by Tom Johnson
Three-part harmonies, a verified guitar-god genius, and some of the lowest, thickest, sludgiest bass around — King’s X is like the Beatles of metal, but they go year-after-year depressingly ignored. They scored a few minor hits in the early 1990s and then pretty much sunk off the radar screen of mainstream music, but these guys have, for the most part, turned out consistently good albums all along. After all this time, they finally released a live album that shows what a great live band they are. It’s totally raw — straight from the soundboard — but the energy of the show carries the somewhat dry recording. The first disc gets bogged down by a four-in-a-row serving of less-than-great material from the very spotty 2003 release Black Like Sunday, but Disc 2 is full of jams and a wonderful “acoustic” portion of the show. It doesn’t really sound very acoustic through most of it, but the performance is so intimate I’ve never bothered to worry about how acoustic it really is.
Half Notes is a quick-take music feature on Something Else! Reviews, presented whenever the mood strikes us.
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