Artist: King Kobra
Label: Frontiers Records
Released: 2011
Length: 52:23
Rating: 3.5/5
King Kobra are just one more in a long line of comebacks on the reawakening melodic rock scene of the new millennium. Credit goes to Frontiers Records, one of the pillars of today’s revival of an archaic, God-forsaken genre.
Led by the indestructible, legendary drummer Carmine Appice, known as the man who set the rhythm for old-school rockers Vanilla Fudge (who, once upon a time, way back when, had none other than Led Zeppelin open for them on their first American tour), King Kobra flat-out refuse to admit that he’s picked up a single gray hair in all these long years of defiance. An unconditional “No!” is his answer, and that’s exactly what the new King Kobra album sounds like. Untamed and furious, as if 15-year-old brats were raging on the instruments instead of rock veterans. Alongside Appice, every single original member of the first King Kobra lineup is back together. With one (important) exception.
The first two albums defined King Kobra. Looks and voice. Sharply armed AOR with excellent, catchy riffs, led by Mark Free’s striking vocals. Mark Free is a man who’s honestly hard to replace. To be more precise, there’s precious little left of that man after the surgical procedures in 1996, when Mark became Marcie Michelle Free, but still. Free, who still sings with a natural male voice in Unruly Child, is simply a vocal caliber of a kind you can count on the fingers of one hand in hard rock and melodic rock. Right up there among the top melodic rock vocalists. Even today.
So Paul Shortino stepped in. When you call the band’s first two albums to mind, you tell yourself Shortino could never work in King Kobra, but once you get to grips with the new material, this year’s release, his integration makes more and more sense. And let’s be honest. Nobody expected much from the new King Kobra, especially after that experience called “Hollywood Thrash”, a first-class flop of a KK album.
The new album “King Kobra” is a raw hard rock record with stripped-down production, where the contrasts between the instruments are emphasized, the drums shell you like cannons, the riffs are massive, and the chorus is often armed anthem-style with backing vocals (harmonized). The band managed to put together a bunch of songs that are decently written and arranged, which makes “King Kobra” a solid comeback album. Shortino, with his explosive, raspy, “bluesy feel” and dominantly manly approach, keeps the energy of the songs at an outstanding level, and the album rides through its running time on a sparkling rock potency that feels thoroughly real and wholly convincing in such a ride.
King Kobra come across as punchy and direct, and at the same time seriously catchy when they combine that punch with melody. Songs like that are the opener Rock This House, Tear Down The Walls with its almost “Accept-style” vocals in the chorus, the classically built yet sultry Midnight Woman, and even the predictable, formulaic-in-the-verse We Got A Fever catches fire, with a potent, anthemic chorus pulling it out of the average. The classically hard rock-built This Is How We Roll is again cleverly lifted above average by the arrangement in the chorus. Then there’s the album’s extremely wound-up moment, resting on double bass drum pedals, called Screaming For More. The verse is again a dangerously bluesy “rolling” that smells of predictability, but the superbly cut chorus after it gives the song its winning points. That duality of verse and chorus is also the fruit of the songs’ dynamic development and the vibrant winding of moods, which the album never runs short of.
There are moments on the album where the chorus smells beautifully of classic AOR melodizing, like in Live Forever, and in the thoroughly impressive punchy half-ballads, tastefully seasoned with acoustics (sonically filled out) and even making room for string arrangements. Fade Away and Cryin’ Turns To Rain are two of those.
What dents the album’s credibility are the “fillers”, like Turn Up The Good Times or the childishly, laughably trivial On The Top Of The World. Simply a drop of wine in a glass of goodies that’s completely superfluous and unnecessary.
“King Kobra” is a very good album from a revived band. It sounds bluesy, like no King Kobra album before it, and right now that suits Shortino’s vocal approach all the more. Honestly, with the album’s changed style (compared to the music of the first three KK albums), King Kobra couldn’t have come up with a better solution for the vocalist spot. Paul Shortino is an excellent answer to the shifts in the new King Kobra’s musical direction. Of course, a pinch of AOR feel has stayed on the album, but King Kobra are such seasoned musicians that they know exactly how to build a track so it works convincingly. Be it old times or new. The only difference is that “King Kobra” can no longer shock anyone by simply showing up on the scene, since this is an archaic musical form. Its function in these new times is different. It keeps the band’s credibility intact! So we can say the boys have delivered a really good album, one that can be built upon with a follow-up, or else exemplarily hold its immensely likable level of quality. Welcome home, boys!
Lineup
Paul Shortino – vocals
David Michael-Philips – guitar
Mick Sweda – guitar
Johnny Rod – bass
Carmine Appice – drums
Production
Kin Kobra
Tracklist
1. Rock This House
2. Turn Up The Good Times
3. Live Forever
4. Tear Down The Walls
5. This Is How We Roll
6. Midnight Woman
7. We Got A Fever
8. Top Of The World
9. You Make It Easy
10. Crying Turns To Rain
11. Screamin’ For More
12. Fade Away
