Album of the Year 2022 – Loud & Quiet
“Feeling so vital to this particular moment in the country’s history, King Cobra accomplishes what Kendrick Lamar’s recent Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers did not” –
Cabbages
“King Cobra doesn’t just dance on the knife’s edge; it draws blood” –
Pitchfork
Classical composition and hip hop. Scathing fearless dress down of politics religion and racism.
Massive headliner slots @ End of the Road 2023 – room was rammed, people went nuts!
“This isn’t an album meant for you to smile to,” writes vocalist Brian Ennals about his latest collaborative project with producer Infinity Knives, “except when I say something funny.” Instead, King Cobra (2022) is an album to immerse yourself into, to experience the vitriol, rage, philosophy, humour, and myth-making at the heart of Ennals’s poetic vocals and Infinity Knives’s urgent and unpredictable instrumentals.
Following their monumental 2020 release Rhino XXL and 2020’s Dear, Sudan, Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals have, with King Cobra, solidified their reputation as one of the most exciting, eclectic, and wildly experimental hip-hop formations hailing from Baltimore. Bending hip-hop frameworks to uniquely idiosyncratic styles, King Cobra ranges from spaced-out funk, janky rap anthems, and stark trap manifestos to sprawling, synthesiser rap ballads. Ennals’s personal bars, delivered with an agile flow, complement the dexterous productions of Infinity Knives like no other. Rewire Festival
“Together, Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals might seem like the poster boys for alternative or experimental hip hop, but King Cobra proves that labels can be meaningless. The meditative opening and closing tracks, the quiet interludes matched with Ennals’ poetic rage, and the layers of sound effects and visceral soundscapes in-between all point to an album that is colourful yet hard to pin down…It’s as if you’re being lulled into a false sense of calm before the storm hits” – The Quietus
“Crucially, stripped-down instrumental interludes are also placed throughout the album, acting as a respite from the intensity of Ennals’s delivery and offering an opportunity for Infinity Knives to showcase the contemporary classical influences that murmur gently through his production” – Daily Band Camp