KINGDOM OF MADNESS

I seem to remember these guys being referred to as the British Styx at some point back in the late seventies. I’m not sure what makes them prog-related except maybe the keyboards, which are pretty good but not on-par with any of the symphonic giants by any means. This is another album that would be covered with dust in my collection were it not for the plastic cover I put on it years ago. It’s a decent album, even pretty good in some places (particularly the opening track and “Universe”). But overall these guys sound more like they are lifting riffs and bits and pieces of arrangements out of their record collections and piecing them together into something they can call their own. There just seems to be more emphasis on flash than substance.

Like I said the opening track is excellent, great keyboards and probably the best vocals on the entire album. The tempo change about midway through makes this sound more like two distinct tunes than a single work, but that’s cool.

“Baby Rock Me” has a deceptive title, as one would expect some kind of Triumph-like crotch-grabbing crap or something. But this sounds quite a bit like Queen circa ‘Jazz’ or ‘News of the World’, except that the vocals aren’t quite as good. Pretty close though. The lyrics are tripe though, so points off for that.

“Universe” is sort of a ballad, probably made for the live stage, and awfully close to sounding like something Jeff Lynne would have been happy to claim as one of his creations. Like I said, these guys seem to like to try on other people’s clothes.

The title track starts off with some mellow acoustic guitar and even a little flute, but this one turns into a cheap knockoff of “Keep Yourself Alive” and descends into barbershop harmonies and cheesy synthesizer effects at times as well, so by the time it gets over I’m ready to move on. “All That is Real” is a sappy attempt at pop philosophy that gets dangerously close to that Triumph curse I mentioned earlier, but with a little better vocals.

The next couple of tracks (“The Bringer”, “Invasion”) sound more like something that was recorded in the mid-seventies than towards the end of the decade. I looked up a few reviews of this album on the web this week and found out that the album was delayed in its release for whatever reason back in 1978, so maybe they were actually recorded in 1976 instead. That would make sense.

Lead singer Bob Catley has this weird inflection to his voice on “Lords of Chaos” that sounds like he’s trying to pull off a dumbed-down Ronnie James Dio kind of thing. It doesn’t work, and neither do the falsetto backing vocals. Ever heard Rhapsody? That’s what this one sounds like.

The album closes with a decent enough finale, “All Come Together”. Quiet piano and synthesized strings, but Catley gets into that Rik Emmett-meets-Freddie Mercury thing again and the vocals are just plain awkward from the very start. This would probably have been well-received on a Blues Image album in 1973, but it just doesn’t click here.

So I can’t really pan this album, as the musicianship is quite good. But the arrangements are all pretty derivative (and I don’t use that word often), and the vocals are sub-par at best. Styx did the same thing, only better, and so did Queen. This one may be popular with whatever fans the band had/has, but as such it’s really just for collectors only. Two stars.

peace