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Kingdom Come
(Polydor) 1988
1. "Living Out of
Touch" (4:17)
2. "Pushin' Hard" (4:47)
3. "What Love Can Be" (5:14)
4. "17" (5:26)
5. "The Shuffle" (3:40)
6. "Get It On" (4:21)
7. "Now Forever After" (5:36)
8. "Hideaway" (5:38)
9. "Loving You" (4:46)
10. "Shout It Out" (3:37)
This album caused quite a stir when it came out because of Lenny Wolf's uncanny similarity to Robert Plant and the band's obvious Zeppelin influence. However I don't know why, there were plenty of bands copying the Zeppelin style at the time and there are still tons of them to this day. One of the most popular band of the late 80's was Zeppelin worshippers Great White. "Get It On" from this disc was the band's one and only hit. After this the band's popularity dropped quickly due to the label. Despite the Kingdom Clone label, Kingdom Come's debut cd is a very good hard rock disc. The hooks, the musicianship, and the production are all there. After all, the band was working with studio guru Rob Rock. There is no denying the Zeppelinisms that were all over the place. I mean songs like "Loving You" could probably have had Jimmy Page suing the band for rights, however there are also similarities to bands like Whitesnake and Zebra as well. Hmmm, I guess those bands were also accused of being Zep-clones in their time as well.
Kingdom Come - In Your Face (Polydor) 1989
1. "Do You Like It"
(3:40)
2. "Who Do You Love" (4:14)
3. "The Wind" (5:00)
4. "Gotta Go (Can't Wage A War)" (4:25)
5. "Highway" (5:52)
6. "Perfect 'O'" (3:46)
7. "Just Like A Wild Rose" (4:31)
8. "Overrated" (4:04)
9. "Mean Dirty Joe" (4:08)
10. "Stargazer" (5:14)
After everyone accused Kingdom Come of being a Zep-clone band they returned with an album that showed they could rock without the immediate Zeppelin parallels. "In Your Face" freatures strong song writing and production. I am also partial to the simplistic cover art. While there really isn't much to it, the art still speaks volumes about the music contained herein. Kingdom Come are loud and proud American hard rock, like the best of Great White on one CD.
Kindgdom Come - Who Do You Love (Polydor) 1989
1. "Who Do You Love" (4:14)
This is nothing more than a promotional single that was sent out to radio stations. What is unique about this single is that the band logo is die cut out of the cover and the CD, which is a speaker, shows through. Pretty cool marketing idea.
Kingdom Come - Hands of Time (Polydor) 1991
1. "I've Been Trying"
(4:51)
2. "Should I" (5:38)
3. "You'll Never Know" (3:26)
4. "Both Of Us" (3:11)
5. "Stay" (3:09)
6. "Blood On The Land" (4:13)
7. "Shot Down" (3:09)
8. "You're Not The Only I Know" (4:16)
9. "Do I Belong" (3:32)
10. "Can't Deny" (3:29)
11. "Hands Of Time" (3:25)
Pretty much relegated to a Lenny Wolf solo act, "Hands of Time" features Wolf as main songwriter, producer, guitarist, bassist and vocalist. He even takes a stab at some lead guitar work. The sound, as might be expected, is much different from the pop metal of the band's first two albums. What we have here is melodic, blue collar, hard rock. However, even though the music has changed, I still hear a lot of Led Zeppelin influence. Songs like "Should I" and "Blood on the Land" are catchy and quite good. I can imagine that if some of these songs had been on the band's first couple albums they would have gone over rather well. I also like the somewhat eerie, yet enchanting "Shot Down". This song is somewhat keyboard heavy, but has an undeniable hook that could catch a whale. Despite some strong songs, the over all feel of "Hands of Time" is much more mellow than I was expecting. For me, that is not necessarily a bad thing, but at the same time I can see why fans might have been disappointed.