Customer Reviews

Kingdom Come

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The stars for this review belong to the band Kingdom Come for a beautifully created ass kickin' album. This is as close to Zeppelin as you'll get. Lenny Wolf definately shows his creativity through the hard beat of 17 to the soulful lovin' you. And don't ever forget the rocker, get in on. Which Wolf gives a brief reflection on his latest album effort, independent.
Anyway, you cannot go wrong with any Kingdom Come album. However, I have waited for this album to be remastered for over a decade. NOTE-this album is not remastered. Don't be fooled by the advertisement on the front of the disc. The only remastered song is the extra cut of get it on, which only has one more drum line in the beginning. The wording is very tricky and I can't believe they have the nerve to pull this. I spent all this dough for nothing. The original cd from the eighties sounds much better. Just to think this is 2004 and they are creating cd's that sound worse than the original.

THE BAND: Lenny Wolf (vocals), Danny Stag (guitar), Rick Steier (guitar), Johnny B. Frank (bass), James Kottak (drums & percussion).

THE DISC: (1988) 10 tracks clocking in at approximately 48 minutes. Included with the disc is a minimal 2-page foldout containing song titles/credits, band members, and one black & white band photo. Recorded at Little Mountain Studios, Vancouver, BC. Label - Polygram Records.

COMMENTS: "Led Zeppelin clones" as many will say... and, sure, I agree. But Kingdom Come wrote some damn catchy songs on their debut album - easily their best album. I wore this vinyl record out upon its release. Their most successful song to date "Get It On" was a slow & heavy, guitar shredding, voice squealing hit. "What Love Can Be" was the other song that made it to the airwaves - a slower, bluesy romantic heart-wrencher... sung perfectly by Wolf (Robert Plant would surely be proud). An acoustic moment in "Loving You" (a moderate rip off of Zeppelin's "Going To California" perhaps). And, my favorite track is the John Bonham thumper "17". If this doesn't rip Zeppelin off, nothing does. If you close your eyes though, other big-haired leather-clad bands from the 80's come to mind... Great White, Skid Row, Kix, Britny Fox, White Lion, etc. All good bands of the time with high-pitched singers... and Kingdom Come deserves to sit on the same shelf with them. Why some made a bigger dent than others surprises me. I thought Kingdom had what it took to be a player, but they quickly faded out of the spotlight (with that being said though, looking on their website I see singer Wolf went back to his native Germany and in the 90's reassembled - the band now has almost a dozen albums to their credit). Song writing, touring, management and promotion were solid... but my guess is the band's chemistry was lacking... the band was thrown together (members from Pennsylvania, Kentucky, California, and Germany). Remastered in 2004 with one bonus track - I've heard it and am not impressed with the sound quality at all... so I'm sticking with the original. A solid rock album - fits perfectly in the late 80's hair/glam genre. This Kingdom Come debut deserves to be in a loftier place than the bargain rack (4 stars).

If you like Led Zeppelin and would like to hear music which is influenced by them listen to this Ist album from Lenny Woff's Kingdom Come.

Good hard rock tunes with zeppelinsque type vocals and at times arrangements.

What makes me give this album a 5 star is the amazing 'What love can be' a great rock ballad. Wolf's vocals are amazing, the guitar work and song arrangement is perfect. This song can compete with the best by zeppelin on any day. The album as I say is good but this song elavates it to a classic.

'What love can be' will take you to a different world and I guarantee that you will loose track of time while listining to this song.

yeah yeah, Led Zep clones, blah blah blah. If I didn't like it then it wouldn't matter who they cloned. I've heard much worse by newer, 'original sounding' bands. It rocks, my ears like it, end of story.

[...]

I've been looking for this ablum for a very logn time and I can't believe amazon had it. I love amazon and the way they are so professal with every product and delivered it in the amount of time they said I'll have this ablum, Thank you guys, everyone at Amazon.

You have heard it before, this band really sounds like Led Zeppelin, so what ? This is a very good rock album, of course, if you like Led Zep, you should like it a lot. A good addition to your rock cd collection !

After the failure of his first band STONE FURY, vocalist Lenny Wolf founded Kingdom Come around 1987, several years after the commencement of the so-called "Hair Metal" movement. This Zeppelin-esque sounding album is one of my favorites. The songs are simply written and performed. Reminds me of what a mesh of Led Zeppelin and Dokken might sound like.

I saw these guys perform live in 1988 on the Monsters of Rock tour, and their singer looked and sounded a lot like Robert Plant. They were really good, but unfortunately their time in the spotlight in the states was very fast. I have lots of their European and Japanese releases and I like their stuff a lot.

This begins with the the catchy "Living Out Of Touch", followed by "Pushin Hard", which starts off at mid-tempo and goes into a slow bridge where it sounds a lot like parts of Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused" from THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME. "What Love Can Be" is a power ballad - an OK listen where "Since I've Been Loving You" from Led Zeppelin III probably served as a source of inspiration.

The song "17" has a really hooky, heavy bass riff that sounds almost like a speeded-up version of LZ's "Kashmir". It's got a cool bass line. I also think that Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" may have been a source of inspiration here - with the bass riff accompanied by long, slowly built-up guitar solo in the middle. Listen to them together - I think you'll be surprised at the similarity in style.

"The Shuffle" is great for concerts - an uptempo beat with the vocalist and guitarist trading off with each other - again like LZ's live "Dazed and Confused". The biggest song from this was "Get It On" - another Zeppelin-esque riff that ends with a drum solo reminiscent of LZ's "Rock and Roll" to finish it off.

Just for fun, heres some things about Kingdom Come's debut release that I documented along with other musicians that sound like sources of inspiration for this album:

1. Living Out of Touch - vocalist sounds a lot like Robert Plant

2. Pushin' Hard

a. 2:22 - lyrically similar to Kashmir

b. 2:32 - the m m m m m stuttering sounds like Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused" from The Song Remains The Same at 3:32 and 23:30 into the song.

c. When Lenny Wolf wails out "pushin', pushin' hard" at 2:41 into the song, he sounds like Robert Plant in Led Zeppelin's Dazed And Confused (The Song Remains The Same version) at 3:32, 13:20, 17:10, and 20:00 into the song. Plant also does that "push, push" thing on "The Song Remains The Same"s version of Whole Lotta Love at 12:28 into that song.

3. What Love Can Be - sounds like "Since I've Been Loving You" from Led Zeppelin III was the inspiration for this song.

4. 17 - a speeded up version of "Kashmir" from Physical Grafitti? Also sounds like "Stranglehold" from Ted Nugent's self-titled debut inspired this song as well, with the lengthy, repetitive bass riff and long guitar solo's.

5. The Shuffle - the part where KC's vocalist and guitarist trade of the sound-a-likes at 2:20-2:43 into the song - Jimmy Page and Robert Plant do the same thing on LZ's Dazed and Confused (The Song Remains The Same version) at 15:15 and 19:00 into the song.

6. Get It On - the drum solo at the end of the song 3:46 to 4:00 could have been inspired by the finish to"Rock and Roll" from Led Zeppelin IV. Then again, Deep Purple beat Led Zeppelin to the punch with that idea with the ending to "Flight of the Rat" from 1970's Deep Purple In Rock (Zeppelin's amazing 4th album was released the following year).

9. Loving You - lyrically takes a que from Since I've Been Loving You.

The other songs are good too - I just mention a few personal favorites and the ones that stick out the most. Led Zeppelin and 80's metal fans should enjoy this.

Only die-hard Led Zeppelin fans are likely to remember the late 80s band Kingdom Come, and they're likely to remember them with distaste. Critics called them "Kingdom Clone" which, while pithy, isn't totally fair. Not every song on the "Kingdom Come" CD sounds like Led Zeppelin. Only the good ones do. The rest are generic and forgettable 1980s pop metal.

Yet I'm almost tempted to give this one 4 stars rather than three. Almost half the CD features vocalist Lenny Wolf doing his best Robert Plant imitation, and he does a pretty darned good job at evoking the Curly Haired One's androgynous moans and shrieks. "17" is good rocker with a stuttering Jimmy Page-style riff, "What Love Should Be" is a nice bluesy takeoff on "Since I've Been Loving You," and "Loving You" is a stunning ballad that could (almost) pass for a mid-period Led Zeppelin outtake. "Loving You" also has gorgeous mandolin and acoustic work, proving that Kingdom Come - unlike most Led Zep wannabes - were smart enough to remember that Zeppelin's albums almost always contained surprisingly pretty folk influences.

Kingdom Come's "incredible simulation" of Zeppelin really falls apart on the hit single "Get It On" however. There's a directly plagarized riff from "Kashmir," guitarist Danny Stag clumsily quotes blues cliches, and that highly compressed snare-happy drum sound has none of Bonzo's sexy, stammering groove. It's the musical equivalent of a Beatlemania tribute band losing their wigs onstage.

Still, those three songs are worth the price of admission. If the rest of the CD were like them, I'd give this one 4 stars without a pang of guilt. Before any Led Zep purists object, let me remind you that Zeppelin were infamous for pilfering entire blues songs and claiming they were either "tradtional" or group creations. I'll forgive Kingdom Come due to Led Zep asking for something to this to happen through bad karma. I just wish Kingdom Come had come into their own right and truly found their own voice.

I remember when this album came out. I had to buy another one, because I wore the poor cassete to death!

Finding someone that had this on cd was HUGE to me (retro flashing back and all, lol) and the cd arrived in FLAWLESS condition, and was well packaged!

I not only recommend this seller, but i HIGHLY recommend this album if you EVER liked Rock n Roll, and Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, etc. REAL good band. This album, and the one that followed were the ONLY 2 good albums they ever produced. The ones that followed had different line-ups, and too much ego-drama amongst the band mates to make any other album decent.

One of the best hard rock/heavy metal album's of the late 1980's. Very seldom do I run across an album that I absolutely love right out of the box, but this is one that I did. I wore the cassette copy down to shreds. Somehow managed to let go of the CD replacement years ago, and finally picked this up when I realized this reissue on the UK Lemon label was available.

There have been comments about this not being remastered. No, it does not appear to have been remixed from the original multi-tracks, but to my ears it does not sound inferior to the original CD, and some cuts even sound a little clearer. The bonus cut is a non essential radio mix of the single "Get It On", which is already present on the album, but it's a great tune, so what the heck? This record stands on its own, bonus tracks not required.

Does Kingdom Come sound like Led Zepplin? Yes. So what? If you eliminate all the hair bands from the '80's that ripped off Zepplin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath, there wouldn't be much left from that era except synth-pop!

Even Dio's "Last in Line" dripped with Zepplin "feel." And what about Whitesnake's "Slip of the Tongue" released the very next year after this? Well shame on Kingdom Come, but hooray for Whitesnake's Zepplin "tribute" because they had Steve Vai on guitar? Whatever. Both the industry and fans can be fickle and stupid sometimes.

I can't believe Jimmy Page even had the nerve to say "Obviously it can get to the point where it gets past being a compliment, and it can be rather annoying, when you've got things like Kingdom Come, actually ripping riffs right off, that's a different thing altogether." Riffs? Hard rock is riff driven, and it is standard for bands to take cool old riffs and build new songs around them with their own melodies. Kingdom Come is not the first band, or the last, to do that. And, what riffs does he mean? The same ones that Zepplin ripped off from the old blues records they grew up listening to? Yeah, like Zep invented the blues. (ROTFLMAO!)

What Kingdom Come does here is revive that classic old sound that Zepplin and others made popular with songs that are cooler, playing that is tighter and edgier, to the point that a lot of Led Zepplin records sound like the work of a sloppy garage band by comparison.

If you like that heavy, bluesy, bottom heavy classic old school metal sound, pick this up. It is an underrated classic!