Analyzing the Metalness of King's X

King's X has always been an extremely difficult band to pin a genre tag on. Their music runs the gamut between hard rock, heavy metal, progressive metal, funk, and soul. In addition, the vocals are often influenced by the above styles, as well as gospel, blues, and British rock groups of the 1960's such as The Beatles. It's an eclectic mix to be sure. So, is King's X a metal band? In a word, sometimes.

I have heard a lot of material from this band, though very little since the late 1990's. I own only one of their albums, 1994's Dogman which will form the principal material in this analysis as this album is widely considered their most metal release. As mentioned in a previous post, the music must have ties to Black Sabbath and it must sound like metal.

DOGMANOkay, this is the only album I own by King's X, so this analysis is far from complete. But, I figured looking at what is widely considered the band's most metal release will give me some indication of whether this band is, in fact, a metal band, at least occasionally.

Much of the riffing on this album is more distorted and Sabbath-influenced than on the band's previous material. The title track kicks things off here and we are immediately treated to a distorted, bluesy, Sabbathian riff coupled with Doug Pinnick's soulful crooning. The title track is definitely a highlight on this album and a great way to kick things off. "Shoes" is a slow-burning, yet heavy track that sounds as if it would easily fit in on any Deep Purple album. "Pretend" sounds like a cross between Black Sabbath and The Beatles, an exceptional song. "Black the Sky" also features a very basic metal-sounding riff along with some very heavy distortion, including one hell of a closing. "Don't Care" also has some extremely heavy power chord riffing going on. "Complain" is another song that would have sounded at home on 1970's era heavy metal albums, as would "Pillow".

On the other hand, "Flies and Blue Skies" is basically a blues ballad. Not bad, but not metal. "Fool You" sounds a lot like a hard rock band playing an old R&B song, but it has one hell of a closing as well. "Sunshine Rain" is another ballad with some impressive metallic riffing, but does not rise to the level of a metal song. "Human Behavior" sounds like Led Zeppelin, with more blues influence, especially the "Black Dog"-esque riff. "Cigarettes" is yet another softer ballad. "Go to Hell" is a pure hardcore track and lasts less than a minute. "Manic Depression" is a cover of a song by Jimi Hendrix.

As for the musicians, guitarist Ty Tabor is the principal music-writer. He brings most of the metal influence to the band. He also has a couple of metal side projects, including his solo project and a prog metal project with John Myung of Dream Theater. Doug Pinnick also has quite the metal history and was once offered the vocalist position in Deep Purple.

I have also heard some other songs by the band, all of which I felt were clearly closer to metal. I think King's X's genre probably would be a lot less controversial if the band had come around in the 1970's or 1980's. The band has the same kind of downtuned, bluesy metallic riffs that the first major metal bands also had.

CONCLUSION
King's X is a borderline band, and they are certainly questionable because of the time they came out. In the late 1980's, death and thrash metal were becoming dominant forms of metal, whereas King's X played a more basic blues-influenced form of metal, punctuated by elements of other styles.