THE KINGS OF FROG ISLAND (s/t) CD
Mat Bethancourt belongs to those kind of musicians, who needs more than only one band to express his creativity. So he decided to form THE KINGS OF FROG ISLAND, and this is also a trio like his other band Josiah. But in opposite to Josiah, which are more in the vein of bands like very early Grand Funk Railroad, this three-piece is strongly influenced from 60‘s heavy psychedelic rock. This is the band’s debut, and it’s a very good one, due to well-crafted songs and a lot of diversity among the included ten songs. The album contains heavy and hard‘ rockin stuff like „The Longest Hour“, „Save Me“ or the smokin‘ opener „Everybody’s Gonna Lose Their Heads“ as well as softer cuts, which are excellent, too. „Leone“ is a moody instrumental with acoustic guitar, which could’ve been also recorded by Black Sabbath in ’74, while the following „The River“ is the next great acoustic song here, fronted by M. Bethancourt’s soulful vocals. A band like this shows how superflous the current Monster Magnet are, because when a band starts to sell-out like Wyndorf’s group did, they mostly lose their creative energy and the soul. But I don’t think, that Monster Magnet are a big influence to the KINGS, although songs like „Psychomania“ or „The End Of Revolution“ are close to their „Dopes To Infinity“-period. This is a really nice album, and maybe we will hear more from this band in the future...
(KK)