Customer Reviews

Thrill of A Lifetime

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What's the 4-1-1?
King Kobra was just one of the 1,528 bands that Carmine Appice was a part of in the eighties. Their debut release was Ready to Strike; a heavy metal powerhouse that bordered on pop-metal. Thrill of a Lifetime, their sophomore release, finds the group completely selling out to the pop-rock/AOR genre. Honestly, that's not a bad thing. Maybe King Kobra would have lasted longer if they didn't try to sound like everyone else.

The dual guitar leads and heavy synths make "Dream On" sound like a long lost Loverboy track. "Feel the Heat" channels the sounds of Y & T with its faint guitar chords, and once again, synth heavy intro. "Home Street Home" is King Kobra's sad attempt at rap. In their defense, everyone was giving it a try at the time. I don't know who's rapping here, it doesn't really sound like him, but kudos for him for sounding like the guys from "Rapper Delight". As you would expect, this one is heavy on the drums. Kobra put their own stamp on it with finger-tapping solos and layered vocal harmonies.

To further support my theory of sounding like everyone else, "Never Say Die" is the anthemic theme to the Top Gun rip off Iron Eagle. Driving synths, powerful vocals, and a powerful chorus make you feel like the jets are flying over head. I wonder what Kenny Loggins thinks about this one? I swear that the exact same chord progression from "Ballroom Blitz" is used on "Party Animal". Might I add this is a pretty light song about an animal. Eighties cliché alert: A song using the work `rock'. This anthem has a great sing along chorus. I'll start: Raise your hands to rock... (everybody)...rock, rock, rock!

Bottom Line
King Kobra went from heavy metal to glossy, corporate rock in one fell swoop. Call me crazy, but Thrill of a Lifetime is one of my guilty pleasures.

If you enjoy 80's rock melodic bands like Survivor, Journey, Europe, Van Halen, Starship, full of keyboards and guitar solos, this cd is for you. I simply loved all songs. But note that this album is quite different than the other two! KK have changed their style in this album possibly to earn big bucks with the "Iron Eagle" movie soundtrack. But be aware that if you are an extreme headbanger, this cd will make you sleep. Anyway, Mark Free vocals are simply fantastic!

I just recently bought this album and when I first heard it I was a bit suprised to say the least. This album is 75% less heavy than their first release. The band really go for a more commercialized, melodic, lightweight AORish sound here. And you know what? I kinda like it! I mean this album doesn't have any where near the venom the first one did and it's not something I would blast on the cd player on a hot summer day but the thing I like the most about this record are the vocals of Mark Free. He really steps out and sings all of the songs very well as opposed to the first record where to me he sounds a bit hidden behind all the big drums and big guitars. I recommend this cd but be warned it's extremely different from the first one. If you want loud guitars and drums just stick with the first one. But if you want to hear the awesome vocals of Mark Free and you don't mind the music on the lighter side give this a listen.

I REALLY liked this album rather than the previous because it is more light and melodic than Ready to Strike (first album). So, if you like heavy sound, drums being destroied, desperate screams and seeing your mother jumping through the window, this album is definetelly NOT for you. Now, if you like a soft rock, with very good vocals and extremelly melodic and well built guitar solos, go for it. This is not what we can call "HEAVY metal" album.

this album surely sucks. Its not even close to the first one. I don't understand why the second one sucked so bad. The second side of the first is close to this. Avoid this if you can. Mark had one of the best vocals in music, left and decided to wimp out. Too bad though. The person who decided to go for broke and change the sound should of been lead to the door off the bat. Stick to their first one. Its gold

Originally released in 1986, Thrill of a Lifetime was the second album from Carmine Appice's L.A. hair metal band King Kobra. The band made a major splash with their hard rocking 1985 debut Ready to Strike, but went in a different direction with Thrill of a Lifetime.

Instead of the hair metal sound of the debut, King Kobra took a more melodic, radio-friendly approach with this album. While this move was perfect for Mark Free's vocal talents, it was a bit of a shock for the band's fans to hear King Kobra doing their best Survivor and Journey impression. I love the `80s arena rock sound, so I really enjoyed this album. The songs are all incredibly melodic, anthemic rockers and soaring ballads that are very dated but are still quite good. You just have to grin and flick your Bic at songs like "Iron Eagle (Never Say Die)," "Overnight Sensation" and the title track. They do lose a star for the embarrassing attempt at rapping on "Home Street Home."

It's not as impressive as Ready to Strike, but Thrill of a Lifetime is still an outstanding melodic rock album. It's obviously an essential release for King Kobra fans as well as fans of Free's work in Unruly Child and Signal, but should also appeal to just about anyone who's into the `80s melodic rock sound.

Edition Notes: Thrill of a Lifetime was reissued in 2000 by French label Axe Killer. The reissue featured brilliant digitally remastered sound, expanded liner notes and a bonus track. The bonus track - "This Raging Fire" - is by the Jon Butcher Axis and was originally included on the Iron Eagle soundtrack. It's an odd inclusion, but doesn't hurt.

Edition Notes 2: Thrill of a Lifetime was reissued yet again in 2008, this time by the Caroline label. Caroline's reissue also features remastered audio, but does not include "This Raging Fire," which isn't a big deal. The main difference is that Caroline released Thrill of a Lifetime in an "LP replica" package, which is essentially an oversized cardboard sleeve. I really don't care for these, and compared to Axe Killer's packaging it just doesn't look good at all. Still, it is the easiest (and most affordable) version of the album to track down.

Thrill of a Lifetime es el segundo trabajo de King Kobra, tratando de ganar comercialidad, graban este disco con intención de ganar más aceptación en la radio, teniendo como tema central, la canción "Never Say Die" de la película "Iron Eagle" y otros temas mas accesibles como el cover de Russ Ballard "Dream On" y "Second Time Around", donde Mark Free nos demuestra el excelente cantante que es, en cada una de sus interpretaciones, sin duda es un disco que causa sensaciones opuestas para los fans del mejor Hard Rock, pero más allá de todo, la voz de Mark Free es la estrella a lo largo de todo el álbum, y la mejor razón que existe para poder recomendarlo a todo fanático del mejor rock que se hizo en la década de los 80. Siempre es un gusto escuchar a este cantante que merecía mejor suerte en cada uno de sus proyectos. (Recomiendo también sus trabajos posteriores (Signal-Loud and Clear '89, y Unruly Child (junto a Bruce Gowdy)'92 y por supuesto su álbum solista "Long Way From Love" '93 y el "Tormented" con los músicos de Unruly Child después de su cambio de sexo como "Marcie Free"), todos excelentes y con gran calidad.

I bought their first one on tape when it came out in 85 and I thought they were a very good commercial hard rock band. This one came out in early 86 and I didn't buy it then because I heard it was very commercial. I just heard it for the first time recently. The first album is on a heaviness level of say Dokken and Kick Axe where as this one is more on the level of Journey and Loverboy. Lots of keyboards and synthesizers on the majority of the songs. The majority of the album just seems very subdued other than Mark Free's vocals which as good as everything he has done. David Michael Phillips and Mick Sweda were solid guitarists, but they don't get to do much on the first seven tracks. Even Carmine Appice's drums have that electric sound and a drummer of his caliber did not need anything added to the sound of his drums. Appice said in an interview a few years ago that they took ideas for songs for the second album to the record company and they said something like "We don't hear a radio single in this bunch". So the record company told the band what changes they needed to make and so we have an album that seemed to be straining to get radio play. Iron Eagle got a little bit, but not much. King Kobra did tour with Kiss, Wasp and even played a big festival with Quiet Riot on this tour. Then bass player Johnny Rod moved up to WASP, King Kobra's record label dropped them and Mark Free left. They did continue on with different line-ups for about two more years and did a third lp in 88. Thrill is not a bad album by any stretch, in fact the rap attempt Home street home is probably the only below average song. It's just that if you are going to spend this kind of money, you should know what you are buying. It's a decent album for what it is, but Ready to strike was so good that I wish that they could have picked up where that album left off. The "bonus track" is not a King Kobra song, it is Jon Butcher Axis and it is not very good.

King Kobera was one of the best of the 80's underground bands. Though they never made the charts, those who know metal will tell you. King Kobra rocked with the best of them. If you like 80's heavy metal, King Kobra is a band to check out.

This is NOT metal, its not even rock. Every song sounds like a Pepsi commercial or movie soundtrack during the travel montage. You will forget each song ten seconds into the next song. Its that generic. Heavy keyboards, guitars buried in the mix, and Appice's unspectacular drumming sounds like a drum machine. This is a very pale and very weak immitation of Survivor's "Vital Signs" album. If you like Survivor clones, then the search is over, here is a big one. Album comes in an "environmental friendly" (read cheap) cardboard cover. If CD are supposed to last forever, why do you need a degradable CD packaging? Guess they were anticipating alot of people throwing this CD away after one listen. So you get cheated out of a CD case along with getting cheated out of a real CD. I could have at least reused the CD case.