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Rating: He may have a grumpy and aloof face like an angry German, surely his character and authoritarian ways may have alienated him from better career opportunities, but I can't help but admire the musical vision of good Lenny Wolf, an unrecognized (in Italy) jack-of-all-trades of this hard rock band born in Los Angeles and pushed to the charts by the then-thriving Polygram multinational, soon to be reluctantly recycled in Hamburg, making records for the local independent label SPV or the Italian Frontiers, with a market and following almost exclusively in Germany.
The man and his project, initially accused (not without reason) of blatant and slavish plagiarism of Led Zeppelin's style, have long since emancipated from any such remarks: it is true that the beginnings blatantly followed in the footsteps of the Zeppelin, but soon after learning and experimentation, evolution and attention, creativity and passion became evident, without giving the slightest priority to fashions and commercial success.
Starting in 1988 with a granite and melodic blues rock, Kingdom Come, still active today, have transformed into an industrial project, more granite and melodic than ever, with basically only Lenny Wolf self-producing the studio albums, then keeping a live band always ready to perform his music on stage. The transition between the two musical genres has not been traumatic but rather progressive, involving the entire central portion of the thirteen works published so far, let's say from this "Twilight Cruiser" which is the fifth in the series (year 1995) and still almost completely classic hard rock, to "Perpetual", released nine years later and decidedly contaminated with industrial.
Lenny is a guitarist, so he basically sings and plays his own music. But not only that: his demanding (and certainly arrogant) meticulousness and attention to his projects demand the strictest compliance with the scores he has devised, including individual hits on drums and cymbals... and even the adjustment of the amplifiers and perhaps, why not, the thickness of the picks! The man is certainly the classic pain in the neck with a high self-regard, but also adequate preparation, plenty of passion and clear, precise ideas regarding musical choices, timbre preferences, etc.
This is an almost perfect modern classic hard rock album: a drum that thunders grandiosely, preferably kept at half-time or slow time... beautiful riffs and rhythmic guitar interplays, with a decisive role also for pauses, the silences between staccatos, following the admirable Ac/Dc school... synthesized and electronic sounds stormy and intense, often dramatic... Lenny singing (sometimes screaming) in his decidedly melancholic style, a plaintive meow that can easily annoy.
In that case, I suggest focusing on the music around him, proud and resolute, with an arrogance that can only be German, ultra-melodic and at the same time heavy, Nordic, determined, martial, rigorous, romantic without being rhetorical.Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Always on the Run (04:13)
The time has come I have to leave again. I will be back but I just don't know when My heart is aching every time I leave I can't explain the force inside of me I'm trying hard to keep my tears inside The years have taught me how to ease my mind I travel high above the clouds. The sun comes out just as I'm looking out What have I become Always on the run Where do I belong Always on the run It's good to know that someone cares When I'll arrive my friends will all be there I've done it many times before Don't know if I can take it anymore
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