stay tuned then! We got to ask one last question before we wrap up. Our webzine started in Finland and has since expanded globally, are there any Finnish bands you listen to or that you take inspiration?

King Kraken: When people say Finland we think rally drivers, I know it’s completely non-music related” Adam shared with us. Mark chimed in “But for Finnish band? I guess we can definitely say Nightwish and Children of Bodom”.

Thank you for your time! Would you like to add anything for Chaoszine’s readers? Perhaps something that no one ever asked?

King Kraken: We are not that intimate!” Adam made a playful comment about it. “But we can share a fan fact. Our producer, Romesh, actually guested on the first album. At some point he took one of the guitar and started to play, and that piece was added into one of the track.” Mark contributed.

Thank you for the King Kraken guys to chat with us and a huge thanks to Dave from The Noise Cartel to made this happen.

Interview and text: Sabrina Schiavinato
Photo: Peterson Marti