MANIC MOONLIGHT

By the time King's X released Manic Moonlight in 2001, if confirmation were needed after the disappointment of the previous couple of albums, it was pretty clear that they had run out of inspiration and this album remains one of their least enjoyable efforts. Since their debut album in 1988 King's X have been releasing albums of melodic heavy rock, sometimes venturing into metal with a strong emphasis on vocals. Not only have they a fine soulful rock vocalist in Doug Pinnick, but also with guitarist Ty Tabor and drummer Jerry Gaskill contributing vocals, occasionally lead, they are able to produce strong harmony work, sometimes resembling The Beatles.

What sets this apart from their classic early albums is simply a lack of great songs, in fact this is even a poor collection with nothing to make the listener want to hit the repeat button. Where are Tabors wonderful guitar riffs and arpeggios with that rich, full and heavy sound he's so well known for? Not here for sure. Also far inferior is Pinnick's vocal work. Not that he's lost his great voice, simply he's just not got any strong melodies to wrap his tonsils around and hence the backing vocals suffer a similar fate.

Occasionally we get glimpses of what King's X can do as on False Alarm which hits all the right buttons with a decent tune but still falls short of classics like Goldilox and Summerland. Overall though, there's little of interest here and the only people who might want to own Manic Moonlight are die hard completionists.