KING'S X — Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous (review)

KING'S X — Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous album cover Album · 2000 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Nightfly
I've long held the belief that Please Come Home.Mr Bulbous is a less than spectacular, even poor release, from King's X and as a result it has spent little time in my cd player. Why would it when I have so many other great King's X albums to choose from. However sitting down to listen to it again for the purpose of this review has made me think that perhaps I was being a bit harsh. Sure it's never going to rival the likes of their self titled debut and certainly not their all time classic Gretchen Goes to Nebraska but there's some decent stuff going on here.

By now King's X must have been wondering what they have to do to attain the success they'd been striving for. Perhaps because of this frustration the overall feel of this album is more downbeat and darker. But don't worry as they still combine their popier influenced Beatles style harmony backing vocals with their melodic heavy rock/metal along with touches of psychedelia.

Up until this point King's X have always managed to kick off their albums with a great opener. Fish Bowl Man does not keep up the tradition however despite having many King's X trademarks including one of the albums heaviest riffs. The verse is quite interesting with its scale climbing approach but the chorus is not one of their best. Much better is Julia which though very downbeat has a haunting melody. She's Gone Away is also excellent capturing all the best things about the band being both heavy and melodic at the same time, Ty Tabor also taking lead vocals as well as supplying a great guitar riff. Completing a trio of excellent consecutive tracks is Marsh Mellow Fields. Tabors guitar compliments a heavy riffing chorus with some moody atmospheric restrained playing on the verse and Jerry Gaskill drives it along with a nice drum groove and not forgetting a fine vocal performance from Doug Pinnick.

Much of the rest of the album is King's X treading water, nothing particularly bad about it but at the same time less than essential listening which is a shame.

So overall despite feeling I may have been a bit harsh with my previous judgement of the album it's far from a classic with only a trio of really excellent tracks. One for the fan who has to have everything by the band I think, the rest of you should check out some of their earlier classics or the return to form the band have made with their most recent 2 albums, Ogre Tones and XV. 2 ½ stars.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed