Cruel Santino’s third album, K.O.T.B - The Bomberman Chronicles, has been out since November 6, and under its story of arms dealers and sea creatures sits something personal. The album’s release notes say grief was central to its making, as he worked through the sudden death of a close friend he lived with while he was learning his craft.
The fiction runs backwards from his last album. K.O.T.B is set 3,000 years before the Final Heaven arc of Subaru Boys: FINAL HEAVEN, his 2022 album, and follows a company of arms dealers selling weapons to wipe out sea creatures before humans learned to live alongside them. Santino summed up the look as “Spy lore meets royal regalia, James Bond meets Final Fantasy” in the label’s October announcement. The full title, Kings of the Bounce, names a prized line of weapons in the plot and also nods at the rhythm he and his collaborators have built, and the release notes place the record’s texture where Final Heaven meets his earlier Mandy & The Jungle.
He announced it on X on October 12 as “Album No 3,” and on release day posted the link under a dagger emoji and the same tag.
The guest list is short and mostly Nigerian. Jeriq raps on “Oz.,” Zaylevelten shares “Big Drop” with OctobersRich on the intro and outro, Mavo joins “Siesta,” Indi sings on the closer “Heaven is in Pain,” and Helena Gao features on “Rolen.” Tay Iwar and L0la add vocals to “Stubborn.” The Apple Music credits list Santino, under his given name Osayaba Ize-Iyamu, as a songwriter on all 14 tracks, with GMK mixing most of them. Production is spread across a crew: Genio Bambino on “Stubborn” and “Big Drop,” tyrad on “Gypsy Gowns,” “Orcad Trust” and “Heaven is in Pain,” OTE on “Benin Bounce,” Tochi Bedford on “International Collector,” Tom VR on “Rolen,” and Indi on “Kentro.” UNIT KAI posted that he co-produced “Rolen” and “Orcad Trust” and added production to “Game of Death.” Vic Reagan produced “Oz.,” and Santino calls that song “one of the original foundations of what I call the bounce,” adding in the same announcement that Vic “is one of my closest friends.”
The 30-second Apple previews show how far the moods swing. “Bomberman” opens the album as the loudest and heaviest in the low end of the four previews we heard, with a hook that keeps circling back to the title. “Stubborn,” with Tay Iwar and L0la, sits brighter and lighter on the bottom end and drops quieter through the middle of the clip. “Benin Bounce” is the quickest and builds steadily from a spoken opening. “Heaven is in Pain” moves slower on softer drums, with Santino leaning on the title line before the clip thins out.
Listen on Apple Music: music.apple.com/ng/album/k-o-t-b-the-bomberman-chronicles/6821104575
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/0RMuFV5eRer749Ww20OP7w