Come To My Kingdom

House Of Lords was originally founded by former Angel keyboardist Greg Guiffria. Greg's post-Angel band simply called Guiffria, enjoyed great commercial success in the U.S. during the 80's before disbanding. Greg then formed House Of Lords and released three albums in the 90's before they disbanded as well. The original House Of Lords line-up reunited for 2004's Power And The Myth which was somewhat of a radical departure in sound and was not very well received. For the subsequent album World Upside Down, House Of Lords continued with a brand new line-up with keyboardist Greg Guiffria stepping aside and remaining involved only as a song writer. That album was a return to the classic melodic hard rock sound of the first three House Of Lords albums and was very well received by the fans. The band's latest album, Come To My Kingdom sees Greg Guiffria bowing out for good yet giving his blessing for the band to carry on without him. Mixed by Dennis Ward, Come To My Kingdom is a great collection of 80's style melodic hard rock that's big on hooks, big choruses and a strong guitar-based sound.

This album starts very strong with a string of great melodic hard rock tunes. Prominent guitar, lots of melodic hooks, soaring vocals and great choruses take the listener back to the 80's when bands like Journey and Dokken were at their prime. The title track as well as I Need To Fly both have a Journey edge with the blend of guitars and keyboards; all topped off nicely with Neal Schon like expressive lead guitar work. The Dream reminds the listener of classic Dokken as well as I Don't Wanna Wait All Night, especially with the intro guitar riff, excellent chorus and wild George Lynch style solo. House Of Lords also shows their mastery of the power ballad with a couple of tracks namely Another Day From Heaven and I Believe. Both are very solid tracks and really highlight the incredibly strong voice of James Christian. Other guitar-oriented rockers include In A Perfect World, One Foot In The Dark, Even Love Can't Save Us and In The Light. Guitarist Jimi Bell really adds a lot of "colour" to the House Of Lords sound with some great riffs and very expressive lead guitar work throughout.

The album is a little "front-heavy" with the best racks being found on the first half of the album but every track is strong and instantly likeable with great soaring choruses. There's nothing really new here yet House Of Lords does such a great job with this style that's it's very easy to latch on to this album very quickly. Just the right mix of melody and hard rock guitar make for an excellent album that could very well be one of the best ever by House Of Lords. If you enjoy great melodic 80's style hard rock in the Journey/Dokken vein, you really need to get this. If Come To My Kingdom had been released in the mid to late 80's, it would've been huge.