KALEIDOBOLT- Albumankündigung für März 2026
KALEIDOBOLT’s fifth album is pungent to the ears – KARAKUCHI out in March via SVART RECORDS.
New single “Coping” out now. Check out the official visualiser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0S967bSScA
Karakuchi is one record you can judge by its cover. The first time Kaleidobolt’s faces have adorned an LP, they have been fused into a torpedoing biomechanical vehicle. Echoing The Birthday Party’s Junkyard or Motörhead’s Orgasmatron (…on acid?!), the illustration epitomises perfectly Kaleidobolt’s agenda of “hyperkinetic rock”. Their feverish, psych-prog sound is full of motion. It jerks around at different speeds, threatening to spin out of control and crash into flames at any given moment.
Coping is the second single from the new album. The band’s guitarist and singer Sampo Kääriäinen explains the story behind it.
“It’s hard to comprehend how back the kaleidoboys are with their second single Coping. Coping is an ode to retro rock and everything it represents – the good and the bad. It tells a vague story about someone longing for an American pop-culture version of a world that probably never existed. A Fantasy that brings comfort but might also make it harder to see anything beautiful in the present.
The intro riff emerged while trying out Jukka Tolonen’s old amp, and from that moment the rest of the song seemed to unfold on its own. The song is bit of an oddball in the Kaleidobolt catalogue, leaning more on chord progressions and vocal melodies than usual. But while the guitar gently weeps it leaves space for the drums and bass to get extra rowdy.
The chorus pays homage to Arthur Brown, whom we had the honour to open for couple months back. Can’t tell you how surreal it felt to belt out the chorus at that show: “Arthur Brown’s alive, I can still abide...”.”
What’s more, it isn’t taken too seriously. This is heavy and intricate music, yes. But as bassist and co-singer Marco Menestrina puts it, the Kaleidobolt attitude is “an ugly smirk more than an angry face with a fist.”
On their fifth album since forming in 2014, the Helsinki-based outfit lean into their strengths as a formidable power trio. With their previous two records, 2019’s Bitter and 2022’s This One Simple Trick, they had thrown everything at their disposal into the recording with no expense spared on overdubs, effects and kitchen sinks. Produced again by Niko Lehdontie (Oranssi Pazuzu), Karakuchi comes from tightly rehearsed, live-in-the-studio takes. Kaleidobolt realise that greater sparsity can be a strength, and they’ve allowed their instruments extra space to breathe. It makes for their earthiest, purest and perhaps most authentic record to date.
Karakuchi’s exuberant style emerges from the individual members’ contrasting listening habits. These span classic prog, Japanese city pop, noise rock, post-hardcore and historical podcasts. One record they can all agree is a masterpiece, the centre of the Venn diagram where all three members meet, is King Crimson’s Red.
As for their new album’s title, that’s as suitable as the cover art. “Karakuchi” is the slogan of the Japanese beer brand Asahi Super Dry. Translated literally, this means “pungent to the mouth”. As drinkers of that product, Kaleidobolt acknowledge its parallels to their songs. “It’s very intense, right at the front, like at the first bite,” explains Menestrina. “And then it leaves your mouth feeling refreshed. The flavour doesn’t linger in your mouth, basically. It has a quick, hard finish. With a bit of a stretch, we thought that that could also be said of our music.”
Karakuchi is Kaleidobolt at their hardest, fastest, tightest and super-driest. Pungent to the ears.
-JR Moores, November 2025
6.3.2026 Kaleidobolt: Karakuchi (LP/CD)
https://www.svartrecords.com/en/product/kaleidobolt-karakuchi/14014
5.12.2025 Kaleidobolt: Coping (Digital)
https://orcd.co/coping
Kaleidobolt: Tinkerbell (Official Video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrzhHMwa3B8
https://www.facebook.com/kaleidobolt
Quelle: Sure Shot Worx