A lot of us here in the United States remember their chart topping, double platinum debut in 1988. German/American hybrid band Kingdom Come. Their self title debut garnered a lot of attention, even if it wasn’t for the best reasons. The band quickly began enduring name calling: Kingdom Clone, KingHysteria Leppard, Led Clone and Led Come. To be fair this is all based really around one song. Their hit single ‘Get It On’ which really really does sound like a copy cat, 80’s version of Led Zeppelin. Of course, it didn’t help when Jimmy Page called the band out. Followed by singer Lenny Wolf’s response that he had actually never heard of Led Zeppelin and that Kingdom Come was primarily influenced by Jimi Hendrix. It’s like, ‘What??!! That literally makes no sense!’. The rest of their debut is filled with what I would call A-list quality blues metal. Certainly better than 90% of their contemporaries in which there was no shortage. Their follow up ‘In Your Face’ is an extension of the first album. It didn’t go anywhere and Lenny split the line-up. This was a super smart move if you ask me because it allowed Lenny to begin evolving Kingdom Come into one of the most original and underrated bands of all time period. The third album ‘Hands of Time’ shows an astonishing amount of growth that would continue through out the 90’s and 2000’s. By the way, shame on you I-tunes for giving the album a crappy review. The call the album unoriginal and boring. That’s fucking bullshit! This is where the band becomes who they are! A unique seamless combination of bluesy heavy metal, traditional American light rock, funk, 80’s pop and industrial musical textures. That’s a pretty fucking original group of sounds for a band that’s been labeled a copy cat band. Imagine if Motley Crue and Nine Inch Nails got married and their in laws were a Stevie Nicks led Fleetwood Mac with a dash of Prince. You can almost picture the visuals that the band creates through it’s industrial textures. That’s exactly what their sound is. It’s brilliant! It’s quality. And most of all, it’s original. So stop with all the Kingdom Clone bullshit. This is a band that has carved an original niche for itself. Despite line-up change after line-up change. Despite going mostly unnoticed in the United States. Lenny Wolf has endured and created the music he’s wanted to create. And it’s good!! It’s all good!! Not a lot of bands can experiment and still retain their sound and dignity. Well, Lenny with Kingdom Come has done just that. That deserves some defense, a little love and lot of recognition.
The beginning of growth. Industrial undertones with some straight up bad ass blues metal. I can’t believe i-tunes called this boring. Another misrepresentation.
’93s ‘Bad Image’ album sees the band really starting to seamlessly combine influences. Too bad it didn’t come out in ’85. They would have been the biggest band in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc0GHmQCcCo
Nine Inch Nails and Motley Crue marriage.
With Fleetwood Mac in-laws and a dash of Prince.
The original ‘Get it On’ in 1988. You can hear how the band has grown. Not that this is a bad song by any means. It’s just that it really does sound like Led Zeppelin. It would have behooved the band to choose a different single.
Thanx Alex.
Great article. It definitely needed to be said.
Thanx so much for standing up for Lenny & KC. From the first time I heard them way back over 30yrs ago, I was smitten.
In spite of the Zep comparisons, outrage & controversy, I loved them, their image, sound & vibe was just awesome. The production by Bob Rock was phenomenally brilliant.
I was totally enraged when they were shamed, virtually bashed & harassed out of the music biz.
It really ticks me off, how loud mouth arrogant clowns like Ozzy Osbourne & company can borrow (virtually rip-off) the Beatles & others whenever it suits, & no-one raises an eyebrow. But He & many in the music media, then took it upon himself with others to ensure that KC didn’t get any bigger or further than they did.
What an A**hole !!
Or how even Zep themselves virtually plagiarized many riffs & tunes from other people’s music, esp the great Blues legends. Yet they get a virtual pass / green light. Total hypocrisy !!
I agree with your assessment of Lenny / KC subsequent albums, almost all of them are good or very good, with some outstanding tracks. Shame that Lenny pulled the pin only a few years ago, understandably out of sheer exhaustion & much frustration.
At least the other members of the original line up are finally back together & making a comeback. Hopefully, after not too long a break, Lenny will be able to join them, at least on the road, even if not back in the studio. Long to see that happen.
Anyway, Thanx again for defending Lenny & KC,
Thanx for a great blog, keep up the good work.
Regards,
Long suffering KC fan.
Exactly, how many riffs did Page rip off? Countless. And he was very integral in making sure the second album flopped. Even when they changed their sound a bit on the third album too.
In Your Face went multi platinum. And Wolfs 100 times better than Plant vocally.Plant aas RARELY on pitch live.Wolf never misses a note. KC is getting a new singer very shortly
Really? Any word on who it might be?
While Kingdom Come were good…honestly, the American side of Polydor DID promote them as Led Zeppelin, but in a very sneaky way.
A&R men released a white-label single of “Get It On” early to only the major AOR stations and purposely did not tell the radio stations WHO the band was. They “teased” the record by saying, “Just listen to it and make up your own mind on who the band is.” Most DJs did not instantly recognise Stone Fury’s singer as the voice and presumed it was Robert Plant. This fueled a frantic promotional rumour that Led Zeppelin were reunited and about to release a new album. This went on for at least two weeks; long enough to make the single a hit before anyone was told it was Kingdom Come. I worked in the business at the time; I was there.
I mean, that first record is really Zeppelin sounding.
I didn’t fault the band for sounding like Zep on the original release but did fault them for denying the obvious influence. They were just asking for it with that attitude. I thought they might eventually distance themselves from the earlier criticism which they were in the process of doing though ran out the runway before taking off as their own thing. They were the opening band on the Monsters of Rock tour but many people didn’t see them because they weren’t yet at the show. I always thought they were a decent band.
I can see how this band transformed quite a bit over the years but I never really thought they were copycats That was until I heard Def Leppard’s “Another hit and Run” played right before Kingdom Come’s “Shout it Out” These two songs sound far to similar to be coincidence as evident by the main guitar riff and the chorus. I’ve been wondering if Def Leppard just never found out about it, other musicians have been sued for a lot less.
Don’t get me wrong, Shout it Out sounds much better than Another Hit and Run