Band : King's X

Album title : XV

Label : InsideOut Music

Distributor : SPV - CNR

Release date : 17/05/2008

Release : CD

Since picking up my journalistic activities for this very website, I've been fortunate enough to get this Texas based American trio's albums Manic Moonlight (2001) and Black As Sunday as reviewing jobs. But then the band's contract with Metal Blade ended with as final release the 2004 double live album Live All Over The Place , which we weren't even sent. Same goes with the band's debut (2005's Ogre Tones ) for their new label InsideOut (the label for which both guitarist Ty Tabor and drummer Jerry Gaskill had recorded solo albums) Around the same time, the independent Molken Music imprint picked up some of the band's music, resulting in the release of Dogman Demos and Rehearsal CD Vol. 1 in 2005, and Live & Live Some More (a 2-disc set described as the band's best performances, recorded during the 1994 Dogman Tour ). Molten Music would also release a 2-disc demos anthology by Tabor in December 2006.

While I didn't actually go buying their albums in between, I did however stay up-to-date with their stuff through reviews posted in several magazines. Now people who've known the band from the start will know that with the years the band's music evolved to a solid 'n' good 'n' groovy Hard Rock Blues, whereas in the beginning there were more Psychedelic tendencies. Black Like Sunday had the original concept of containing songs written in the days when the trio was still known as The Edge and Sneak Preview (did you know that they released a self-titled 10-song vinyl album under that name on their own effort in 1983?), and it was therefore no surprise to many when the ensuing studio album (2005's Ogre Tones ) was a musical return to the "classic" King's X sound. With XV (like its predecessor recorded with top-producer Michael Wagener ), the trio stepped away from their usual working method when writing songs for a new album (before, the guys wrote the bulk of songs in the studio, usually re-writing the ideas they had pulled together ahead of studio time) by writing the music ahead of time. Most of the material was even finished by the guys individually months before they got together for the first time to analyze what they'd got. They then worked together to include the other members' ideas. Eventually, they still ended up writing the song "Go Tell Somebody" in the studio...just for the fun of it!

The band's new method of getting their songs together has made for a certain variety where the Rock area is concerned in which the separate songs will be categorized. Some are simply "classic" King's X songs, some have a tendency towards the more straight-forward Groove Rock the band played during the latter days of the '90s, others have an more decisive Blues direction...but they all carry the King's X trademark! Where the vocals are concerned, the band employed a somewhat peculiar tactic of enforcing a collaboration from whatever friend or collegue came to visit the trio in the studio...making for a much wider variety of vocal tones than usual on a King's X album (more details, I'm sure, on the retail version of the album...nor the promo copy or bio we got – on-line – gives any further info). If you're looking to get a decent ear-full of the new album's material, I'm afraid I have to disappoint you, because both the band's website kingsxrocks.com and their myspace.com/kingsx give you the band's new single "Alright" . However, the band website gives you a total of 7 songs off other albums ( Ogre Tunes , Dogman Demos , Live And Live Some More , Rehearsal CD Vol. 1 ), and the Myspace page gives you 4 more tracks off an equal amount of (other) albums. Enough material to get you acquainted with the incredibly groovy music that is King's x 's...in case you'd never heard music by 'em before. If you are indeed familiar with the trio: be advised that this album is probably one of their best in a long time...although we say that about each new album from the Texas Three, hahah!

98/100

Tony.