Review Summary: An album that will make you question why bands such as Shinedown dominate popular radio, Kyng delivers a sound that you won't be taking out of rotation any time soon.
He walks in the desert for what may seem like miles on end. The intense heat seems to be distorting his perception as he grows weaker and weaker by the moment. No longer content with the superficial problems of our modern society, he consumes every ounce of breath left in him to stay alive. He eventually finds himself upon an elongated path. He climbs to the top of this land form in hopes of finding a reservoir of water. As he begins his journey up the rocky foundation, he seems to notice that his shadow is quickly growing to an unnatural form at this point in the day. The darkness quickly begins to surround him and given his dehydrated mental state, he works diligently with his hands to make it to the top of this large rock. He begins to realize that the heat may be putting him in a delusional state, but knows that his only opportunity to survive may be beyond this rocky foundation. Fueled only by his need to avoid the chasing darkness behind him, he finds his way to the top where he witnesses something truly astonishing. A beaming ring of fire has seemingly engulfed the sun and a piercing black eye stares down upon him from the sky. The temperature begins to quickly cool and the man breathes a quick sigh of relief. He falls to his knees and cries in blessing and satisfaction. The "Trampled Sun" had provided him a cold reservoir of water that now rests towards the bottom of this canyon.
Kyng is certainly an interesting group and while they're have been many groups in contemporary times that have often felt out of place or out of the correct time frame, Kyng seems to be progressing in a direction that very few seem to go in terms of musical instrumentation and vocal styles. Here's an album that will make you question why bands such as Shinedown dominate popular radio, Kyng delivers a sound that you won't be taking out of rotation any time soon. It's the 2010's my friends, popular artists like Lil Wayne dominate the airwaves and generic metalcore is in. Fortunately for us, there's always going to be a independent group of people that are willing to put people back on path in terms of musical style and creativity. The interesting concept behind Kyng is that you will almost immediately notice the "Soundgardinish" influence, but not so overwhelming to the point where you would say that they're stealing anyone's signature style. It's hard to ignore Kyng's progressive tendencies, sometimes preparing you with what you might conclude to be commercial rock, only then to be baffled by the powerful voice of Eddie Veliz, the unique drumming of Pepe Clarke Magaña, and the great rotating bass of Tony Castaneda.
Kyng delivers in all aspects musically in their approach to the concept album, and the lyrical content is far superior to their mainstream counterparts (in the case with many bands). Perhaps the most staggering power of what Kyng can do is the fact that they can really bring out the acoustics when they want. The track "Beauty Of The End" really opens up with one of the most soothing distorted guitar sounds I've ever heard and combines it with some powerful aggression halfway through the track. Veliz is certainly at his best vocally here and lyrically you just cannot compete with the compex sounds bouncing off your ear drums. There's an interesting portion of "Takes Its Toll" where the lyrics almost take hold of your mind in an almost "Tool" like fashion, but vocally the is one of the more unique sounds of the album. About two minutes into the song, the "Chris Cornell" influences almost take a step back as an almost "Cobain" like falsetto takes over to end the track. Again, Kyng isn't imitating anybody here as the instrumentation certainly doesn't take on the distorted sound of the early 1990's although the influences are undoubtedly there.
I really have to applaud what Kyng has done here. The lyrics certainly take their punk influences but musically you could certainly identify these guys from the 2000's era. It really makes me excited to know that a group is trying to put out some genuine alternative rock with real hard rock influences such as Black Sabbath. In all respects, the album of course is not without its flaws as I just can't pull the trigger on "classic status" as of now. After a great deal of repeated listens I was convinced that this was certainly a really quality album, but it lacks that final nail in the coffin to consider it a true "game changer". In all respects, I wish the best to Kyng and their musical concepts as contemporary rock could really use some more groups with the progressive mindset of these guys.
