Kingdom Come

Arguably the Americas’ first proper heavy metal band, Sir Lord Baltimore are true unsung legends of the style. The mere name rings of elder nobility while their all-too-curt musical lifespan resulted in some of the most exciting and interesting tracks of the genre’s earliest days. With gain cranked to 11 and their energy to… I dunno, at least 14 or 15, the power trio of Garner, Dambra, and Justin laid down a monstrous debut in Kingdom Come whose reverberations are occasionally still being felt today.

Black Sabbath is inevitably a reference point when one is discussing heavy music from the 1970’s; this is true even in the case of the mostly incongruous Sir Lord Baltimore, although for an entirely different reason than the other heavyweights of the decade. See, one of the most interesting things about classic Sabbath (to me, anyway) that few people ever seem to acknowledge is their eschewing of the typical rock ‘n’ roll song structure in favor of a more narrative, free-flowing approach. Probably derived from the blues tradition they were rooted in, there are more tracks on the first couple Sabbath records without traditional vocal choruses than those that have them. Sir Lord Baltimore, probably derived from similar roots, opts for the same compositional approach, cycling quick verses with rollicking instrumental breaks to build compact, catchy tunes that (barring a track or two) don’t require repetitive choruses to adhere to the pleasure center of your brain. Even the unexpected ballad “Lake Isle of Innisfree” operates in this way, progressing from one hauntingly lovely harpsichord (or is that a 12-string guitar?) passage to the next before eventually fading into the ether. Featuring drummer/singer John Garner’s most metered yet powerful vocal performance, that one’s a definite album highlight, though it’s entirely atypical of the album at large.

As for rest of the tracks, they collectively encumber what has got to be the most enthusiastic album I’ve ever heard; rock, metal or otherwise. If I one day read somewhere that Kingdom Come was recorded live in a single take, no matter how dubious the source, I’d take it for truth with nary a second thought; that’s just how off-the-cuff their performance feels. They foolhardily jam their way through weird timings and cluttered riffs like a drunken Led Zeppelin while howling near-constantly about sex and women like, well, a drunken Led Zeppelin, but man is the whole thing a fucking blast. Louie Dambra’s crazy leads and monster riffs are catchy, but it’s the way over the top vocal performance of Garner that takes the cake here. He spends most of his time on the mic raving like a lunatic with a near comical screechiness (“Pumped Up”, “Lady of Fire”) only resorting to his more controlled tenor for the slower tracks.

Slower or faster, the whole thing is packed with classics. More mobile tracks like “Pumped Up” and “Ain’t Got Hung on You” sit well beside crunchier groovers like the indispensible “Master Heartache” and the gnarly “Hell Hound”, with a menacing post-psych crawler of a title track that preludes the coming doom/stoner craze. Indeed, SLB are often called the fathers of stoner rock, and while the epithet doesn’t quite hold water (some of this stuff could be compared to Hawkwind at their druggiest and Lemmy-est if it weren't somehow even more reckless), it’s easy to hear traces of their fuzzed out style on albums by bands decades their junior, from Kyuss/QotSA, Wolfmother, and the like. That it’s easier to name bands that were influenced by them then bands that influenced them should tell you something; that they’re such an obscure group is borderline criminal.

Like their second album (which Kingdom Come is often compiled with these days), re-releases flip the album sides around, although it’s not quite as jarring as with the second album’s tracklist ("Caesar LXXI" needs to be the closer there!). Kingdom Come isn’t really for everyone, but personally, it’s in my top ten metal records for the decade, a substantial achievement considering it was released right at the beginning in 1970. The younger crowd might argue that it has comparatively more in common with rock 'n' roll than heavy "metal" as it's understood today, but no semantic interpretation will lessen the fact that this is as well-crafted and achingly heavy for '70 as anything else you're likely to find, Sabbath, Zeppelin, and Deep Purple included.

Now if you’ll beg my pardon, I’d like to spin this again at maximum volume. Any of you see where my ears landed?