Great Metal Albums of 1989: Kingdom Come- In Your Face

Once again, I’m going out on a limb and making a bold declaration. In the past, I’ve called Hannah Wicklund and the Steppin’ Stones America’s best kept secret and the band Indochine, France’s. After hearing the “In Your Face” album, I’m going to say that Kingdom Come just might be Germany’s best kept secret. No one needs me to say about the number of great bands which have come out of Germany and I could spend a couple of paragraphs listing them but most of you know them already. But do you know Kingdom Come?

“In Your Face” is a good straight forward melodic metal album with a bit of glam thrown in. That feeling manifests itself straight away. What I didn’t know is that there were three singles released from the album, “Do You Like It,” “Who Do You Love” and “Overrated,” with the first and third mentioned breaking into the top 100 in the UK. Both of those are great melodic metal songs but me being me, of the three singles, I prefer the middle one. “Who Do You Love” is a catchy melodic metal tune with a cool acoustic intro, nice vocals and an excellent guitar solo. That ticks all the boxes for me.

Kingdom Come aren’t afraid to change things up and they do that very well on the track, “The Wind.” There is a strong Led Zeppelin influence on this one and at some points, lead singer, Lenny Wolf, sounds frighteningly like Robert Plant. However, while Danny Stag is a brilliant lead guitarist in his own right, I won’t compare him to Jimmy Page but he does hammer out some good licks and he has some rhythm guitar back up which adds more oomph to the song. It’s a strong candidate for hidden gem.

Guitar notes similar to a famous D.A.D. song I wrote about not long ago permeate “Gotta Go (Can’t Wage a War.)” It’s a quasi power ballad with some more cool guitar work. Lenny puts some definite feeling into his vocals. Then they try to go a bit progressive metal on “Highway 6.” It starts out very promising with some intricate acoustic guitar work and then the power chords kick in and get things going. The middle of the song kicks some real bottom with some cool drum rolls from James Kottak and an excellent bluesy guitar solo with just as excellent back up from the rhythm section. I don’t know why this track took so long to grow on me, maybe we should make that one the hidden gem.

More Robert Plant sounding vocals from Lenny on “Perfect O” but there are some nice power chords here. My only issue is that even though the track is less than four minutes, it seems longer. It drags on a little too much. Adhering to the stereotype of heavy metal bands having their token ballad, cue “Just Like a Wild Rose.” Actually, this is one powerful ballad and done very well in all facets. It’s similar to Great White’s “Rock Me,” which isn’t a bad thing with it’s blues based rhythm and guitar solo. God, it’s another candidate for hidden gem. I’m going to have to make a decision here.

If you want more Led Zeppelin influence, it continues with “Mean Dirty Joe.” This might be the most Zeppelin-esque song on the album as even Danny sounds like Jimmy on the guitars on this one. Finally, “Stargazer” is one of those progressive sounding tunes most suitable for the closer.

Track Listing:

1. Do You Like It
2. Who Do You Love
3. The Wind
4. Gotta Go (Can’t Wage a War)
5. Highway 6
6. Perfect O
7. Just Like a Wild Rose
8. Overrated
9. Mean Dirty Joe
10. Stargazer

Kingdom Come

Lenny Wolf- lead vocals, rhythm guitar

Danny Stag- lead and acoustic guitars, backing vocals

Rick Steier- rhythm guitar, keyboards, lead guitar on “Overrated,” backing vocals

Johnny B. Frank- bass, keyboards, backing vocals

James Kottak- drums

I must definitely be getting slow in my old age. In case you missed it, I turned 63 last Friday and that’s my excuse for missing the innuendo if you put the band’s name and album title together. In any case, “In Your Face” is a really good album and it’s too bad they broke up after this and that’s why I consider Kingdom Come Germany’s best kept secret.

Next post: Do to problems with my desktop computer, I need to take it in for a service. Therefore, you will have a break from me for a week or so but I will be back.

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