King's X

King's X came out of Springfield, Missouri, and went through a couple of names, the Edge and then Sneak Preview, before settling on King's X in 1985. The lineup has held together for more than four decades: Doug Pinnick singing and playing bass, Ty Tabor singing and playing guitar, and Jerry Gaskill on drums and backing vocals. After signing with both Megaforce and Atlantic in 1987, they started unloading some of the most unclassifiable heavy records of their day.

Imagine a power trio raised on British Invasion harmonies as much as the heavy stuff, then pour gospel into the harmonies and funk and soul into the grooves. Pinnick's voice roars like a preacher's, Tabor's guitar lands like a wrecking ball with perfect manners, and the three-part vocals float over riffs that would flatten most bands. Gretchen Goes to Nebraska in 1989 had "Over My Head"; Faith Hope Love, with "Moanjam", became one of only two King's X albums to crack the top 100, the other being Dogman in 1994.

The lyrics wrestle with faith and with learning to live with yourself, which got them tagged as a Christian rock band, a label the members have always refused. A reputation as musicians' musicians kept them largely underground, but their early records became founding texts of progressive metal. They left Atlantic after Ear Candy in 1996 and kept going on other labels, reaching Three Sides of One in 2022.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.