King James
King James
Reviewed by Doug Van Pelt
You heard the news: Rex Carroll leaves Whitecross, joins up with ex-Sacred Fire vocalist Jimi Bennett, and then recruits ex-Stryper players Robert Sweet and Tim Gaines to play drums and bass; they record an album named after a Bible version; the record company slaps one in the mail, and now it sits on your desk... What do you do? Like any other fan of Christian hard rock music, you're as curious as a cat, 'n' you pop the tape in!
The lead-off track, "Hard Road To Go," sounds like the perfect Scorpions song musically. Like the German supergroup, this sound stays locked in a time warp of the dated 80's metal genre, but hey, it's done right. It's a great lead-off track, because it definitely serves as a foretaste of the diversity to come. You've got a driving rhythm, blazing leads, anthemic BGV's on each chorus, and Robert's tasty drum fills. A fabulous flamenco and electric harmony precede the flamenco solo during the bridge.
The diversity of this album's contents may be too much for one listener to digest, but the several parts make up for a good whole. There's some really good textures sewn throughout, with lead lines playing a melody separate but complimentary to the rhythm in either electric note stretching or fine acoustic picking and strumming.
Lyrically, we cover a lot of direction as well, from the story of one brother ratting on another in a drug bust ("Hard Road To Go"), to dealing with suffering ("Miracles"), to reaffirming our identity in Christ ("Rev. Rider").
The "Acoustic Remix of Miracles" is a beautiful ballad that bleeds of emotion. It towers over the electric version (an unusual move to include both versions on one album, eh?), because the BGV's on the acoustic version aren't as polished up and Nashvilled-out, if you know what I mean. The electric version fits better in a TNN Country format and the acoustic version would go down well on MTV Unplugged. It's quite a memorable song.
Some of the album's lowest points are in "Touch The Fire" and "Love is Gonna Find You," which both have that Nashville "CHR-Heaven" stamp on it. "Sunrise in Rio" is a highlight, a very cool flamenco guitar instrumental that is ultra clean. It could have just as easily been an Al Dimeola album. "Face to Face (Reprise)" sounds just like the old Scorpions song "Born To Touch Your Feelings," with layers and layers of a girls voice speaking atop some wailing guitars and a throbbing beat.
While undoubtedly a candidate for comparisons to his past work with Whitecross, Rex Carroll and company have created a good serving of emotional melodic hard rock that should appeal to the Whitecross fans who especially liked the band's commercial appeal. While King James has the potential to grab a large audience due to its accessibility, it is doubtful that the fist-pounding headbanger will latch on to it.