Kingdom Come

Hailing from Brooklyn, this caveman-like trio of barbaric bruisers made a totally ungodly metal racket on this, their long forgotten debut album. To understand what’s going on here, you gotta picture the energy of the Stooges at their most carnal, armed with a batch of generally short and spiky tunes dotted with frantic guitar lines and some truly freaky riff structures. That is to say it’s damn good. And when one considers this collection of fabulous furry freak came out in ’70, you could say that Sir Lord Baltimore were more than a shade ahead of their time.


The magic here is really in the signature nature of the art herein. While it’s true that after the big three (Sabbath, Zeppelin, Purple) broke big time, everybody and their brother in law seemed to crank up a Marshall stack and form a heavy band. But even with all that competition, Sir Lord B still remains a fairly unique sounding entity. Check out the weird but amazing riffs that make up “Hell Hound” or the unreal “Pumped Up;” they both sound like blues riffs dosed with a case of Jolt cola for crying out loud. Also, note the weird, almost eerie vocal embellishments that “Helium Head” contains, and I truly believe most bands would still swap their own internal organs for the ability to write riffs as strong as those that make up “Lady Of Fire” or “Master Heartache.” The highly charged playing is still a wonder to behold, revealing an intensity that few bands had brought to hard rock or metal yet, and still sounds breathlessly impressive today. An in your face, really up front and loud sound job helps too.


SO…what happened to this band? Their second album simply titled Sir Lord Baltimore wasn’t nearly as consistent or charged up, and it’s proofed to be their last release. Both albums were reissued in ’94 on CD, but the band themselves remain an elusive entity. But never you mind, just make absolutely sure you get yerself a copy of this album in whatever form you can.