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I’m embarrassed to say that I thought Manic Moonlight, the new release from King’s X (Metal Blade Records) was awful the first time I listened to it.  I attribute that opinion to the lousy speakers attached to my portable CD player.  After trying again with headphones, I was assured that, yes, this really is King’s X and, yes, reign they still do.  Doug Pinnick’s rumbly bass and soulful vocals, Ty Tabor’s intricate tones, and Jerry Gaskill’s furious drumming (too low in the mix in my opinion) do come through in most of the songs, although the prevalence of loops and sound effects are ineffective in some songs and compromise the “raw” or “live” production (or lack of overproduction) quality that has been present in all of their albums since Dogman.

Songs like the Chili-Peppersish “Skeptical Winds” demonstrate potential for the new direction the band seems to be taking and complement the classic King’s X style, which is also plentiful on this album.  Among the highlights of the album are “False Alarm,” a heavy early-Beatlesque tune about mistaken love, “The Other Side,” a similar sound with a smorgasbord of guitar fills and indeterminate lyrics possibly about heaven and “Jenna,” an awesome song with beautiful vocal harmonies, loud guitars and an interlude reminiscent of Jars of Clay’s “Flood.”

There’s nothing particularly inspirational in the lyrics, certainly nothing the caliber of “Move Me” from their last album, Please Come Home...Mr. Bulbous (a masterpiece, by the way).  “Believe” even offers the following lines of misplaced faith, “If…the cross you carry on your back makes it hard for you to move, in yourself believe. It’s all right.”  But don’t we prefer Pinnick (or whoever the author is) be honest rather than writing more Pauline encouragements that don’t express the way he feels at present?

One may also wonder how much the band enjoys doing studio work together anymore.  They fulfill their contractual obligation of a ten-song album by burping into the microphone for the final track, “Water Ceremony.”  And it’s a really weak burp at that!  (Fans of the band will recall that Bulbous split the last song into two tracks in order to hit the magic number.)

The members of King’s X seem to be putting more effort into their side projects these days.  But Manic Moonlight is still King’s X and, as such, it’s still better than 90 percent of the junk that passes for music these days.  It’s not the first album to start with in building your King’s X collection.  But every King’s X album offers ingenious music that occasionally gives spiritual insight and always rocks hard.

Dan Singleton 10/6/2001