Simon RushworthKira Mac — Chaos Is Calling (Self Released)
NWOCR poster band Kira Mac have cornered the market for hype in 2022.
Debut album Chaos Is Calling is the record everyone’s talking about.
And enigmatic frontwoman Kira Mac has captured the imagination of a scene in thrall to her visceral vocals and magnetic personality.
Singles One Way Ticket, Dead Man Walking, Hit Me Again and Mississippi Swinging have helped stir the pot.
All four are bona fide heavy rock anthems ready made to send festival masses into a frenzy.
And it’s little surprise Kira Mac have scooped a quartet of back-to-back A List picks on Planet Rock.
For fans of the band since its 2018 inception, Chaos Is Calling represents a four-year wait for confirmation of the obvious: this band is on an unstoppable upward trajectory.
And if you’re late to the Kira Mac party then just be thankful the penny’s finally dropped.
A band that’s rolled with the punches during a global pandemic, economic meltdown and more has come out fighting.
In fact, Chaos Is Calling is the sound of cocksure triumph in the face of adversity.
Mac (aka Rhiannon Hill) sings loud, sings proud and sings from the soul.
And at times it’s difficult to believe this assured five-piece hails from England’s industrial north rather than the USA’s deep south.
Theirs is an authentic sound fine-tuned from years studying the heavy blues songbook.
Nestled somewhere between Rival Sons and Blues Pills, Kira Mac have crafted a signature tone that’s been tweaked to perfection.
Chaos Is Calling. But so is success, critical acclaim, adulation and more.
Big Mac, No Cheese
It would be easy to imagine Chaos Is Calling’s first four singles represent the cream of the crop.
Sure, all four are groove-laden earworms ready-made for modern rock radio.
But Kira Mac have kept a few killer tunes up their sleeve.
And it’s no stretch to suggest that the band’s best work lies beyond the first batch of hits.
Never Going To Stay’s evocative refrain straddles power ballad territory to dizzying effect.
Hellfire & Holy Water is the best song here as Mac and her lads delve deep into the well of brooding blues.
And Back For More is a bullish Southern rock-fuelled beast of a track that benefits from brilliantly executed vocal harmonies.
But what about furious set closer Dead Man Walking?
If Kira Mac intended to pull off an audacious play for Black Stone Cherry’s next UK support slot they’ve done a damn good job.
Fans of Chris Robinson and co. will find plenty to love about this heavy-as-hell, riff-fuelled monster.
And it’s the perfect sign-off to a diamond-studded debut.
Chaos Is Calling might have been four years in the making.
But we’re already counting the days until the return of the Mac.
