Kingdom Come-Outlier

Steamhammer / SPV
2013

Let's start with the obvious question on every one's mind-how are these guys still together? After their 1988 album pretty much ripped-off Robert Plant and company they should have called it quits. Somehow though
Lenny Wolf has managed to keep this ship afloat with "Outlier" being Kingdom Come’s first studio album to feature new material since 2009. Since I've heard nothing out of Kingdom Come since their 1988 self-titled release it's all new to me frankly. Even back then the only release I heard their debut-full length album straight through was because of a girl. That statement alone should be enough to tell you why I suffered through it! With this new album the first thing I notice is how rough Lenny Wolf sounds. Age has not been kind to his pipes. That being what it is at least the music isn't a note-by-note copy cat of anyone. Musically this new Kingdom Come record ends up featuring fairly standard rock/hard rock. It's not completely devoid of good ideas as "Running High Distortion" features some neat riff-age, but it's also not something I'd stop the presses over. I'd suspect that Kingdom Come has a loyal fan-base that will scoop this one up like a rabid dog going for a chunk of raw meat, but new fans are not likely to come rushing Lenny Wolf's way anytime soon. If I had to give it a grade it would be a C- as there are a few moments honestly that give you hope such as "When Colors Break The Grey", but that hope crashes down when Lenny actually starts to sing.