OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET

What a fantastic debut album Out Of The Silent Planet is. Great musicianship, great lead vocals, as well as strong backing vocals and most importantly excellent songwriting. The music is heavy rock with slight Prog leanings with a strong emphasis on melodic catchy tunes with much use made of the fact that all 3 band members can sing.

In the New Age opens the album with a minute and a half of ambient sound effects before the band really kick in and what's immediately apparent is guitarist Ty Tabors rich sound; powerful and full, a sound that has become immediately recognisable to fans of the band. He also shares lead vocals with Doug Pinnick (bass) on this hard hitting slice of melodic rock and Tabor also plays a great guitar solo, not overly flash but making every note count.

Goldilox is more of a power ballad, a song that remains a live favourite to this day with its lush harmony vocals and Tabors sweet picking style on the guitar contrasting with heavier riffs.

Power of Love has quite a psychedelic vibe to it with an excellent soulful vocal performance from Pinnick which runs straight into Wonder with Tabors versatile guitar playing alternating between metallic riffs, rich arpeggios and clean chords and more excellent vocal work.

Even better is Sometimes, the trademark harmonies are there again and King's X know that what you don't play is just as important as what you do allowing the song to breathe and make every note count. Next is King and it might just be my favourite track on the album. It's just a simple mid paced rocker but has one of the bands catchiest melodies which immediately gets under the skin.

What is This? is another favourite with another great vocal performance from Pinnick and Far, Far Away has all the King's X ingredients but doesn't quite hit the spot the way most of the album does but Shot of Love more than makes up for it as does final track Visions which goes from a powerful plodding rocker to a breakneck pace for Tabors guitar solo.

Out of The Silent Planet is one of the best debut albums of the eighties but they would follow it with arguably their greatest masterpiece, Gretchen Goes To Nebraska.