Search - Arthur Kingdom Come Brown :: Kingdom Come (Dlx)

Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come produces another great album!

Wez Wolfe | NY, USA | 07/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Arthur Brown's group Kingdom Come rethinks its message on the album Kingdom Come.The overall feel of Kingdom Come is upbeat. This is a change from the darker Galactic Zoo Dossier.

Most of the songs are more comical than the ones on Galactic Zoo Dossier, while remaining as cosmic. This is a truly great album and sound quality of the CD is superb.

The songs alone are enigmatic but heard together they form a sound that transcends all notions of rock and pop music.

From -The Teacher-,to -Love Is-, Kingdom Come is a must for fans of music."

Heavy psych/prog and a talking traffic light that can't turn

Jeffrey J.Park | Massachusetts, USA | 02/25/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Amongst fans of the band, this 1972 release seems to be the least favorite of the three Kingdom Come studio albums including the brilliant Galactic Zoo Dossier (1971) and the synthesizer heavy Journey (1973). I suppose that, given the high quality of these two albums that Kingdom Come would naturally fall short, although it really is not that bad at all. It seems that this album suffered a bit from a clear direction and is a little uneven - apparently Arthur Brown stepped back to let the other guys contribute more. Notwithstanding, I do enjoy this album and find it to be a very satisfying mix of progressive rock, heavy psychedelic rock, and avant-garde experimentation that is generally lighter in mood than the 1971 debut. Apparently, Arthur wanted to move on from the doom and gloom of the debut.



The lineup on this album includes Arthur Brown (lead vocals); Phil Shutt (electric bass guitar); Andy Dalby (electric and acoustic guitar; vocals); Michael Harris (piano; Hammond organ; mellotron; VCS3); and Martin Steer (drums and percussion). Just like the first album, these guys cranked out some excellent playing, with Michael Harris simply ripping on the Hammond organ - he was clearly influenced by Keith Emerson (of ELP) (City Melody is the single best example of this tendency). Michael also uses the mellotron - as a huge fan of the mellotron, I was especially pleased to hear its distinctive tone on a few tracks. Andy Dalby is an incredible guitarist, yet is not the best vocalist in the world - on this album he sings more than he did on Galactic Zoo Dossier (which was dominated by Arthur). Arthur Brown's distinctive vocal style is also present, complete with the screams - he does however alternate the incredible vocals with more experimental spoken word passages that verge on the crude at times (he speaks of his bowel movements on "...Lower Colonic Irrigation", which is backed by appropriate sound effects.



Musically, Kingdom Come more or less continues the overwhelming mix of virtuosic acid jams, progressive rock, cacophonic electric guitar riffs played at crushing volumes, and avant-garde tendencies introduced on Galactic Zoo Dossier. The pieces do not however, flow together as well as on the debut and I personally found the "goofing around while on acid" sections a teeny tiny bit distracting. On the other hand, there were some experimental passages that worked very well and let's face it - a sense of humor is a good thing.



This remastered version by Sanctuary/Castle is very good and features excellent sound quality, loads of liner notes and photos, and a few bonus tracks (mostly alternate versions of tracks included on the original album).



All in all, while this may not be the best Kingdom Come album, it is still an excellent example of heavy prog/psych and is highly recommended along with Galactic Zoo Dossier and Journey (which is completely different sounding)."