Full Length Promo

With their promo featuring selections from the upcoming full length, Kūka'ilimoku largely haven't changed from their early demo days. There's still Darkthrone, Ildjarn and a handful of second wave usual suspects informing the sound. With the inclusion of a Poison Idea cover, it should be evident that the hardcore influence hasn't gone anywhere. Kūka'ilimoku are still raw enough to give you salmonella, but the anonymous man behind the project has beefed up his sound substantially. The demo featured sliver-thin production and next to no bass presence. A fair amount of muscle has been added to Kūka'ilimoku's frame, with energetic punky black metal blasting off with heft and vigor.

The guitar work is very much in line with what we've come to expect from this Hawaiian one man band. Rickety tremolo lines wash over raucous hardcore outbursts. A caustic snarl rasps along over punky beats. This is better than ever though, the riffs more memorable, the guitar tone burlier and the drums tighter. It sounds like if a second wave band commandeered an 80s hardcore session. The Poison Idea cover especially brings the punk tendencies out. It's sloppier and more rehearsal quality than the original, but it's hard not to wish that he gave it new life by giving it the full tremolo treatment. The drum work is a particularly notable improvement. In interviews our anonymous band leader has stated he's learning to program, but I think the debut full length will still be done in his old style - that is taking four practice pads doing the up-top drum parts and then going back and setting one pad as the bass drums and finishing the beat. While it's surely a macgyvered workaround, I suppose sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to make the music happened. He does as well as can be expected with this makeshift set up, especially for someone who admits to not practicing regularly.

Honestly I really love the idea of an anti-colonialist punked-up black metal band from Hawaii exploring the indigenous traditions of the island. No folk metal is attempted, this is a rip-and rage guitar onslaught. Nevertheless, it's always neat to see new themes in black metal. It's a lot more interesting thematically than the 10,000th black metal release about how evil Satan is. I've always been on the look out for bands like Night Hag where it feels tremolo on top of hardcore punk and I'm glad this was recommended to me. I still don't think he fully hit his stride yet, but I reckon we'll have a quite solid full length on our hands this year.