Kings X is one band that I feel has had every piece of potential in their musical mixture to be a huge name within the rock world, but has never truly took off for some reason. The fusion of hard rocking grooves, often progressive structures and Beatlesesque harmony vocals and pop melodies have created some fabulous stuff, especially my favourites Dogman and Gretchen Goes To Nebraska. Lets compile how Ogre Tones holds up in these respects.

Right off the bat the charging crunch of Alone and Doug Pinnicks screeching shout show that the heaviness has been upped a bit since the previous offerings. This is the case throughout the album, as the songs themselves are more dark in their vibe and melodies, contrasted then by the characteristically uplifting lyrics. Hurricane also chugs along nicely with very catchy vocal melodies and burning riffs. Tabors solo kills with the emotion. I´ve always been very jammed up when Kings X gets the groove going a lá Black The Sky from Dogman and Fly does exactly that, with magnificent harmonies on the vox to match.

Bebop has got to be one of the best KX-tunes in years, with monstrously tight grooving and a very driving sing-along chorus. Other highlights from the latter half include the acoustic beauty Honesty, heavy-rocking Freedom and the Beatles-with-Black Sabbath-mix of Mudd. Unfortunately some much more nonshaking filler is mounted within the album, as some selection would have sharpened these knives. The whole albums biggest pitfall might be the overall mellowness, because even though the heavy side is often brought up, the songs rarely deviate away from mid tempo-grounds. Some speedier tracks here and there to accomodate the marvellous Bebop would have spirited up the overall soundscape well. The whole album is quite straightforward ans simple in Kings X-terms, as just one song out of thirteen passes the five minute mark (Sooner Or Later, which has some brilliant Satriani-like lead work from Ty Tabor, full of feel and quirky effects).

The production on the record is very organic and even, with everything in nice balance next to each other. Although sometimes the bass really pops out to beat out some grooves, which gets points from my corner. The star of the show then again is the vocal interplay between the guys, which shines like it always has on KX material. Ogre Tones is a very good offering that holds its ground well within the band ´s catalog. I feel its some of their best work since Dogman, and definitely one of the best since Ear Candy.