Sir Lord Baltimore
Kingdom Come

LA RECENSIONE

Unjustly forgotten, the Sir Lord Baltimore are a power-trio from New York who left a scorching mark on the music scene with their debut in 1970, with the album "Kingdom Come," to be considered as a true example of heavy metal ante litteram. 

Their music packs quite the punch, a heavy and distorted rock that throws blues and rock and roll into the mix, thrashes them around and coats them with a metallic armor, pushing well beyond the boundaries of hard rock set by Deep Purple with their masterpiece of the same year "In rock" almost reaching into the realm of Blue Cheer, but with a decidedly more metallic approach in a strict sense (as Blue Cheer should be considered more as "proto-stoner").

Examples include the metallic clattering of "Hell Hound" and the furious "Hard Rain Fallin'" (with a crazy solo at the end shot at the speed of a maglev!) or even the stratospheric "Helium Head". Blue Cheer emerge, for example, in the massive opening riff of "Lady Of Fire", interrupted by the wild scream of the singer John Garner (incidentally, not a small thing, the drummer of the band too!), who delivers an impressive vocal performance throughout the album. Moments of calm on the record can be found in the acoustic "Lake Isle Of Innersfree", otherwise, you'll find mega-galactic riffs and solos in abundance.

This is rock according to the Sir Lord Baltimore, year of grace 1970. Worth recovering.

P.S.: in 2003, the album was reissued with the addition of their second self-titled LP; basically two records for the price of one, grab it!