Cruel Santino Expands His World With K.O.T.B

By Dani Reyes, November 7, 2026

Cruel Santino has released K.O.T.B - The Bomberman Chronicles, a new album that extends his Subaru Boys universe while drawing on grief, community and questions of personal purpose. The record arrived November 6 after the singles "Big Drop," "International Collector" and "Oz."

Those three songs are included on the album. The announcement presents the project as both another part of Santino's connected fictional world and a more personal account of experiences that informed its writing.

Before Final Heaven

The album's story is set 3,000 years before the Final Heaven arc. It follows arms dealers preparing to destroy sea creatures before humans understand how to live in harmony with them. Shifting alliances and unstable relationships are part of that setting, connecting its warfare narrative to the album's wider emotional concerns.

"Kings of the Bounce," the expanded form of K.O.T.B, has two functions in that framework. In the story, it names a new series of weapons. Outside the fiction, the announcement describes it as a reference to the rhythms Santino and his collaborators have developed.

The release places that world-building alongside the death of a close friend who lived with Santino while he was developing his craft. It identifies that loss as central to the making of the album, without separating the personal material from the fictional narrative surrounding it.

Music and mythology together

The announcement connects K.O.T.B to Final Heaven and Mandy & the Jungle, describing the new record as a meeting point between parts of Santino's earlier creative language. Its stated themes include safety, community, commodification and the search for a purposeful life as a young Nigerian.

Rather than announcing a standalone character or a separate screen adaptation, the release keeps those ideas inside the album's sound and storyline. The prior singles lead into the complete project, with its fictional history offering a framework for the more autobiographical material.

K.O.T.B - The Bomberman Chronicles is out now. The announcement does not attach a new tour itinerary to the album's release.