This will be biased – after all, this is one of the main reasons this platform was born – I feel like I have to get this out of the way before I say anything else. From an artist and album that have influenced me in the best (sometimes the most confusing) of ways.
Last year around April I was stuck. Working 10-12 hours per day, in a corporate job I despised, surrounded by a false sense of urgency, egos and vanity, toxic masculinity and standards impossible to achieve as the goal post kept changing every time I thought I was close.
I was done. I needed a refuge, and music had been my refuge for years. Turned soft in recent year, leaving behind the MCR and FoB influenced formative years, the obscure punk, weird electro core beats and others. I’d fallen into the mainstream mostly, music for the sake of noise. Until a TikTok popped up in my feed.
Superhero by Kim Dracula. It was… weird? Confusing? Yet somehow it drew me in from the first 10 seconds of a song I couldn’t yet place into a genre (boy would I learn more about that later!) and a video that reminded of the DC classic Watchmen.
I stopped everything, gathered my partner and friend and played the videos first, then the album. What ensued was a series of “what the fuck have I listened to and why does it work so WELL?”
Quickly realizing that Kim does not stick to a genre instead they cannibalize on a multitude of sounds and samples, creating a sound that fits nowhere at all, but grows incredibly addicting the more you are subjected to it.
Violent beats are followed by chilling vocals and even more violent transitions from jazz, electro core, metal to bossa nova and big band strings (yep!).
The lyrics attack you as well, shoving a mirror down on societies throat, holding you down whether you want to or not whilst a beautiful smile and a Joker-esque cackle are crooning about murder.
The best way to describe their debut album A Gradual Decline in Morale is a sensory overload, ADHD in musical form, unmedicated and raw.
Kim’s incredible work of art found its first mainstream UK success at the 2024 edition of the Heavy Music Awards where they won the award for Best International Breakthrough Artist. The crowd went into a frenzy when they took the stage to accept the well deserved trophy, and it was clear that the Aussie’s success has clearly earned a spot in the UK alternative scene.
The next step was a UK show, or tour. In November 2024 Download Festival announced Kim as a performer on their Opus stage on their first lineup drop. Quickly after, Kim releases a small UK and Europe headline tour which pretty much sells out instantly.
Download Festival
12pm, Saturday 14th 2025. It’s blazing hot and the arena is already covered in dust. The weeks without rain and the big Friday night have already obliterated the sacred grounds of Donington Castle.
At the Opus stage, the crowd is rushing for a prime time spot for Kim’s first UK performance.
By 12:55, the start of their set, a sea of people has gathered, and it’s looking like we’re all waiting for the return of a favourite UK artist. It’s even more clear now that Kim is well loved in these corners.
They take the stage by storm, viciously ripping through songs like Land of the sun and Superhero, some of the most popular ones on their album. The crowd eats it up, singing along to every word, dancing and moshing – even heard of a mini row pit opening up!
Kim includes their incredibly well received take on Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi in the set list, the song that earned them 160 million streams on Spotify alone and contributed to their incredibly fast rise to fame.
Make me famous – probably the most controversial song is the next to last one in the set, which closes with Killdoser. Two atrociously violent songs, one focused on the increasing publicity and down right celebration of psychopaths and murderers by the media, and the latter referencing Marvin Heemeyer and the destructive rampage he went into Granby, Colorado after he turned a bulldozer into a make shift armored vehicle.
The Dome – London
At The Dome in London, 17th of June, the scene is very simillar.
We arrive at the venue around 6pm and from exiting the Tufnell Park station you can see the queue going over two full streets – with Kim set to take the stage at 9pm.
Justin (in charge of music discovery for Barricade) is in line chatting with two people. We join them to hear that they have traveled from the South of France for tonight’s show.
Suddenly, it feels like the 600 capacity venue will not be big enough for what’s to come.
At 7pm the doors open, the first rows instantly taken, pouring onto the barricade free stage.
Gore. take the stage first for a half hour set and safe to say, they have earned a spot in our Spotify playlists. Incredibly good sounding, powerful riffs and very resilient people. Combating the small sound issues they had gracefully and head on – and I do mean just screaming the rest of a song when the microphone gave way for the second time.
At 9pm Kim Dracula takes the stage. An hour long set is filled with props, fog machines, sax solos and a weird witchcraft ceremony. Felt like stepping into the production of a horror musical, and I need someone to get me a ticket as soon as possible.
The set list contains everything played at Download and a bunch more. From a beautiful rendition of Careless Whisper on sax and electric, to Kim singing Rose, a song about the dangers of alcohol and addiction, to screeching one of our favourite lines in Industry Secrets – yes, the one about still singing about teenage love at the ripe age of 40 years old.
Closing words
Its quite hard to close this down. As hard as it’s been to keep this somewhat short and to the point.
Incredibly worth the wait, even though by god that was a long wait since last year, for Kim to come this side of the pond and use their incredibly 6 octave vocal range to tear us a new one.
I am incredibly happy to have found them. I was stuck and in serious need of some inspiration. Kim is one of the reasons why Barricade was created. I’ve only found them through TikTok, and when looking them up there was nothing in the UK heavy scene talking about them. It made me realise that it is time someone focuses on the underdogs, the undercard. Because all I could think of at the time was, how many others have I missed because of little to no representation?
Now, I can’t wait for their second album, which promises to be even more chaotic, to hit the streaming platforms.
Finally, it’s safe to say, this is the last time you see Kim Dracula perform in such a small venue. I think arenas are calling.
BarricadeUK 