KYNG IS BOSS
As I was looking over the Top Hard Music charts this week, I found it very hard not to notice how many greatest hits collections appeared; besides the latest one from Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Motley Crue, Poison, Guns N’ Roses, and Journey all still have their own on these charts, Bon Jovi have TWO on there, and Aerosmith have THREE. Not only that, but the only other charting release from any of these bands is GN’R’s Appetite for Destruction, which is almost twenty-five years old. Def Leppard charted for a live album, which is really just a greatest hits album with people cheering in the background.
In fact, the only bands who play what could reasonably be considered “hard rock” and actually appeared on these charts are outfits like Foo Fighters and Seether, who, let’s be real, really play alt rock that owes as much to the Cobain 90s as it does the Led Zep 70s.
So is traditionalist hard rock a dying artform?
Not if Kyng have anything to say about it.
“Falling Down,” the group’s first single, is based around a simple, bluesy, catchy-as-flypaper riff that a group like, say, Hinder only wishes they could write; meanwhile, guitarist/vocalist Eddie Veliz has got some PIPES, man. Even though Kyng really sound nothing like Soundgarden, Veliz’s vocals do recall Chris Cornell in his heyday — which, natch, is never a bad thing. I haven’t heard the rest of Kyng’s album yet, but I’m excited to check it out.
“Falling Down” is being released as a digital single with a b-side (I guess we still call ’em b-sides even though there are no actual side Bs anymore!) at the end of the July, but it’s already streaming on the band’s MySpace page, so you can rock out with it right now, right this very second. Their full-length debut is tentatively scheduled to drop in September.
Meanwhile, they’re currently on tour with The Sword through June 19, before they begin a tour with Saliva and Anew Revolution in July, followed by another tour with Pop Evil. I’m not fan of Saliva or Anew Revolution and I don’t really know Pop Evil, but I think these gigs would be worth going to just to check out Kyng live… dudes who can sing this well are a real rarity these days, y’know? You can get dates on their Facebook page.
-AR
