Spurred by the 2020 murder of George Floyd, Chithambo tried to find an outlet to release a pent up "well of anger roil inside", giving himself space to process the "myriad struggles they've faced as a Black nonbinary trans person".

A "dramatic, unsettling, yet grand track", the song arrived with an animated lyric video by Daniela Yohannes, who also designed the album artwork.

[5] Noah Barker of Line of Best Fit thought Chithambo crafted a "masterstroke folk album" where each track "is a watershed moment ceding itself the next".

[6] Paste's Natalie Marlin named The King "album of the week" in which the musician "upends his sound to craft a grand portrait of fiery rage and tender self-mythologizing".

Contrary to their previous record, The King sheds away all the "bright and airy" moments from his sound, replacing it with an "atmosphere suffused with dread", alternating between "between post-rock grandeur, sepulchral dirge, and sepia-tinged folk".