KING KOBRA – King Kobra

KING KOBRA - King Kobra
  • 9/10
    KING KOBRA - King Kobra - 9/10
9/10

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Frontiers
Release date: April 4, 2011

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King Kobra had not been around for a long time (from 1984 to 1988 to be exact), but like many other bands from that time, they made their mark in the industry. After two successful albums, Ready To Strike and Thrill Of A Lifetime, King Kobra called it quits in 1988 and disbanded. Carmine Appice, founder (originally from Vanilla Fudge), Mick Sweda, David Michael Phillips, Johnny Rod, and Mark Free all moved on to enjoy careers with other successful bands, only to end up back where it all started in the year 2010 as a solid unit that is once again King Kobra. This move would be minus one member, Mark Free, who became Marcie Free. Marcie was replaced by former Rough Cutt vocalist Paul Shortino.

The line-up recently recorded 12 new songs for the album, King Kobra. It starts out with “Rock This House”, a classic straight-ahead Rock song, which features all the musicians and their skill set — and it’s quite good. Carmine is all out fantastic throughout the entire album; which is really no surprise. “Turn Up The Good Times”, the second track, is so similar in theme to the first that it could have waited until later in the recording for placement, but it’s still a good song. “Live Forever” and “Crying Turns To Rain” showcase Paul Shortino at his finest. What a voice he has in these ballad-like songs. “Tear Down The Walls” as well as “We Got A Fever”, which begins with just Paul and Carmine, are two of the better cuts on the album, but the others won’t disappoint either. David and Mick show good work on “Top Of The World”, and Johnny Rod keeps up his end of the deal nicely as well. “Fade Away” closes the album and is beautiful in its simplicity and guitar work; it’s a nice ending to the story.

King Kobra was always a good band, and the original singer, Marcie Free, although great, is not at all missed musically. Paul does a great job. The only problem here is that the anticipation for the next effort is so great. There is simply not enough King Kobra in the archives. Keep it coming boys!

Author

  • Justine Bevan

    Justin was a reviewer and interviewer here at Metal Express Radio, based in New Jersey, USA. She loves KISS and became a KISS Army member at the age of 6. She started playing drums when she was 13 and taught herself by ear, then later learned how to read music. Her musical tastes expanded even further after she started playing drums and began listening to everything from Metallica to Queensrÿche to 70s based Southern Rock. She is also a big fan of what are known as "hair bands", or Melodic Rock/Melodic Metal. She was a music major in college (the first time around). Justin wrote for several publications in the 80s and 90s, including Hit Parader and Faces.

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