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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To sign the petition giving Bruce Dickinson his knighthood, which he truly deserves, click the link: https://www.change.org/p/special-honours-committees-for-knighthoods-a-knighthood-for-bruce-dickinson

Happy New 2024!

2023 is over and 2024 is about to begin. This past year has been interesting in several ways. It started early when, after living in Europe for over 36 years, finally went to Paris and visited Jim Morrison’s grave. However, that wasn’t the only good thing to come out of the Paris trip. While I was there, I discovered France’s best kept musical secret, Indochine, a band that has been around since the 80s and are virtually unheard of outside France but pack stadiums in their country.

Indochine

While I didn’t go to any major concerts in 2023, I did get to see a couple of tribute bands. Thin Lizzy tribute band Limehouse Lizzy totally rocked Gloucester and AC/DC tribute band, Hells’ Bells never disappoint. In addition, I went to Edinburgh, Scotland in June and saw a number of cool bands at a great rock bar known as the Banshee Labyrinth. The management liked my post so much, they said to come back again.

Limehouse Lizzy

Hell’s Bells

The Banshee Labyrinth

I must also thank Mike Ladano, John Snow, Harrison Klopp and the others for allowing me to contribute to the Tee-Bone Man and Superdekes Adventures. It has been a great opportunity to really stretch out my imagination and let it go wild. Spoiler alert: I will begin working on my next contribution, Satan’s attempt to take over Rock Heaven. So, 2023 has been a pretty eventful year.

Things seem set to continue for 2024. First, some non-music related news. On January 31, my daughter Rowena is getting married and of course, I’ll bore you with all the wedding photos. In musical news, my big discovery from 2018, Lebanese heavy metal outfit, Slave to Sirens, will be putting out an album called “Echoes of Silence,” which I’m looking forward to. Furthermore, America’s best kept secret, Hannah Wicklund, has also been active so we might get an album from her. A lot to look forward to. In the meantime, here’s a track from Slave to Sirens.

With that, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year.

Next post: Deep Black Rainbow’s full performance

To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com

Once again, Bruce Dickinson has been overlooked for a knighthood. To right this wrong, click the link: https://www.change.org/p/special-honours-committees-for-knighthoods-a-knighthood-for-bruce-dickinson

France’s Best Kept Secret- Indochine

Indochine

When I made my historic trip to Paris back in January to visit Jim Morrison’s grave, I also included another discovery made during that weekend. When watching a show about albums on French TV, I came across a very interesting band I had never heard before, Indochine, pronounced Ondo-sheen. In the video, they were playing to a packed out arena with a lot of fans, mostly female, screaming their appreciation of the band. I came to the conclusion they were a huge sensation in their native country, which my good buddy, The Vintage Toy Adviser, has since confirmed. The video for “Station 13” will confirm it even more.

Indochine in the early days

Indochine formed in 1981 and by 1983 were considered the hottest new wave band in France. Throughout, the 1980s, they would release four successful studio albums and maintain a steady lineup. However, that would change in the 1990s with what seemed to be a revolving door of drummers and guitarists. Fortunately, the new millennium would bring renewed success and the band continues to ride on that wave. For their full history, click this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indochine_(band)#Discography

Here’s further evidence I could be mellowing with age. If I had heard of the band back in the mid 1980s, I most likely would not have been interested in them as they were not metal. Fortunately, these days I am more opened minded and I was very impressed with what I had heard on that TV show and that has led me to explore them further and become even more impressed with this band. Their brand of new wave is definitely unique, if I were to try to make a comparison to another band, the closest would be Simple Minds but I still prefer Indochine.

Now for the big question: Why aren’t Indochine bigger outside of France? True, they are known on Continental Europe and have played in Montreal and are even considered huge in Peru. Why haven’t they made a dent in the US or UK? I can hear some people shouting out that if they sang in English, then they would be huge. My response is, Why should that matter? Okay, I know their fellow countrymen, Gojira, sing in English and have conquered the heavy metal world. Well you know what? I would still love Gojira if they sang in French because their music is that good. No artist should have to sing in another language just to make it. It’s a given that music transcends language barriers. Furthermore, Indochine get my respect for not doing so, I get the feeling that if they tried to sing in English, it would sound out of place. But don’t take my word for it, have a listen and tell me what you think.

Indochine’s current lineup

Nicola Sirkis- vocals, guitar, synthesizerm harmonica

Marc Eliard- bass

Boris Jadel- lead guitar

oLi dE SaT (Olivier Gerard)- keyboards, rhythm guitar

Ludwig Dalberg- drums

Note: Dimitri Bodiansky played saxophone with the band 1981-89

So there it is, Indochine is France’s best kept secret. Hopefully after this post, they won’t be such a secret anymore.

Next post: 1989- The Final Year of the Golden Decade

To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com

To sign the petition for a knighthood for Bruce Dickinson, click the link: https://www.change.org/p/special-honours-committees-for-knighthoods-a-knighthood-for-bruce-dickinson

Gone and Done It!

There’s another objective achieved, another scratched off my ‘to do’ list. I spent the weekend in Paris and had a really nice time. My main objective, if you haven’t already guessed from the photo above, was to visit Jim Morrison’s grave. Unlike what you see in the film, “The Doors,” there is no graffiti around the grave and it’s now behind a fence. Thank God for mobile phone cameras which let you zoom it. Ever since I got to Europe 36 years ago, it was something I always wanted to do. Covid prevented me from doing so on my 60th birthday but now I’ve done it, hooray!

I don’t know who this derelict is standing in front of Jim’s grave. Oh wait, that’s me.

My daughter Rowena and future daughter in law, Eline

After my objective was achieved, I let my daughter and her fiance pretty much decide the rest of the weekend. On the Saturday, we spent several hours at The Louvre doing all the touristy things. We saw the obvious attractions, The Mona Lisa and the statue of Venus DeMilo as well as many other objects of fine art. A few years ago, I posted about my trip to the Philadelphia Art Museum but The Louvre eats that one for breakfast and lunch. Unless everyone really wants to see it, I won’t post all the photos from there but there was one painting, I can’t remember the artist, which really caught my eye. The reason was that the painting reminded my so much of the video for the song “Mystery” by Dio.

It’s always a mystery.

There are two other interesting happenings over the weekend which are worth me sharing. In my hotel room on the Friday night, I caught a French album show on TV. Most of them weren’t to my musical tastes until the last two. First of these was a band called Indochine. Judging from the video performance where they played to a packed out arena, they’re very big in France. Having just read their biography, this band has been around since the 1980s! Why haven’t I heard of them? They’re considered soft rock/new wave and they sounded quite good. Closing out the album show was a band I introduced last year, Maneskin, from Italy who won last year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The video was of their latest song, a power ballad called “Loneliness” and it’s very good.

Indochine

Måneskin during Rock am Ring at Nürburgring, Nürburg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany on 2022-06-03, Photo: Sven Mandel

As for the second happening, I feel that I would be letting everyone down if I hadn’t discovered a cool heavy metal bar while in Paris. Fortunately I did. It is called Le Black Dog and is located about five minutes walk from The Louvre. It’s not a very big place and unfortunately they were all booked up so we couldn’t sample the cuisine which is said to be very good. I did enjoy a new beer called Polar Dog and they played some great death metal. Another interesting note, there was one guy in the bar who could have been the result of a liaison between Lemmy and a female Motorhead fan. He did look a lot like him. So, if you’re in Paris, you know where to go for a good metal time. I just wished we could have stayed longer.

Patrons of Le Black Dog

My refreshing pint of Polar Dog

Some more cool decor, I took this photo from my stepson Teal

Overall, I had a great weekend in Paris and I hope you all enjoyed reading about it. At least, should you ever go there, you know of a great place to go to and yes, I didn’t have a bad meal the entire weekend.

Next post: Virgin Steele- Age of Consent

To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com

To sign the petition to give Bruce Dickinson a knighthood, click the link: https://www.change.org/p/special-honours-committees-for-knighthoods-a-knighthood-for-bruce-dickinson?redirect=false