Progressive masters King’s X have re-released two of their classic albums. Gretchen Goes to Nebraska and Faith Hope Love are both available now through Metal Blade Records on indiemerch.com/metalbladerecords.
The band’s second studio album, 1989’s Gretchen Goes to Nebraska, is based loosely on a short story by drummer Jerry Gaskill and is considered a landmark album. The album contains many fan favorites such as the power ballad Summerland, Mission, and The Burning Down. The song Pleiades is credited by Ty Tabor as being the genesis of the King’s X sound when he presented the demo to the other band members a few years earlier. Significantly, the song Over My Head received considerable play on MTV and radio, and ultimately set the band up for broader success on subsequent albums.
In 1990, King’s X released Faith Hope Love. At the time, it was band’s highest charting release and it broke into the Billboard Top 100. Led by the radio hit It’s Love, King’s X garnered well deserved success on the U.S. singles chart hitting #6 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, their highest chart position. Faith Hope Love proved to be King’s X’s most commercially successful album, reaching gold status in the U.S.
For more information about King’s X, visit their official website at, kingsxrocks.com.
4 Responses
Kings X has never disappointed me, especially when I’ve seen them live. Their music was so unique when they first came out with OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET and I immediately was hooked. Because they were so unique and stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the hard rock and metal scene of the 80’s, their music went over a lot of people’s heads. So they never broke big, but I don’t care about that and I don’t think other die-hard fans do either. The band is great and they have made great music consistently and that’s what matters most. I’ll definitely buy the vinyl reissues.
One of the best bands of all time. Absolutely criminal that larger success didn’t come their way.
Gretchen Goes to Nebraska just floored me at the time. It still does. They were so far ahead for their time, and unfortunately, many people didn’t get it. Another issue nobody talks about is the fact that hard rock and metal is extremely conservative. Play things outside the bounds, or look a different way, and forget it.
“Faith Hope Love proved to be King’s X’s most commercially successful album, reaching gold status in the U.S.”
—– this is patently untrue. Where did you get this information? King’s X has NO certified gold or platinum albums.
That’s true, unfortunately. FAITH HOPE LOVE was their best selling album, but unless it’s finally gone gold very recently (like last week) then it’s still just the album of theirs that got closest to gold status.