I've had this a couple of weeks now and wanted to give it a proper listen before I said anything about it. For those living under a rock KXM is Ray Luzier from Korn (hence the K), Doug Pinnick of Kings X (the X) and George Lynch from Lynch Mob (the M). I'm not really familiar with Ray at all as I don't like Korn, Doug Pinnick I'm a huge fan of and the same goes with George Lynch. The wildcard in this was always going to be George. He is famous for having a signature sound on the Dokken and the first two Lynch Mob albums, when he goes off the beaten track like Smoke This and Souls Of We then he loses me. He redeemed himself in my eyes with the last couple of Lynch Mob releases so I had high hopes for this.
It delivers for the most part. The sound is huge and you can hear everything with crystal clarity and along with the new Adrenaline Mob disc is the best sounding I've heard this year. Ray Luzier is a revelation, it's hard to describe his drumming style on this as the songs give him room to show off his chops. Think Igor Cavalera from Sepultura playing along to a hard rock record and you will get an idea. Doug Pinnick still sounds great although I'm not a fan of muffling his vocals on opener Stars and Faith Is A Room. Some of it is bound to sound like Kings X with him singing on it, Love sounding similar to Flies And Blue Skies from Dogman. He really is a great bass player too. Lynch plays mostly with restraint on this allowing the songs to breathe and his playing on Never Stop and Sleep is just right for the song. When he does go off like on I'll Be Ok it sounds like the George of old. Bits and pieces sound like his time with Dokken such as the beginning of Love and Burn but the songs never allow him to stay there because of the different styles of the rhythm section.
So my final verdict is a really solid release at times great with not a duff track on it. It will be interesting to see where this goes from here, will they tour this or be another one of these one and done super groups that promised so much yet never fulfilled their promise. Live this would sound fantastic yet part of me wants another King X and Lynch Mob release. If they could fit it all in then I would be a very happy man indeed.
Richie.
http://www.ratpakrecordsamerica.com/kxm
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