King's X

I became a fan of King's X with the release of their debut 1988 album Out of the Silent Planet and have followed their career since.

For those who may not be familiar with the band or their music here's a little bit of background.

King's X is an American (Springfield, Missouri) rock band known for their sophisticated sound that combines progressive metal, grunge, funk and soul. The core of the band, Doug Pinnick on bass, Jerry Gaskill on drums and Ty Tabor on guitar, began playing clubs around Springfield, MO in the early 80's performing under the name The Edge. After going through a couple different rhythm guitar players, it was decided to continue as a trio and to change the band's name to Sneak Preview.

Sneak Preview independently released a self titled album in 1983. Only about 1,000 copies were pressed. It's been rumored that the band was so unhappy with this first effort that they destroyed about half of the LP's themselves. I have search used record stores for years and have had no luck locating a copy of this very, very rare album.

In 1985 the band moved to Houston Texas and caught the attention of Sam Taylor, then vice president of ZZ Top's production company. It was Taylor who convinced them to change their name to King's X and helped the group secure a contract with Megaforce Records in 1987.

1988 saw the release of King's X debut album. Although hailed by music critics, the album didn't do very well commercially topping out at #144 on the Billboard album charts. Neither single from the album Out of the Silent Planet, "King" or "Shot Of Love" charted very well either.

King's X second album Gretchen Goes To Nebraska released in 1989 fared only slightly better from a commercial standpoint than Out of the Silent Planet but many fans, including myself, consider this to be the beginning of their most creative period.

Throughout the 90's King's X began developing a larger and larger following due in part to touring with AC/DC, Living Colour and the release of Dogman (1994) on Atlantic Records. Dogman showcased a more muscular and heavy sound for the band. King's X enjoyed a very successful tour promoting the album and playing Woodstock '94 in August of that year.

In 1998 the band signed with Metal Blade Records and released five albums through 2004. From 2005 to the present King's X has been signed to InsideOut Music and have released two studio albums, Ogre Tones in 2005 and XV in 2008. Both albums were produced by Michael Wagener who has produced and or mixed albums for Alice Cooper, Ozzy, Great White, Metallica, Janet Jackson, Megadeth and Motley Crue to name a few.

On January 22, 2009 their concert at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London was filmed and is to be released as a live DVD.

Here's a sampling of King's X from the 2008 XV album. The song is titled "Pray" Take note of the bass Doug Pinnick is playing, it's a custom 12 string Yamaha. You can get a closer look at the bass at 12StringBass.net.