King's X
Ogre Tones

"Ogre Tones" comes after last year's highly anticipated and spectacular double live album, a rightful seal on an almost twenty-year career. Yes, because the first "Out of the Silent Planet" dates back to the distant 1988, a fertile period for those bands that decided to expand the concept of heavy metal in a thousand facets. Personally, I still gladly listen to their first 4-5 albums, up to "Dogman" to be precise, followed by works that are not easy to interpret: angular and complex ("Please Come Home...") flashes of genius mixed with banality ("Black Like Sunday") and twisted directions ("Manic Moonlight").

The live album perhaps served to close a circle that had been open for years, and "OT" perhaps represents the desire to start again... from the beginning. In fact, much of the tracks that compose it could easily be part of their early works: from the direct and fast "Alone" to the delicacy of the choirs in "Stay", passing through the melodic groove of "Fly" to the acoustic "Honesty," which features the vocal passage to Ty Tabor. Doug Pinnick's almost spoken word style is found in the original and fun "Bebop," while the intertwining of choirs, present as always a bit everywhere, reaches its peak in the dreamy "Get Away." Return to immediacy and "simplicity" then, with melodies that will buzz in your head from the first listen and that, I hope, will lead some of you to rediscover a seminal band, far from stereotypes (in the reviews I always try to indicate similar bands to immediately convey the musical direction, but like King's X, there are only King's X) and trends, which continues to combine positive Rock with a hint of Soul then blending it with Pop.

The only small flaw: from the Texan trio, besides the vocal interweaving, I was thrilled by some instrumental parts that bordered on madness, especially in the endings, made of increasingly syncopated, twisted, and stretched-out stop & go in space/time, where it was never certain if the piece had ended or not. Or the psychedelically obsessive, acid, and overwhelming repetitions. And Ty's clean and thrilling solos or his guitar tuned in the most devilish ways. Who knows, maybe in the next work, they will grant me this too; for now, I enjoy "OT" as the triumphant return of a band that has always been among my favorites.

DISCOGRAPHY: Out Of The Silent Planet - 1988 (4) Gretchen Goes To Nebraska - 1989 (5) Faith Hope Love by King's X - 1990 (4) King's X - 1992 (4) Dogman - 1994 (3) Ear Candy - 1996 (2) Best Of King's X - 1998 (n/a) Tape Head - 1998 (2) Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous - 2000 (1) Manic Moonlight - 2001 (1) Black Like Sunday - 2003 (3) Live All Over the Place - 2004 (4) Ogre Tones - 2005 (3)