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El Paso Times Open Mic Review, by Everett Saucedo

Phillip Flowers | 04/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"LITTLE KING REVIEW



By Everett Saucedo



Rush fans have never been in short supply. Among them has to be Ryan Rosoff, singer / guitarist / writer for El Paso rock band Little King. The coincidence is not unintentional; while creative influences stretching from Styx to Temple of the Dog can be picked out with one listen of Virus Divine, the band's slickly-produced third album, there is no question that Little King owes more than just a passing nod to the legendary prog-rockers.



Comparisons to the cultish Canadians don't end there. Rosoff manages a sometimes-spooky vocal impersonation of Rush frontman Geddy Lee. The final tracks were mixed by Terry Brown, who also helped produce many of Rush's albums. And the album itself came together as a singular unit in (yes) Toronto. In all, Virus Divine is an artfully-tailored album full of sweeping vocal rock arias and at-times thundering bass and drums interspersed with modest and clean guitar licks.



Little King (Rosoff on vocals and guitars; Wes Kahalekulu on drums; and Shannon Brady on bass) is not your typical garage band. Aside from being on the verge of celebrating its tenth birthday next year, Little King has also released two previous albums (Transmountain in 1997 and Time Extension in 1998), has had extensive airplay on college and independent radio stations, and has even cut a video. Little King is a professional endeavor, and that professionalism extends beyond the quality of their sound, to the content of their lyrics.



Like Rush lyricist Neil Peart, a writer known for his grandiose and mystical lyrics that touched on everything from questions of god to arboreal allegories of the civil rights movement, Rosoff writes with similar intentions of telling a story in a way that connects his songs and brings them together at the end as one whole being. On Virus Divine, the subject of exploration is the Columbine tragedy. Virus begins with one man's mindset as he watches the events unfold on TV ("All I Need,"), then explores the mortal dangers that stalk America's suburbs ("Peacemaker") and the antipathy of its children holding court in a dying empire ("Antibodies" and "Virus Divine") before ending on "Horsefeathers," the surprisingly-optimistic goodnight kiss to Rosoff's daughter that wraps up the album.



As an album, Virus Divine starts out like a lion and leaves like a lamb. "All I Need" is rich with heavy guitars and pop-rock guitars that betray its ominous heart; by the end of the album, the trappings of the first song have been replaced for a much-folkier sound on "Horsefeathers." All told, Virus Divine suffers only one painfully-noticeable flaw: clocking it at only thirty-eight minutes, it is much too short. Still, it's a great thirty-eight minutes. Wait to see what Little King does when time is on their side.

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