Search - King Kobra :: Ready to Strike (Mlps)

Great album, AMAZING remaster

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 05/17/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you were a rock and metal fan in the 80's, Los Angeles was pretty much the Promised Land. It was home to countless hair/glam/sleaze/melodic rock bands, including King Kobra, which featured legendary drummer Carmine Appice (of Vanilla Fudge fame) and troubled, talented vocalist Mark Free.



King Kobra hit the scene in 1985 with Ready to Strike, one of the decade's classic melodic rock albums. I suppose you could call this kind of music hair metal (especially after looking at the band photo), but this album has little in common with Poison or Faster Pussycat. King Kobra had a very polished melodic rock sound that brought the AOR songwriting and production style together with the L.A. scene's harder edge and image. The result is a sound that was full of catchy guitar hooks, great melodies, and Mark Free's strong vocal performance. One interesting note - the song Hunger was also recorded by Kick Axe (operating as Spectre General) for the soundtrack to the Transformers animated movie.



If you're an 80's rock fan, particularly of the more melodic bands like Hurricane, Treat, Y&T, Winger, and Giant, you definitely need to pick up Ready to Strike, especially now that it is readily available again.



NOTE: Caroline Records reissued Ready to Strike in 2008. The reissue does not include any bonus material, but it does feature crystal clear digitally remastered sound that sounds as good as anything released today. The CD comes housed in a mini-LP style package. It's essentially a slightly oversized cardboard sleeve with the disc enclosed in an interior envelope imprinted with the liner notes. I'm not a huge fan of this kind of packaging (it doesn't do a great job protecting the CD), but considering just how good these remasters sound I can't complain too much.

"

Ultimate Badness!!!!!

Jeffrey W. Smith | Arlington, TX USA | 04/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first got a hold of the cassette when this first came out in 1985. I wore it out! I am a drummer and can say that Carmine Appice's playing is outstanding. The vocals are amazing and I truly wish that this kind of metal would come back... It's out there, but you have to really search for it--due to the covering of the new popular form of noise called hip-hop and rap!!! I would recommend HIGHLY to ANYONE wanting to hear some of the best melodic metal---GET THIS CD!!!!"

Kenny

Kenneth Mantone | new york city | 10/31/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"King Kobra was the brain child of master drummer Carmine Appice.Ready to Strike is their first release back in 1985.The songs Ready to Strike,Hunger and Breakin'Out are the high points of this record.The rest of this release is average and ordinary.The band sounds tight with strong vocals.Carmines' drumming is solid but far from his best recorded work.Buy with caution because there are better records out there for this type of hard rock."