Every band these days needs to grab your attention fast and Kings County’s rather short bio is bith unusual and intriguing… “Originally from Long Island, NY, Orlando, FL-based KINGS COUNTY creates hard-hitting rock n’ roll with infectious hooks. Inspired by an eclectic combination of The Beatles and Herb Alpert, their songs blend edgy hard rock with strong melodies. The band’s music is somewhat reminiscent of 90’s hard rock artists, but with a decidedly modern twist.”
Herb Alpert? The Beatles? 90’s Hard Rock Artists? Not a mix I’ve encountered before…
Opener ‘Sacrifice’ is an interesting way to introduce the band and reminds me in part of later Lillian Axe given a 90’s sheen. It’s a song with a great tempo and full of melody and rubbing shoulders with the song that first got them noticed- ‘Take It Or Leave It’ (which led to a support slots for Bon Jovi and Ted Nugent) it immediately shows that the band has more than one string to their bow. Indeed ‘Take It is a nice piece of light and breezy 90’s radio rock with an infectious refrain and a gentle classic sheen. It’s a great song,simple as that and one with a broad appeal.
‘All that I Want’ that follows is interesting too, like Creed with an underlying musical refrain that has a a British 80’s Alt Rock thrust that mellows it and makes it greater than the sum of the parts. It’s another ear-worm too and embellished with some great laid-back guitar. These guys might be onto something here…
And when you can follow that all up with a single like ‘Blood Stained Adrenaline’ a song that distills Alice in Chains and STP with a lot of water in the verse and retains the crunch for the chorus with it’s offset gritty and melodic counterbalanced refrain…. like I said you really have something.
The searching ‘Judging Distances’ is where the 90’s radio rock kicks in again and it’s a song with a cool edgy Collective Soul-ish vibe, whilst ‘What Now’ adds a little more menace as it crawls along before busting into another melody-driven chorus. ‘7 Reasons’ that follows takes the pace down and packs in more emotion its one of my favourites here on an album with a distinct sound and yet a lot of variety and that is confirmed with the short(ish) and quirky ‘Delicious Consequences.’
By the final track ‘Dying To Live’ I’m of course waiting for that Herb Alpert influence to kick in… It thankfully doesn’t instead its a darker shadow of Alice in Chains that is shot through this bittersweet closer. Thi is deinitely one to watch and well worth a listen.
Kings County Online – HERE